Vadim

My father had a camera.  It was a German model, kept wrapped up in its leather case.  The camera had a light meter.  Every Christmas, before unwrapping presents, we had to wait, and wait, and wait while the light meter warmed up.  No one else knew how to work this odd marvel of technology.  No one really wanted to.  The camera was my father's, so he took the pictures.  And that means that he wasn't in those pictures he took.  As I have been going through family photos, I am struck my how few photos of him we have.  Here are a few of the snapshots we are fortunate enough to have.

This picture was taken in the Lewisburg Cemetery, which is right across the street from the house in which we lived.  We took frequent walks in the cemetery, looking at the gravestones and simply enjoying being outside.  Papa loved being outdoors in nature.  I am about 4 in the picture.  My brother, George, is about 3.

In this picture, he is standing with Tetya Lola, his mother's sister-in-law.  I don't know who the other man is, possibly Boris, Auntie Toni's companion.  (Toni is really my cousin, as she is Lola's daughter.)  They both lived in New York City for awhile.  Toni was a hairdresser and once styled the hair of one of the Kennedy sisters.  She did not have a high opinion of that famous hair.

  
As a professor of Physics at Bucknell University, Papa would don his robes once a year and attend graduation ceremonies.  The robe hung in his closet the rest of the year.  I used to love trying on his robe.  The velvet hood was so soft.

 

Here's another look at the hood.  The blue color symbolizes Columbia University in New York City where he got his PhD.

  This picture was taken in England.  In about 1965, he was a visiting professor at Cambridge, I think.  We lived in England for six months or so.  

That's enough for now, more later......