That Merry Photo included my Great Grandpa Sundean. I said I could not remember his first name. I do not remember him ever being referred to by his first name.
All I remember of Great Grandpa Sundean was that my mom remembered him fondly, along with my Great-Grandma Sundean, who died before I could have a memory of her.
Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Sundean would take mom on camping trips and roadtrips, which I guess was one of the reasons mom was always fond of both, with both referring to both her grandparents and camping and roadtrips.
I recollect just about every summer of my young kid years going east of the mountains, as in driving over the Cascades to Eastern Washington, to camp at Soap Lake.
Mom would always regale us with tales of the Nudist Colony which operated on the opposite side of the lake when she was a kid.
Soap Lake is (or was) an odd location. I do not know if that is still the case. But, when I was a kid, and mom was a kid, people would come to Soap Lake to stay at the town's Health Spa, to bathe in the supposedly health restoring waters, and to cover themselves with mud from the lake, and then let that mud dry on them under the hot sun.
Soap Lake sort of invited being in it without clothing due to the soapy water easily causing a rash from clothing rubbing skin.
Downtown Soap Lake, back when I played there, had a fountain in the downtown zone which dispensed drinking water right from the lake, to be consumed for its likely totally imaginary curative powers.
So, today, the day after Christmas, Jones family historian, Jason, alleviated me of one of my bits of ignorance, that being the first name of my Great Grandpa Sundean.
We shall get to that, but first mention must be made of the first two photos. Above we are looking at Hank Frank, often known as Henry, on Christmas. Henry is barely over a year old, so this would be the first Christmas in which he was able to actively participate.
The photo of Hank Frank was texted by his dad, my Favorite Nephew Joey, this morning, with the text saying more photos would be arriving later. As of late afternoon on the day after Christmas, later has not yet arrived.
And then we have the second photo.
This was sent by Jason earlier. I did not see it til later when Jason responded to email questions about the following three photos. In the email answering my questions Jason said "You must not have received the text explaining the photos."
Well, I had not. I did not realize Jason had sent me text messages with photos. My excuse is there have been a lot of text messages with photos in the past 48 hours. That, and I can be a bit inept keeping track of things.
I forgot to mention, the text along with the photo of Spencer Jack said "Spencer Jack assembling his new Boeing aircraft."
And now Jason's solution to the great grandpa name mystery.
A. Edward Sundean 1876 - 1960.
I assume Jason must have taken this photo during one of his visits to the cemetery which is the final resting place of his Great Grandma Vera, along with Uncle Pete, whose obituary Jason's brother, Joey, sent to me this morning, which I thought was intended to provide me the name to go along with Great Grandpa Sundean. Uncle Pete was Grandma Vera's little brother. He was a Merchant Marine. It was always a BIG deal when Uncle Pete was home from one of his sailing around the world adventures.
I almost forgot to mention, a followup query to Jason had him telling me the A. part of A. Edward Sundean, stood for Andrew. And that my great grandpa was always known a Edward. Although, apparently, never by me.
The next two photos which Jason sent me today totally puzzled me as to where he got them. I asked and have just now learned that Jason and Joey each received a bible which was among the items saved when clearing out mom and dad's house in Sun Lakes.
Brother Jake mailed one bible to Jason, and the other to Joey.
The photo above would appear to have been taken at mom's high school graduation.
I have never before seen a photo of my mom being a young girl. I would guess mom is just a little older than her grand daughter Ruby is in 2019.
I suspect more photos may be arriving. That will likely lead to a Merry Day After Christmas Photo Documentation Part 3...
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