da Cruz family photo CD v.2

Frank da Cruz
December 2002
Version 3: February 2018

This is a collection of 1593 family photos, most of them from 1977 to 1987, but a few before and a few after. Most of the originals are slides, which last for decades so the quality is high. Others are snapshots, which tend to fade or discolor over time and don't scan as nicely. They are gathered chronologically into 138 groups, listed below.

I copied about 20% of all my slides and pictures onto this CD. The ones I didn't copy were either like the ones I did copy but not as good, or were awful pictures. In some cases I included bad pictures anyway because they were the only ones I had of certain people or occasions. Most of what happened since 1977 is here but with a few exceptions because I just do not have those pictures; perhaps they were left behind in the move. For example, rolls and rolls are missing from ECCC, baseball games, and some of the graduations.

Version 2 has the same pictures and text but is organized more simply, with all files in one single directory. When you are viewing a sub-page you can go forward by clicking the right-pointing triangle, or by simply clicking the image. You can view this gallery on any device, from a wide-screen computer to a cell phone. Each sub-page has an Enlarge button that lets you see the original image. Version 2 was produced with my own software, Photogallery, which was written in the Kermit scripting language (which I also created). The result is a collection of 100% standard HTML5 documents together with their JPG images. Version 3 is the same as version 2 but with much better scaling of the images to the size of the viewing window.

▲ (Click on any photo to enter)

1943: Granpa

1944: My Mom and Dad's wedding picture

1951: Where I grew up in Virginia

From the age of 2, I lived Chesterbrook, Virginia, in a little group of houses built for returning veterans buying homes on the GI Bill. These houses were surrounded by forests and old farms, but within 20 years all traces of rural Virginia had vanished. Chesterbrook wasn't really a town, but there was a school (for white kids), two churches right next to each other (one for white people, one for black people), an old-fashioned general store, and a gas station. The nearest actual town was McLean, which had a supermarket, a feed store, and two gas stations. The farms in the area were both black and white, so despite official segregration in school and church, black and white kids played together and the farm families knew and helped each other out.

1951: My Grandfater and my Uncle Pete

My grandfather and uncle Pete in 1951, when Pete visited him in Colorado Springs.

1952: My Grandmother

1967: Judy

1968: Me as a Columbia student

1972: My Mom and Frank Rider

My Mom and Frank Rider in 1972, shortly after they first got together.

1974: 103rd Street

Judy and I lived at 308 West 103rd Street from 1969 to 1976.

1974: Mama Lori and Floyd

1975: Europe

Our delayed honeymoon in Europe in summer 1975.

1975: Christmas at Adee Avenue

Christmas at the Scotts' at 1245 Adee Avenue in the Bronx.

1976: My brother Dennis in California

In 1976 we went to California to see my mom and brother; I hadn't seen them since 1962 or 63.

1976: Christine and Henry's wedding

1976: (and 1977) Waiting for Peter (118th Street)

We moved from our 1-bedroom apartment on 103rd Street to a bigger place on 419 West 118th Street in 1976 to have room for little ones.

1977: Peter is born

1977: Peter comes home

1977: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 1977 at Christine and Henry's house in Hastings on Hudson, NY, at 118th Street, and at Peacock Park (the churchyard at St John the Divine).

1977: 118th Street, November

1977: Christmas

1978: 118th Street, winter

1978: Long Beach, California, Dennis in hospital

In February 1978 my brother Dennis discovered that what he thought was a bad case of indigestion was cancer, and went in the hospital and had surgery right away to try to remove it. We flew out to be with him.

1978: 118th Street, Peter & Jude

1978: Father's Day, Hastings (great aunts & uncles, etc)

A big gap in my photos is all the huge Scott/Wilson extended family get-togethers. I once had millions of photos of these occasions but now I have only one roll, from Father's Day, 1978, at Christine and Henry's house in Hastings on Hudson.

1978: 118th Street, Uncle Pete

My uncle Pete (real name Daniel da Cruz), who is my father's brother, visited us in June 1978.

1978: 118th Street, Judy runs, Peter stands

1978: Around the neighborhood

Pictures in the apartment and neighborhood, July 1978.

1978: Kinapic

Our first trip to Kinapic, a little bunch of cottages on the shore of Lake Kezar near Lovell, Maine, owned by Henry's family -- his dad, Irving Deutsch and his mom Marion, his sister Eugenia and her husband Bernie, and Henry himself and Christine. I'm not sure exactly what the business arrangements were, but anyway we went up there almost every summer for 2-3 weeks for 10 years. Our first trip was was in July 1978, when Peter was 9 months old.

1978: Vermont: Peter at construction site

After Kinapic we visited Peter and Jude in Burlington, Vermont, and tagged along to Peter's construction site (in those days he had his own business building houses).

1978: Burlington VT, Abernethy's, Pearl Street

Visiting Peter and Jude, who lived in a 5th-floor walkup in the Abernethy department store building on Pearl and Church Streets in Burlington. Their apartment was on the top floor and had turrets, secret rooms, huge rooms full of centry-old department store junk like cast-iron wood stoves, and a ladder up to the roof where you could watch Northern lights at night. Since Abernethy's was the tallest building in Burlington then (besides the church) you could also fly kites from the roof; they would sail out over the town.

1978: Peter's 1st birthday

Peter's first birthday, October 7th, 1978, at 118th Street.

1978: Christmas)

1979: Peter meets Emily

Peter meets Emily, January 1979.

1979: Peter@Home

At home, February 1979.

1979: David is born

First cousin David is born, February 1979.

1979: 118th Street, Adee Avenue

At 118th Street and Adee Avenue, April 1979.

1979: At Willie Netter's

At Willie Netter's, June 1979. I think Willie Netter is Sylvia's husband. Sylvia and Pearl are the daughters of Mama Lori's big sister Lou, therefore Grandma's first cousins. Willie and Sylvia had a daughter Phyllis, who had a daughter Sharon. Unfortunately I can't find pictures of any of them except Sharon. I once saw Willie sit down at the piano and play just like Teddy Wilson or Art Tatum.

1979: Peter at the study window

At home, June 1979.

1979: Kinapic

1979: Vermont

August 1979. From Kinapic, we drove across New Hampshire to Vermont to visit Peter and Jude in their new house outside Starksboro. We also visited Peter's brother Donnie in Marshfield.

1979: East Campus construction

In Fall 1979 we could watch out our window as the apartment buildings at 118th and Morningside were demolished and then the East Campus dormitory was built.