Story by Jon Stalnaker AKA The Studebaker Dude
As I have stated multiple times, the worst part of getting old is losing your loved ones. I had a few old photos of my mom and dad, as well as his mother’s father. We had a bunch of pictures of Carlene’s parents and some family pictures on her dad’s side. Carlene’s cousin Sandy, who lives in Kansas, gave us a great picture of her dad and his twin brother (Carlene’s dad) in an old 20s era Chevrolet meat truck when they were children. But the best picture I have is of my grandfather (Papa) in a panoramic photo of the entire workforce at a tomato processing plant in Stockton California, taken in 1940.
I acquired this picture probably thirty-plus years ago. My siblings and I were going through a cedar chest of old pictures and memorabilia that once belonged to my parents. Most dated back to the 1940s and WWII years. Inside that chest was this photo rolled up like a scroll. It was pointed out to me that Papa had managed to get in this picture twice. Once on the left side and again near the end of the right side. I’m so happy that I got this picture when there were still siblings around that knew the story behind it. Had I not known about it, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed that he was in the picture twice let alone how he did it. I took the picture home and had it framed. The glass got broken once when it was thrown at me by a furious ex-wife. I took it with me, intending to get it fixed one day.
I like to think that I got my sense of humor from Papa. He was the family jokester and was always poking fun at us or telling jokes. He knew a million jokes, and I only heard the clean ones. There are wonderful stories about how he serenaded Grammy with his guitar under her window when they were young. My Grammy was from an upper-class family and her father (the one in the oval picture), we were told, didn’t want her to have anything to do with this hillbilly, Papa.
But we all know how young people have a mind of their own, especially when it comes to romance. He was a good-looking hillbilly and had a certain charm of his own and he won her over. They had four children, my dad being the youngest, and they drove to California in a Model-T Ford in the 20s. They told stories about how they had to drive backwards over the mountain passes as the gas tank was gravity-fed and needed to be higher than the engine or the gas would not make it to the carburetor.
We had gatherings every weekend at Grammy and Papa’s house when I was a youngster. Many of my relatives shared Papa’s sense of humor. I have such fond memories of them. They were big gatherings with aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings. We all laughed and laughed. It’s so sad that family gatherings like these are a thing of the past, at least in my family they are.
So, how did Papa get in the picture twice? This was a large gathering that was photographed with a camera that scanned the group. It started on the left side and when the camera finished scanning the left side, he jumped down and ran behind the group and jumped back up at the right side of the picture. I often wondered if anyone else did this with him but I haven’t found another jokester in the picture. If you look closely at his face on the right side of the group, you can see a little smirk that shows his pride in this accomplishment.
When I decided to get the picture re-framed, I came up with an idea of how to show off what he did by just looking at the picture on the wall. I found a couple of small magnifying glasses on Amazon and attached them to the wooden frame to draw attention to this hilarious feat. Of course, I still need to explain it, but it is much easier to see this way. I’m sure Papa would be proud of how I preserved this cleverest of jokes that would have otherwise gone completely unnoticed.
