The Album

The age of innocence is that period between 1945 and 1965. World War II has just ended, and thousands of servicemen are returning from home. Some, as in the case of Frank Stoneman, are returning home to wives and children they have not seen for more than three years.

Frank, Thelma, and Earl live in a small house in Pasadena when Bruce arrives on the scene. The family moves to nearby Azusa, and a third son, Jack, makes his debut.

Thelma has kept a photo album for each of the three boys. Bruce has brought his album out and is reminiscing about what it was like living when there were no smartphones, computers, or digital clouds. Earl, in an iron-lung, fights Polio and Bruce and his faithful companion, the accordion. Jack has his push-cart made from old lumber and wheels lying around. When Frank and the family went to view their new home and accidentally forgot the new baby, Bruce, and had to go back to retrieve him. Ever the adventurer, Bruce accepted a challenge to walk fifty miles in one day. And who can forget the camping trip when Bruce informed his family that his brothers were dead.

Pictures are worth a thousand words, and here are the words Bruce's pictures tell from the early beginnings of his family to his enlistment in the Navy after high school.

Steve Wilcox is a retired teacher and lives with his wife in Hewitt, Texas