Who's the ugly kid on the left?

Maurice recently received a picture of boy cousins from our cousin Ruth-E. She found two copies of the picture in question and gave them to him. Being a generous soul, he sent one of the copies to me to e njoy on my birthday. Written on a sticky attached to the picture was, "Aren't we all cute?" When we talked this morning, he mentioned that Ruth-E. laughed and laughed as she handed the picture to him.

This picture was taken in 1942, probably at Uncle Harry's (Ruth-E.'s dad) house. The boy cousins in order from right to left are: Maurice, Bill, Bob, Bruce, Dick, and the ugly kid (me). The first four boys listed were in a line, and several were even smiling. Three of the boys were in shorts. Maurice had on a nice looking jacket, and then there was the ugly kid.

The ugly kid had long, curly hair, and he really needed a haircut. There is a strange looking knitted cap on top of the head of the kid. The kid has on overalls which in themselves are OK, but the jacket over this outfit has a rolled up cuff on the left hand and is completely turned inside out on the other hand. Maybe the whole thing would be acceptable, but the facial expression says it all. The ugly kid does not want to be in the picture, and the look in his eyes suggests that someone should be done in for forcing him to be in the picture.

My only excuse is that I was three years old in 1942. I am told that whenever someone took pictures of me in my childhood, I cried. I guess I did not like to have my picture taken. Foxy could not believe that I was the ugly kid. It is me. All I can say is that as I grew up there was only room for improvement.

I have known for years that we were not rich. Indeed we were poor enough to only be able to rent and not own our home. I was a mid-teen when we finally owned our first home. This picture brings back for me my intense dislike of hand-me-downs. No parent in their right mind could have bought the clothes for the ugly kid. They had to be hand-me-downs. Happy travels.