Fishing, anyone?....

To the best of my knowledge, this picture was taken in Florida in 1913. My grandfather (father's) is on the upper left in the flat straw hat, with his hands on his hips. I am struck not only by the size and amount of the fish (and the one poor turtle), but by the outfits! Imagine going fishing in your suit... and tie!

I never heard of my grandfather fishing. As I've mentioned, he was a great listener, and I have memories of sitting at his feet listening to him talk, but can never remember what we talked about. Certainly not fishing. This was right after my father was born (1912), and right before my grandfather contracted TB. It changed all of their lives in Oh so many ways. My grandfather was a banker then, a vocation that both my brother and I had at one time in our lives, without realizing that it 'ran in the family'. Apparently he was a good banker, there are many articles that I have from the Florida papers about one speech or meeting or another where he was a featured speaker. Then he got sick, and went from place to place to try to get better and ended up in California. The newspaper articles mentioned his 'illness' and the fact that he had to 'go away' to get better, but, of course, never mentioned TB. I do know that the family was back in New York in 1920, as I found them on the 1920 census, so they didn't get here until at least after that. His health was never good. He was never robust, and I always remember him as being old. He was, however, the kindest, gentlest, quietest man I ever knew...

except for my father, of course....

but we never talked about fishing...