A Rebel even at age 7

See my subtle tongue being out where nobody could see. I was 7.

I hated taking photos because my father was a perfectionist regarding photos. So, we would take what seemed like hours taking photos which I hated. This bothered me so much that I wouldn't even own a camera through my very early 20s until my son was born in 1974 when I was 26.
My Dad and Mom were in the back then my Grandmother (Dad's mother) then Dad's sister then Grandpa on the right then my 5 years older cousin and finally me.

I didn't get to see my older cousin much so this cut into any time we had to play. This likely was a Sunday after church or something like that in Summer 1955 in Glendale, California. No, when I look at this more carefully it was taken at 1315A East Harvard near Glendale High School where John Wayne went too. I attended Glendale High School in 1963 until fall 1965 when I went to a private school in Santa Fe, New Mexico where I graduated High School in May 1966.

However, now my 5 years older cousin and I are the last left alive and we both miss them all a lot. It's hard to go on without them all here on earth with us.

However, I have my children (3 biologically, 2 step kids and 2 God Daughters) and my wife and my friends which helps a lot. My kids are now 44 down to 19 years of age including my God Daughters so it is quite a range with two of my youngest still in college. And I have an almost 1 year old Grandson now as well.

My older cousin's kids are all grown up and have kids of their own so he has many grandchildren at this point.

We are both very lucky in that all our kids and grand kids are okay and that we have succeeded in life.

I also remember my cousin and I and both my grandparents, my aunt and my parents going to Disneyland for the first time in 1955 too since we were only a little more than an hour away by car on the freeway then.

By the time I was 21 I had been about 30 times to Disneyland. But, at 21 it was a date night kind of experience where you took your girlfriend to go dancing and to ride the rides at night with big bands of that Era like Gladys Knight and the Pips and others like that. So, this kind of thing was incredibly fun then.

At 20 I bought a 1968 brand new Camaro so taking dates to Disneyland was really fun on the freeways too. I was 21 in 1969.