Second Family Picture

This is 1974 and our second family picture. I think we had a little 110 pocket camera then. I do not know who took the picture for us. But I actually remember having the picture taken. And I remember that sweater! It was so stretched out, but it was so comfortable.
Isn't Jared cute? He was such a pretty baby. I began to worry right before he was born that the baby (we didn't know what gender) would be ugly. He was perfect though as all the babies were. Perfect little round heads. Perfect skin. Perfect, perfect. Up until Jared was about 2 years old people would mistake him for a girl if he had the hood up on his coat.
This picture was taken in Merced, CA in front of the little, old duplex where we lived at the time. I wish I had a picture of our side. It was a little white framed duplex located at the back of a big lot. You can see the front two houses in the background of the picture. The duplex was painted white with green trim too. Our side was the biggest with one main bedroom and a bedroom on one end that was added later. It was probably built in the 1940s or 50s. When we moved there I was pregnant and we were at our first duty assignment at Castle Air Force Base. There were lots of bugs and the landlord was not into killing things with pesticides. But I couldn't go to the bathroom in the night by myself because of the bugs. And pregnant people HAVE to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night! I was not used to apartment living and having bugs was not something I was used to either. Finally the landlord had the place bug-bombed and we were pretty much fine after that.
We also brought Jared home from the hospital (can you say Air Force Clinic) after he was born to this home. We had an old green scratchy couch and chair. They were gigantic but comfortable. I just threw a quilt over it sometimes. My mom and dad got them at Goodwill. Our television was a gold 13 inch black and white which we set on my hope chest. The kitchen was so tiny that we couldn't eat in there even though we managed to squeeze a table with both drop leaves dropped into it. The refrigerator was from the 50s I am sure. The stove was a four burner, but it was half the size of a regular stove.
Our bed sagged really bad in the middle so we just put the box springs and mattress on the floor. We had a dresser that was there from the landlord, a chest of drawers which we painted yellow for the baby, and an old oak dresser that I think my folks also got at Good Will. The only new thing in the place was the crib that my mom bought for us for Jared and my hope chest.
But you know what? We didn't mind at all. We had a place to live that we could afford on an airman's salary. We had the gospel and great visiting teachers. We were having a baby. And we were in love. What more did we need?
Don't we look happy? I think so.

P.S. I used the crib for all my babies. PLUS... we still have the dresser from the landlord. We traded the curtains we put up in the place for the dresser! Actually, Leslie has the dresser now. Many years later Robert refinished it and we put cute rose painted china knobs on it. It is great dresser. Everyone in the family has had their clothes in it except Spencer. When we got it outside to refinish we could read in the bright sunlight the words, "I hate mom" scratched inside one drawer. I guess I pushed someone too far one day. :) I also still have my hope chest.