The famous pictures of the Empire State Building during its construction in 1931 were taken by the well-known photographer Lewis Wickes Hine, who happened to live down the street from my grandfather's mechanic shop in Dobbs Ferry, NY. One day a few years later, Mr. Hine badly injured himself while working with a saw. My grandfather - shown pointing - ran to help, stopped much of the bleeding (likely saving his life) and then went to call for a doctor. Mr. Hine was immensely grateful and as a token of thanks did a series of snapshots of my dad as a young boy; these are two of them.
My dad at two years old
My dad is dying of advanced-stage Parkinson's now. There are boxes and boxes of old black and white pictures I've never seen before that I'm just starting to sort through now...photos from before my grandparents even came to this country from Germany in 1918, photos of my dad's older brother who was sent home from kindergarten because he couldn't speak English. And photos of my dad, who can only remember my name half the time now...so much sepia-toned history.
Great find!
Sorry to hear about your father
Thanks man. He was hospitalized last week after a fall with a bleed on the brain stem and we were essentially told he won't be coming home (he will be transferred to a rehab facility and then assisted living and skilled nursing as things go downhill). It's tough because he was diagnosed so long ago (1998) and the progression has been so slow for the majority of that time, now that things are speeding up it's really hard to cope with the reality that he's never going to get better and all his memories will never come back to him again. He was a pilot and a flight instructor and every time I hear or see a plane in the sky it really hurts. The slow withering away is the worst. Fortunately he was very much into family history and spent a lot of time preserving old photos and researching the different branches of the family both here and in Germany. So I still have all the memories he left for me. Not much comfort for me now but I'm hoping it will be.