Here I am in an early photo with Mom. In the lower right corner are the words "Davy & Mommie, 1 yr." The photo was taken on Sunday, November 7, 1948, my first birthday. My mother's name is Claudy Felicia Osborn. She is 22 years old.
We are standing in the front yard of our home at 205 Vermont Avenue*, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Our home is the Right Center E-2 unit in a "Type-E Apartment" building. It is one of many such buildings in our neighborhood. Each building had four apartments. Two were one story apartments, designated as E-1 units, (Right Wing or Left Wing), and were located on the ends of the building. The other two were two story apartments, designated as E-2 units, (Right Center or Left Center), and were located side by side in the center of the building. Ours was an E-2, Right Center, unit.
My father lived in our home before I came along. He lived there before he met Mom too. I know he was living there on February 9, 1946, because the Complaint for Divorce filed by his first wife, Kathryn (Johnson) Case, gives 205 Vermont Avenue as the address of his residence. I believe my mother began living there sometime after February 14, 1947.
The shadow of my father's head is in the lower left corner of the photo. He was a chemist, of sorts, and worked at Y-12. He was also a photographer, of sorts, and it was he who made the picture. It is one of four exposures he made that morning. Later, he developed the film in a makeshift darkroom in the bathroom of our apartment. When the film was dry, he made prints on four 8 x 10 sheets of Kodak enlarging paper, using his old Federal enlarger.
Notice that there is but one car in the scene. This is normal for this place and time. Not everybody owns a car, and most of those who do are men. When they go to work they take their cars with them. If their wife needs to go shopping, visit friends, or run a few errands, then she must walk, ride the bus, or take a taxi. Otherwise she must drive her husband to the plant in the morning, and pick him up again when he gets off from work. All that assumes that the wife knows how to drive and has a drivers' license. Not all wives did in those days. My mother did not.
In the upper left corner of the picture are two trees. Between the trees are what appear to be crosses. Those are posts for clothes lines. Electric clothes dryers existed in 1948, but I can't think of a single family that had one before the 1960s. In the 1940s all homes in Oak Ridge have clothes lines in the back yard. In the photo you can see a few clothes hanging on the line. The next day there will be many more. That is because the next day is Monday, and for most homemakers at the time, Mondays are wash day.
Behind my mother's head, and across the street, is another Type-E Apartment like ours. A sidewalk runs from the street to a couple of steps leading up to a screen door. Every house has screen doors, as well as screens on the windows. There is no air conditioning. In the 1940s the only way to stay cooler in hot weather was to open the doors and windows, and pray for a breeze. Electric fans also helped.
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| 1940s Federal Enlarger |
Notice that there is but one car in the scene. This is normal for this place and time. Not everybody owns a car, and most of those who do are men. When they go to work they take their cars with them. If their wife needs to go shopping, visit friends, or run a few errands, then she must walk, ride the bus, or take a taxi. Otherwise she must drive her husband to the plant in the morning, and pick him up again when he gets off from work. All that assumes that the wife knows how to drive and has a drivers' license. Not all wives did in those days. My mother did not.
In the upper left corner of the picture are two trees. Between the trees are what appear to be crosses. Those are posts for clothes lines. Electric clothes dryers existed in 1948, but I can't think of a single family that had one before the 1960s. In the 1940s all homes in Oak Ridge have clothes lines in the back yard. In the photo you can see a few clothes hanging on the line. The next day there will be many more. That is because the next day is Monday, and for most homemakers at the time, Mondays are wash day.
Behind my mother's head, and across the street, is another Type-E Apartment like ours. A sidewalk runs from the street to a couple of steps leading up to a screen door. Every house has screen doors, as well as screens on the windows. There is no air conditioning. In the 1940s the only way to stay cooler in hot weather was to open the doors and windows, and pray for a breeze. Electric fans also helped.
Screen doors and screens on the windows also help keep the flies out. The screen doors attach to the door jambs with long springs which cause the doors to snap close with a loud clack. At all hours of the day the clacking of screen doors echoes up and down the streets of our neighborhood. In spite of the quick closing springs, a few flies manage to make it past the screen doors barriers. Every household has fly-swatters handy to take care of such intruders.
In the photo you can see that both my mother and I are happy. She looks at me in a caring and loving way. I look forward, held upright and guided by my mother, as I toddle about exploring the world. My earliest memories are about exploring my little piece of the world. In those memories Mom is always nearby, guiding me. The "head of the household" is but a shadowy figure at best.
*The Type-E Apartment that was our home, and the home of three other families, (201, 203, 205 and 207 Vermont Ave.) is no more. It is now the site of Mac's Pharmacy.
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