Sunday, June 23, 2013

Since You Mentioned It, Iggy…


I know. I said it was over. I was done. The whole thing was finished.

But…

I changed my mind.

Mostly, it was in reading over all your comments from the last few days while I’ve been away from this blog, concentrating on those family issues I mentioned a while back. Since Iggy (blogger Intense Guy) had provided the identity of Bill Bean’s boat—including a possible working date—and had wondered about who the two boys in the picture might have been, I remembered I did have some other pictures of two boys.

At least, I think these are the same two boys.

In one case, the boys were obviously at Bill Bean’s property, since you can see the very same fence line as appeared in the background of a photo of Bill’s wife Ellen and an unidentified couple.

Well, what’s one more day, I figure. Sure, I’ll pull out those two extra photographs of the boys I think might be the same as those on Bill’s boat.


My only problem is that, while the tall, lanky, dark-haired boy does look a lot like Bill’s grand-nephew Greg might have looked at that age, I’m not entirely sure we have a confirmed match. Certainly, the elongated appearance of this boy calls to mind the Marfan syndrome which affected Greg’s appearance—but keep in mind that Greg had another cousin (on the Woodworth side, whom I haven’t met) who also bore that affliction.

Because of that, I had originally supposed that this boy might have been Bill’s nephew Earle himself, rather than Earle’s son. But with Iggy’s dating of the boat at no farther back than 1956, that leaves Earle out of the picture entirely, as he passed away in 1955.

Yet, exploring the match between these photographs and a school photograph of Greg in 1962 shows the minor discrepancies in appearance in the two sets of pictures. Admittedly, the outdoor pictures evoke that squint-in-the-sunlight response, making it hard to compare face with face. But there are other details that don’t seem to line up perfectly.

Of course, that still leaves the other boy unidentified. I have no clue who that might be.

At this point, however, you can be sure I am not going to pursue this further. Unless a long-lost cousin bursts immediately forth from my computer screen, consider this the last touch on the Bean series.

Really.

No, I mean it this time. Really.

   

11 comments:

  1. I think one of the boys is Greg. The hairline (a pronounced widow's peak) is the same in all three pictures!

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    1. Seems so similar, Mariann. I guess I'm just hesitating to confirm, because when you know someone in real life--not just through photographs--it sometimes seems harder to make those decisions because of the slightest details being off. Sounds silly, I know.

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  2. Sweet "bloggy" friend.
    Thank you for your kind and encouraging words the other day. That anyone stops by and reads my ramblings is a nice reminder God wants to me to continue to write. Whatever. Just write.
    Thank you! And yes, I think our little homeschool is continuing to renew and change. It does every couple of years. I think the growing pains are this getting ready for high school and all that comes with it.
    Thanks!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by again--and by all means, please "just write," as you said!

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  3. Mariann is right..hairlines never change. And ears..I think this is Greg too..:)

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    1. I guess...just wish I had a photo of him at exactly the same age for comparison! You and Mariann are probably right. Kids change so much from year to year!

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  4. In addition to the hairline, I see a downward slant of the eyes. Yep, another vote for Greg. Maybe the other kid is just a boyhood friend.

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    1. Yes, Greg definitely had those downward-slanting eyes. So did his dad. I suspect Maud again...

      Interesting you brought up a boyhood friend, Wendy. Puts me instantly in mind of one. I have no idea what he looked like as a child, though. But he and Greg kept in touch well after parting ways in their college years. So it would be very possible that the two of them would be together for a fun outing with Greg's grand-uncle.

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  5. Thank you Jacqi, I know you wanted to close off this topic - and that this particular subject is a "tender" one.

    I look at the boys on the boat and think, yes, the one on the left (in the hatch, half hidden behind the cat-tails) is the same - the other one, sprawled on the I'm not so sure about (unless he lost a lot of "baby fat" very quickly!)

    The boy with Greg in the photos above remind me of my little brother - the same happy go lucky, half amused smile no matter where he was, the light, sun bleached hair... While he wasn't a sibling, he certainly was a friend (neighborhood and/or school) and perhaps a cousin. It would be so nice to hear from him - if he could only be identified and located.

    Perhaps someday, he will have a most interesting story to add to your tapestry.

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    1. Iggy, you and Wendy have gotten me to thinking about Greg's good friend from his school years. I have no idea whether this is the friend in the photos here, and I have lost touch with that friend years ago.

      I have to remember him with a smile, though, because the one surviving legend about this boy was that his first word as a baby wasn't "mama" or "dada" or any of the usual fought-over baby words--it was "Westinghouse"! As a high school junior, he went on to ace the SATs with 800 on each component (in the scoring protocol of those days) and got a degree as an engineer. I'm not sure about his first name (I think it was Steve) but I remember his last name for sure because it was so unusual: sounded something like "Hrusecky."

      Who knows...maybe someday through the wonders of the Internet, I'll catch up with him again.

      And then? Who knows...maybe he'll take one look at these pictures and say...

      "That isn't me!"

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  6. Glad you stretched on with your post. Those of us lurking here enjoy these conversations, rationalizations and analysis of those participating in the conversation. You all covered every angle, it seems. I agree that the slant of the eyes, the hair, the ears and the mouth lean toward the photos being the same boy. Nice story!

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