Tom, 14, with the bright pants his Dad bought and shamed him into wearing. The hands are forward for balance since there is a 2 1/2 gallon jug of water on his back. Dad was CERTAIN we would run out of water on the trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The BARREL of water made it wall the way down and most of the way back up without ever using any. The boys did trade the load of water around a little, but Bill, 11, was too small to carry it much.
Just because Bill his holding the only canteen of water the boys needed, he didn't carry it all that much either. For some reason, he just could not understand why Tom and Rick were so slow.
Some looking at this picture think Rick, 13, looks like Ronald Reagan. The similarity stops at the end of this picture.
The fella going into the camper is NOT David, -6 (that's right, not born for 6 more years). This would be DAD. -- I think. Looks sort of under weight...
The boys spent the night at Phantom Ranch at the bottom on the Grand Canyon. The temperatures drop at night and there is no where to sleep except for one smallish picnic table. The boys fought over the table all night. Cold, miserable, and making memories.
Almost all the way back up the Grand Canyon the next day the boys came to a water fountain. They stopped and emptied the water BARREL right there.
Tom did wear the pants one more time. He wore them to Montgomery Wards where his Dad worked.
An older gentleman stopped Tom on the escalator and asked if he were looking to be shot.
Dad came down and was quite embarrassed to be associated with a boy with those loud pants. That was the last time those pants were ever worn again.
Joyce thinks this was taken in Monroe. Olivia, Garney, Great, Great Aunt Margaret Parsons to you and Joyce's mother, Sylvia Harrison. When Tom and Rick were little we would go to Sylvia's house up on top of a long hill there in Hannibal. Sylvia taught Kg in her home and you boys loved to play with the toys she had for the children and look at the books she had for the little ones. I think the street was 210 No. 12th or something like that. I know it was 210 something. Sylvia's husband left her with two small children to raise and practically penniless so that is why she took up Kg teaching. My dad bought the house so she would have a roof over her head. Every time we drove to Hannibal for any reason the folks took lots of eggs, cream, canned veggies from the garden and meat to both Sylvia and to Dad's youngest brother, Uncle Kitsy, who was a mechanic in a garage in Hannibal. When I say youngest brother I am only saying he was probably all of 8 or 9 years younger. Dad was born in 1891 and perhaps Kitsy was born in 1899, so he would have been in his 50's or 60's when I remember him the most. That whole bunch (all ten of dad's siblings) all looked quite a bit alike, I thought. Bonnie Jo looks a lot more like the bunch than I do although some still think I favor Aunt Mabel. Uncle Kitsy married a widow with two children and then they had three more and not much money ever.
