A BADER CHRISTMAS

-->

On Christmas Day, 1947, five of the six Bader siblings reunited with parents, Rev. Carl George Sr. and Edna (Maudie), at their home in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Rev. Bader had been assigned to the Methodist church in Lincoln in 1944.)

By this time, Bobby, Ernie, Barbara, and Carl George Jr. were all married. Only 16-year-old Philip still lived at home. Jeannie flew in from California. 

Barabara was the only one of the Bader 8 who missed this reunion. Her husband, Art Jensen, was still in the Navy and they had started a family. In December, 1947, they might still have been on Midway Island in the Pacific, or they might have relocated to Long Beach, CA.

But the rest of the Baders were on deck on what looks like a bright, sunny Christmas Day in Lincoln! 

Decorating the front porch, above, from the left, are Philip and Jeannie, Carl Jr. (behind Jeannie), Bobby, and Ernie. With—of course—Doc, the dog, smack in the middle!

In this other group shot, we have Philip and Ernie in back, with Jeannie, Maudie, Norma (Bohlken) Bader (she and Bobby married in 1942), Nadine (Goyer) Bader (she and Carl Jr. married in 1946), and Carl Jr.

In 1946 or '47, Ernie married Charlotte (Carlie) Prather. 

She's not in the Christmas pics, but three days later, she and Ernie and some of his gathered sibs took a tour of the University of Nebraska campus in Lincoln. 

This is Carlie and Ernie (and, yes, he was that tall, at 6' 8").

Here are Bobby, Jeannie, Carlie and Ernie at UN. My guess is Carl Jr. who was also on this excursion, took the photo.

And finally, the car they all rode in on! I don't know whose car this was, but it looks like Ernie driving (or possibly Carl). 

That's definitely Jeannie putting on her lipstick in the front seat!

And who's the photographer casting his shadow on the car? My guess is Carl Jr.