These 4 photos were all taken by me one day when Calaveras High School, where I was a freshman, was out of school, but Jenny Lind was not. They were all taken with a Kodak Rangefinder camera that my Uncle had sent me from the South Pacific. It had permanent fungus growing on the elements of the lens, but it was a pretty elegant camera compared to my mother's box camera that I had been using.
* Upper left: My mother, Margaret Sinclair Hofstetter, teacher at the time, looking over the front fence.
* Upper right:: The school as it appeared in the late 40's
* Left: The girl with whom all the boys were in love, Arlene Nicholls Hodgson. Sweet wonderful
young girl that grew into a wonderful woman, wife, mother, and
grandmother.
I spent most of my time pursuing Arlene's
neighbor, (not her cousin), because I figured that I had a lot
better chance of "getting somewhere" with her.
* Right: The little girl, I don't remember at all. I include the picture because I have been telling people for years that the common element in all California rural schools in the 30's and 40's was the Giant Stride. You can see behind the child, the pole with the chains hanging down and the ladder type devices attached to the bottom of the chains. You grabbed one of the "ladder" rungs and took off madly taking "giant strides". Have times changed? Can you imagine having a playground device like this on a school playground in these times. Sorry about the fuzziness of the original picture