SOME TRANSPARENCY IN THE FORSTER FAMILY

Let’s hope everyone will enjoy a change of pace in the story line today.   I haven’t dug up a tale from the old days for a long time, and they do keep lurking about and coming to the fore every now and again.

My grandfather Marcos Antonio Forster and his wife, Guadalupe Avila Forster: out of 13 children they managed to raise only 6 to adulthood.

Now Don Marcos was tall, tall, tall, well over 6 feet. Antonia Guadalupe was a very diminutive but a slightly buxom woman.

The first son, Marquitos, was as tall as his dad, the second son, Frank, was the opposite, very, very short, maybe 5’3″ or 5’4″ and skinny. I won’t go any farther on this – stop right there- because Frank is the hero of this saga.

In the photo, there he is, all dapper with his best suit all pressed, the usual boots but what is that trailing down his back below his hu-hu? My goodness! That is his hair!! No wonder the kid has such a forlorn look. The hair must be giving him a headache. Poor Frank, but I wonder if he was in a gang like they have been having around here these last decades, the hair is well kempt so no relation to these hippies. If I had been living in that era, the boys would not be safe around me, I would be yanking away at the flowing locks every chance I could get! They would be running to their mama endlessly. And I would be getting the ruler on my behind, endlessly. I probably would not have lived through childhood. Then none of these informative stories would have gotten out.

But to think Grandma and Grandpa had to bundle the kid with all that hair onto the train in San Juan Capistrano to go to Los Angeles where they had an appointment with the photo gallery called “Elite Gallery Payne Stanton and Company.” What an undertaking! The photo states on the back “duplicates of this card can be furnished at any time.” There is no address, or I would send for copies to give to Frank’s grandkids and great grandkids – None of his sons or daughters are trodding the green grass these days. That would save me 5 pictures to get me off a bit cheaper.

Frank was a trooper though, there was a small pox epidemic and everyone in the house at the time was down with it. BUT, there was Frank and the Chinese cook waiting on everybody, keeping them with food and water. Frank was there with his boots on 24-7, probably about 6 or 7 years old at the time.

That is just one of my many stories I have yet to share…keep tuned in for next week’s exciting episode~