ABOUT 1941 or 1942 – Hawthorne, California

This is from a snapshot that I assume was taken by my father since he is not in the photo.  From left, my grandfather, Walter Elbert Marlin, then his wife, Dulcie Ferrier Marlin; next to her is my mother, Anna Shank Marlin, then my great aunt Anna L. Tweddell, my brother Larry holding the doll, and Aunt Annie’s daughter, Ednah on the far right.  The photo was taken at my grandparents’ home in Hawthorne, California.  Aunt Annie and Ednah were obviously visiting from their home near Pasadena (no small journey in those days).

My grandparents’ house was on York Blvd., and it was a small two bedroom home on a large piece of land.  As you can see in the foreground, they were growing corn.  If the year is 1942, then my mother was already pregnant with my brother Richard.  Brother Larry is holding my mother’s baby doll which she had when she was a child.  I don’t know if she brought the doll with her when she and my father came to California in 1934 in the backseat of someone else’s car, or she managed to bring it home with her when they visited Missouri in 1939.  But the doll was still around when I was a child.  She had to have doll hospital work when I was about four because they tried to take her away from me as her body was falling to pieces.  They bought me a new Toni doll, but I told them I didn’t want the Toni doll if I could not keep the old doll.  So off she went to the doll hospital for rather costly repairs.  My father then built a crib for her that had cupboards underneath.  Both doll and bed went to one of my nieces in the 60’s and I don’t know what happened to her after that.