SIBLINGS

Here's a great shot of five Bader siblings: Ernie (with Doc, the dog), Bobby, Carl George Jr., Jeannie, and Philip. The only one missing is Barbara.

I think this was taken in 1941, so that might have been the year she was in nurse's training at Mass General in Boston. If she had already moved out to California with Jeannie at this time, she would have come back with Jeannie for this family reunion.

My guess is the occasion was Bobby getting engaged to Norma Bohlken. Another snapshot in this group is dated Nov. 1941 (everybody is wearing the same clothes), and Bob & Norma married in May, 1942.


Here's another shot from this group. That's Bob and Norma in the middle, flanked by Philip and Jeannie. (I love those stylin' open-toed pumps Jeannie is wearing! Some day soon I'll do a post just on Jeannie's outfits; she was such a fashion plate!)

All these pictures appear to be taken on the grounds of the Methodist Church in Holdredge, NE., where The Rev and Maudie and the youngest Baders lived from 1940-1944.


Here are some undated photos of Philip and his mom (Maudie) from about  that same time. This is also their home adjoining the Methodist Church. (This porch figures in many, many Bader family photos.)

I don't know why they're both grimacing in the right-hand pic (maybe they were squinting into the sun?), but everyone looks more relaxed in the other one!


Um, I'm not exactly sure what's going on in this photo, but that's Philip again, fooling around!

Some wag (probably big brother Ernie) has scribbled this caption on the back:

"Latest thing in potted plants."

Or—

"What did you put in that last one, Mike?"

BADER TEENS

By the time they were teenagers, there was enough cash in the coffers for the six Bader siblings to get their portraits taken.


Some of these are school pics, some not.


Here's Bobby at age 17, ca. 1933, Falls City NE.




This is Ernie.

Grandpa (Carl George Sr.) writes on the back: "Ernie had these taken last fall for his applications." These might be his applications to college, in which case he'd be about 18, and this pic would date to around 1937.



Or it may be his applications for his first teaching job, which would date this post-college, around 1944? But I vote for 1937; he still looks so young!


(I also have a photo of him with the high school basketball team he coached, ca. 1940, so this might have been for his application for that job.)

Here is Barbara in high school, sometime between 1936-1940. I would guess she's about 15 or 16.



Barbara never liked this picture very much, but I think she looks very sweet, with her Peter-Pan collar and little Mona Lisa smile.

This is Jeannie in high school. I love this photo!


The original frame is marked very clearly, in Barbara's handwriting, "Jeanne, 1937, Wayne, Nebr."

So Jeannie would be about 15.



 

Here is Carl George Jr., at about age 18. Barbara writes on the back, "C. Geo, about 1942," when the family was living in Holdredge, NE.



The younger members of the family, anyway: by 1942-3, Jeannie and Barbara were already living in California.

And finally, here's a nice portrait of Philip. In Steve's handwriting on the back (writing for Barbara) it says, "Philip Bader, about 16, c. 1948," which looks about right, age-wise.


Of course, by 1948, all the other siblings were long out of the house, since, Philip was so much younger than the rest. (Carl Jr., closest to him in age, was 8 years older.) I include this portrait here so we can take a look at all the Bader kids at about the same age, in their mid-to-late teens.


I have a lot more pics of Philip as a boy in the early 1940s, which I will post soon!

YOUNG BADERS

Here's a photo of Barbara, age 9 (ca. 1930).  Isn't she cute? Pictures of Barbara in her girlhood always remind me of Kiera when she was little—especially this one!


I assume this is a (badly hand-tinted) school picture; it's glued onto colored construction paper in the form of a small card, so this was probably a school project to make cards for the parents.


Inside, Barbara has written, possibly in crayon: "Me in a (...)" I can't make out the last word, but it might be "beret," which seems to make sense.




 Photos of the eldest Bader brothers, Bobby and Ernie, in childhood are just about nonexistent (except for those few I've already posted). But here's a candid pic of Jeannie as a young teen (of course, it's not dated!), probably mid-1930s.

(Btw, this wire-haired terrier appears in family photos throughout the '30s and '40s. I've always heard about "Doc, the dog," but I have no idea if this is the same Doc in all these photos, or if the Baders had more than one dog named Doc.)


 Here's a candid portrait of three generations of Baders. I don't know where of when it was taken, but judging from the age of Philip (far right), I guess maybe 1937 or '38.

That's clan matriarch Emma Elsner Bader (wife of J. R. Bader) in the foreground. Directly behind her is her daughter, Alma (Carl George Sr's younger sister). Behind Alma is Ernie, and to the right, younger brother Carl George Jr., Edna (Maudie), and little Philip. Carl George Sr. is standing at the left.

The two little girls (identified in another photo I have) are Joan Bader (in front of Carl Sr.) and her sister, Gretchen Bader (next to Philip). They are the daughters of Carl Sr's youngest brother, Jean Bader (he was the child sitting on the moon with mama, Emma, in that vacation postcard I posted awhile ago). Jean does not appear in this photo, but I assume that's his wife, Sara Marshall, mother of the girls, standing between Carl Sr. and Alma.

Here's another snapshot of little Philip and his Bader cousins. Gretchen (left) is one year younger than Philip (born 1933); Joan (right) is two years older (born 1930).

Below is one last image. I'm pretty sure that's Philip (with his very distinctive asymmetrical hairline!), but I'm not at all sure those are Gretchen and Joan in the photo with him. (But then again, who else would it be, so close to his age?) Nor do I have a clue where this was taken. Surely not a parish house; it looks like the steps to a library or some other public building.

But I post this because Philip looks so debonair and soulful for his age!