More News from Lake Nelson

 Even the dog cools off at Lake Nelson.

The Geisha Girls return; Helen is on the right.

Dot & Ruth

Little Dotty! This photo must have been taken around 1919.

 Dotty and Ruth, a few years later. 

Her Jewish Boyfriend, 1920

This certainly looks like the same young man as in yesterday's posting. 

But the handwritten date on the back is January, 1920--three years later.

 No dates on these two photos. 

Alice's First Boyfriend, 1917

 He's very handsome, but Alice would only have been 15!

Ruth and "Mom," No Dates

Ruth helping out on laundry day. 

 

"Mom" Marie Bierbaum, second from left. 

More Fun at Lake Nelson

 No dates or notes on any of these photos. 

 

Bierbaum Sisters with Geisha Girls

 Ruth and Dot sandwiched between the "geisha girls." Ann and Alice in the back row. 

What a sweet picture. 

Ruth, 1922. 

 A day at the beach: Alice and her papa, with Ann Fischer. Who is the fellow to the left? 

Those bathing togs don't look very comfortable. 

Decoration Day, 1920, and Others

 In Alice's handwriting on the curled up corner: "7 months old." 

 Decoration Day, 1920, location unknown

Typed on the back of this photo: A HAPPY FAMILY.

Ruth, 1919

We've jumped back in time, to 1919 and 1921.

Caption: Ruth, 1919. 

Caption: Keansburg, July, 1921

Caption: Ruth, 1919

Special Occasion

We've seen this location before--a park with ornate columns. Everyone is in Sunday best. A wedding? A christening? I see a lot of familiar faces, including Great-Grandfather Joe Bierbaum, in the dark suit. Kathy can fill in the rest.

Out on the Lake

No info about these, except the date: 1920. Likely location: Lake Nelson.

Helen and Others

The photos on this page are a mixed lot.

This must be the occupant of the dog house we saw earlier. Very handsome spaniel.

Here is Alice's younger sister, Helen, looking lovely in cloche hat and heels. Whose finger?

May, 1922

Best guess: These photos are from a Memorial Day outing. 

Elwood G., Bobbie, and Alice's mother Mary Bierbaum, out for a ride. What a great car!

 Penciled in next to their names--"May 1922."

 See any familiar faces? 

Widow, 1919

This is the saddest of all the photos in the collection: Alice simply wrote "Widow 1919." She looks like Ann Fischer.

On the same page, these two photos. If the baby is Elwood James, then these are most likely from 1926.

Another photo that you'll see shortly makes me pretty sure that 

this is Alice's younger sister, Helen, with baby Elwood James. 

Elwood James for certain. I recognize that scowl.

Ruth, Dot, and Joe 1922

 In the dog house! 

Ruth, solo, just about taller than the flowers. 

Lakeside Fun

Here is a group of photos, undated, but I'd guess 1926. My father Elwood James Smith was born on October 4, 1925. In these photos, he's a toddler, spending time with his Aunt Ruth, who was only 5 years older. 

I'm not sure who all these folks are, but the young man on the left is most certainly Joe Bierbaum, Alice's younger brother. He caught a fish on the same day. Is that Ruth again on the "tricycle," front right?

I assume that Bobbie is either a cousin or a neighbor.

Is this the lake in Piscataway, NJ, I always heard about from my father? The land around it had long been developed by the time I came along, but I heard about summers spent at "the lake." I went to Rutgers University in the late 1980s and lived and drove near where the lake and the house had once been—or so I thought; Daddy's directions were never very clear—and also near the cemetery where Grandma and Grandpa Smith are buried. Piscataway and New Brunswick were almost completely citified by then, yet I had a sense of what an open, rural place it had been 50 or 60 years before. 

-L