Top: In high school, I had a pen-pal from Germany, named Christa Dietz. That's Christa on the left. I have not heard from her since about 1959. Wouldn't it be wild if someone who reads this blog knows her? If you do, or if you know someone who might, let me know, please.

Edit: that is NOT me in the picture with Christa. That is another German girlfriend of hers. I never met Christa; we just exchanged letters for a few years. Her intent was to perfect her use of English, and mine was to get to know someone from another country. I really wish I had the foresight to have kept her letters. That's about all I have ever thrown out....LOL




2nd: My grandmother, middle front, and her husband back row, left. Buckey, as we called him, was a judge and at one time, he was the mayor of Charleston, WV. He used to read the comics to me when I was 3-4-5, and he called them the "funny papers". Anytime I was in their home and he came in from work, he would stomp through the house saying "Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he live or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread." That was my clue to come screaming out of whatever hiding place I had secreted myself. I think his choice of poems was a little rough for a small girl, but it never harmed me on a lasting basis that I'm aware of.....LOL. The only other person I know in that photo is the woman on the right in the front row. Her name was Thelma, and I called her Aunt Tillie, though she was not related. Tillie was about 4'11" tall and wore size 4 women's shoes. Her shoes fit me perfectly at the time I was 8-9, and I loved going to her place and "dressing up" in her clothes and shoes.


Mom, dad and me, circa 1944-5, with my usual "Judy squint, head askew".








Daddy in the 1930's. Do you see how much he looked like Randolph Scott? If you are too young to know who Randolph Scott was - google it!