Men Holding Babies

And not doing it too badly, either.

This is our grandfather, Thomas Lyle Drennen (known to us as Grampa Dee Dee), with his daughter Padi in 1935.

Choo Choo Papa and his grandson Leonard, in July 1933.

Paw Paw and his son Leonard, in 1933, on the river somewhere.

Charles & Rose

Carl Traugott Mirtsching begat Richard Max Mirtsching, who married Rose Fuchs and begat Charles Henry Mirtsching and Rose Mirtsching.

Charles & Rose, c. 1908

Richard, Charles, Carl, Rose, and Rose, c. 1908

Carl, Rose & Richard; children Charles & Rose, c. 1908

Then Charles married Anna Germaty and begat Leonard, and Rose married Gustav Weidemann and begat Rosemary and Richard.

Charles, Anna, Rosemary, Rose & Gus; boys Leonard & Richard, 1938

Leonard & Padi Get Married

Leonard and Padi were married on September 16, 1955, in Washington, Missouri. They are the cutest!

Leonard, Padi and the Garter

Marian and Frances Drennen, Padi's sister and mother

Anna and Carol Mirtsching, Leonard's mother and sister

Charles and Anna Mirtsching, Leonard's parents, and

Frances and Tom Drennen, Padi's parents

Carol, Leonard, Padi, Marian, and Padi's brother Tommy

Rich Wiedemann, Leonard's cousin and life-long best friend,

 Leonard, Padi, and Joan McSalley, a close family friend

Leonard and Padi and rice

Leonard and Padi and champagne

Leonard and Padi and the getaway ride

Aww!

(Or, if they're your parents, Eww!)

Maw Maw & Leonard Pose with the Radio

Looks like the Mirtschings got them a new radio! And not a moment too soon, since Martians would invade Earth just a week later.

October 23, 1938

"Ach, Collie, not now. I'm reading the paper."

"It'll only take a second. Just get down in front of it. There, now pretend like you're changing the station. Now look at me and smile. Smile, Anna!"

"Just take the picture, Collie."

Leonard & Padi Go to the Marine Corps Ball

The Marine Corps Ball, my parents always said, was better than the Navy Ball. For one thing, the highest level of formal dress was required. Which meant Padi could go all out. She made her own gown every year.

November 10, 1962

Also, Chesty Puller, every Marine's hero, would sometimes show. According to Padi, "He was a character. He was short, but he held himself like a giant -- he gave you that impression. For the Ball, he'd wear his glass eye with the Marine Corps emblem on it, which made it kind of distracting to talk to him."

November 10, 1973

Holy cow, get a load of Padi's eyebrows. Eh -- it was the style then. 

Padi usually sold her gowns after the ball, but before this one went, I wore it as the queen in a high school production of Rumplestiltskin. Its bodice was purple, so I wore purple and white as the peasant girl who gets Rumplestiltskin to spin her straw into gold for her -- leotard and tights, peasant skirt, and clogs. This, without the nipples, would have been the general effect.

from "Make It with Mademoiselle," copyright 1971

Leonard on the Open Sea

A few months after I was born, my father went on a cruise of the west Pacific on the USS Helena. Here he is, a spanky ensign, with the watch.

August 19, 1957

This photo is an enlargement of another that Leonard took of himself. On the back of the original, along with the usual date stamp, is his note: "Self timer on bridge -- sat camera on writing desk & let it click away -- I was actually on watch at the time."

He apparently sent the photo (and probably others) home to his father, who made the enlargement you see above. On the back of this photo, my grandfather wrote:

With the enlarger all the up, & the 2"in focal lenght lens on for enlarging .35 mm negatives, I made this blow up. Just to see what the grain would do, not bad at all, held a few feet away it looks real good. Ask your ships photographer to give you his comments. outside of a few dust spots.

Leonard Plays the Trumpet

October 1958

Here we are, Maw Maw, me, and Leonard sitting on the floor -- something Mirtschings don't normally do. Leonard's all, Let's see if I can toot this horn like I did in high school, and gramma's all, Is that baby warm enough?, and I'm all, What?

Dig the barkcloth curtains! A little bit of Hawaii in St. Louis, Missouri.

Leonard the Sailor Man

October 23, 1953

Anna Mirtsching and Leonard

This picture is unusual among the photographs that Leonard's father took, in that there's no date or location written on the back. He always dated photos with a rubber stamp -- a blessing to us, hundreds of years later.

circa 1938

Though most assuredly not the artistic type, my grandfather Charles (Paw Paw to us grandkids, Collie to friends and family) was a talented amateur photographer. What he might have lacked in talent, anyway, he made up in volume. My brother and sister and I have zillions of photographs he took from the twenties onward -- and a right large number he inherited, from earlier than that.

My grandmother Anna (aka Maw Maw) looks pretty severe in almost every photograph of her that I've ever seen. In fact she didn't like to be photographed, but my grandfather made her pose all the time anyway.

Note Anna's chic shoes and her marcelled hairdo. Also the boxer printed on the front of Leonard's shirt. (Click image to enlarge it.) He looks goofy, but he was only six or so, and probably didn't know or care.

Leonard & Captain Wiviott

This was taken in the Philippines. We were a Navy family; my father was I think a lieutenant at the time.

"I am tall, strong, young! Look at puny old man here! Ha ha! 'Boss'!"