Port Sheldon 1954

Pictures by AK. Now this is my own personal hang-up, but I have a great deal of difficulty with pictures of Chris this small. As my big brother, Chris should always be, well, BIGGER! This Max-sized package does not compute. Also, who are these ridiculously young and skinny people posing as his parents? They still have that newlywed aura about them... Happy Anniversary (June 14) Mom & Dad!

Puppy Attack!

Puppies through the decades give Dad the big smooch. Since I can't be in River Falls for Father's Day, consider this post a virtual hug.

Brownie - 1940s


Fritz - 1962 (Back when Dad smoked a pipe!)


Bridget - 1965

More Bridget

Mickey - 1977

Shorpy

For fans of old photos here's a fun blog-- Shorpy: The 100-Year-Old Photo Blog.

A Boy and His Dog

These photos were taken by AK in 1958. What a little boy and what a teeny-tiny dog!

Trucks

Mom was reminiscing recently about little boy fascination with watching construction projects with big noisy trucks and 'dozers. Here is Chris with some toy versions. The first is Christmas 1955. The second is from 1959.

Happy Birthday Chris!

Here are a couple of photos from 1955 taken by AK. Happy Birthday Big Brother!

Martha & Mom

I meant to post these back in May, the month of Martha and Mothers. These were taken by AK in summer of 1959.

Happy May Day!

Nothing says May Day like a three year old in a tulip dress on a swing!

Dike Construction 101 at Lake Charlevoix

Young Van Dykes and TerMaats get a lesson in dike contruction from Robert at Lake Charlevoix in 1964. Some Little Hathaways also present. Click here to browse the set or click here for a slideshow.

Four Seasons

These are all mystery photos. Presumably they feature Dutch immigrants, perhaps some of them are TerMaat-Dykstra cousins and the locations are either in Central Wisconsin or they were mailed to relatives there by friends and family elsewhere.

The fade-to-white of this photograph probably makes it seem even chillier!

Spring is for baseball. I like their "uniforms."

Barefeet and wildflowers says summer to me.

Harvest time. Remember you can click on the pictures to see an enlarged version.

Dykstra Children

Here are the little Dykstras, Winnie, Ralph, Bertha and John probably around 1905-6.

Back to the Old Country

I understand that Great Grandpa Dykstra (far right) went back to the Netherlands once and I assume this photo was taken shipboard.

Immigration Day

My great grandparents Kornelis Jan and Grietje Dijkstra.

These photos were taken in Gronigen, perhaps for their passports? They departed for New York on April 1, 1899 from Rotterdam and arrived on April 19. Maybe the ship looked like this. And check out these photos of life on board ship.

Grandma Grietje was not just looking after 4 year old Betje and 2 year old Jan but was pregnant with Ralph, born that August. I think about Joan and Pete herding three little ones on a plane to Florida. Imagine a two week boat trip followed by a train trip to Chicago!

Sheboygan 1962

More Sheboygan pictures: Click here to browse or click here to view a slideshow.

(I'm not sure that some of the '62 photos aren't really mislabelled '63 and vice versa but I'm too lazy to sort it out.)

We must have made a stop to visit Quists coming or going from Sheboygan.

Sheboygan 1963

I've put together a set of slides from a 1963 trip to Sheboygan. Click here to browse or click here to view as a slideshow.

If it's Shebogyan, you can be sure there will be a brat fry. Uncle Joe does the honors.

My favorite picture of Uncle Con and cousin Vernon.

Chris with cousins Vernon and Richard.

Cousin Ann and I in new dresses (probably given to us by Aunt Hattie?)

London Bridges

With Granpa TerMaat at the drawbridge where he worked.

With Grandma TerMaat at Long Lake picnic.

Chris and Richard fishing. Those look like bamboo poles.