Dad at Nelson Rd, Bethesda, MD

This is my Dad sitting at our picnic table with Mr. Quack Quack. Picture was taken perhaps a year or two after we moved to our house in suburban, Bethesda, MD. We moved in September 1948, from an apartment at Auburn Gardens in Del Ray, VA, to this house which I believe was then called a bungalow- but you don't hear that term much anymore. Today, families live in "ranch estates". My mother's father had died in February of the same year we moved; so unfortunately, he didn't get a chance to see his daughter's new house.

Our neighborhood was a great place to grow up. My brother and I walked to Alta Vista and attended all six years of elementary school there before we had to walk or ride our bikes a little further to attend North Bethesda Junior High School. I served newspapers and probably served longer than any other subsequent deliverer. On windy or rainy days, I took a little more time-consuming effort to put newpapers inside stormdoors and was rewarded at Xmas time with a couple boxes of candy. My employer, The Washington Evening Star, had the bright idea of letting newspaper boys sell Calendars at Xmas time to make a small yearly bonus.

One day I came home from school to discover that Mr. Quack Quack had been given to Mr. Farmer to spend the rest of this days swimming in a very large beautiful pond. And Mom and Dad seemed to really enjoy the recovery of our lawn.