Comments are always welcome; I’ve learned a great deal from reader feedback. As always, thanks for stopping by. While there, visit my camera shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com (CC Design Studios, hosted on Etsy). – Chris Whelan
In celebration of my mom, Mary, on the centennial of her birth in the city that she loved and knew so well… born September 10, 1916, at home on East 74th Street in Manhattan.
She told me that the rooftops and streets of the Upper East Side were her playgrounds and the East River (THAT river!) was where they splashed in the heat of summer.
She would go on to become a secretary for some of the biggest corporations in America, which were headquartered in New York.
She would meet my dad (Paul) at the wedding of her best friend and fall in love with him at first sight. She married my dad on November 3, 1943, just a few blocks from where she grew up.
During the war, she worked at Columbia University and would go on to receive recognition for her work on the Manhattan Project (Silver A-Bomb Pin).
By the mid-1950s, she was a suburban housewife (not a bad thing to say then, but if you said it today, you’d catch heck) and was the best mom in the world to me… she was at every baseball game and at school functions, and she taught me the ropes of New York and life.
My mom was the strongest person I knew… in less than twenty years, she would lose the man she loved with all her heart and fight on to see me through those difficult years that came after.
Sadly, she left way too soon herself, but her love of the City, of life, of adventure, and her courage are with me today.
My mom’s Kodak from 1938 and the host of images she took with it are special to me. My mom’s and dad’s love of photography was passed down to me (foto DNA), and that remains an essential connection to them.
If you’ve read this through, I thank you… It is only a small gesture that I can make in her memory today.
Image 1: Her camera.
Image 2: 1960 street photography. Me with my first camera.
Image 3: Mom with her bestie, Anne, in 1939.
Image 4: Mom and Dad in 1961 on a second honeymoon in Rio.
Image 5: 1976, Jensen Beach, Florida, just before I left for Japan.
Her Kodak camera.‘Street Photography’, 1960. With my first camera.Mom (on the right) with her bestie, Anne, 1939.Mom and Dad, 1961.On the beach, 1976.
Comments are always welcome; I’ve learned a great deal from reader feedback. As always, thanks for stopping by. While there, visit my camera shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com (CC Design Studios, hosted on Etsy). – Chris Whelan
‘Super Toy’ Levittown (NY) Little League Central AAA team. My dad Paul (tall guy manager), his brother Billy (far left coach), my cousin Larry (1st row far left), and me right behind Larry in the 2nd row. Posted in memory of my dad on the 111th anniversary of his birth in 1914.
It was so much fun having my cousin and his dad be on the same team as my dad and me.
Comments are always welcomed, as I’ve learned quite a bit from reader feedback. As always, thanks for stopping by, and while you’re at it, feel free to visit my camera shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com (CC Design Studios hosted by Etsy). – Chris Whelan
Pictures of my dad Paul Whelan in Paris in 1945. He was an MP and spent most of the war at the Brooklyn Navy Yard which was just down the street from where he was raised and his family still lived. He wasn’t posted to Europe until later in the war.
A Brooklyn “kid” in Paris. My dad was about 31 in this picture.My dad was in the CCC before the war started and worked for the NYC Transit Authority.Great smile and a note for my mom.
Me in 1975 at my first duty station (NAS Pensacola) after Navy Aerographer’s Mate school (weather).
Comments are always welcomed, as I’ve learned quite a bit from reader feedback. As always, thanks for stopping by, and while you’re at it, feel free to visit my camera shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com (CC Design Studios hosted by Etsy). – Chris Whelan
June 1945 464 62nd Street, Brooklyn, New York Uncle Ray, Nana (Ida), and Aunt Janey Most older photographs don’t do the subjects justice, but this one does. I believe the camera was a 6×9.
The war in Europe was over and a couple of months the war with Japan would end. It looked like a beautiful summer day in the small backyard of my grandmother’s home.
Thanks for stopping by, Chris
Follow me on Instagram @ccphotographyai
Facebook CC Photography of Amelia
Comments are always welcomed, as I’ve learned quite a bit from reader feedback. As always, thanks for stopping by, and while you’re at it, feel free to visit my camera shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com (CC Design Studios hosted by Etsy). – Chris Whelan
November 19431961 on vacation.Looking elegant in 1961.
In ten way too short years, he laid the foundation for the man I would become, but it was my mom who influenced me the most. Paul, 1914-1963.
Thanks for stopping by, Chris
Follow me on Instagram @ccphotographyai
Facebook CC Photography of Amelia
Comments are always welcomed, as I’ve learned quite a bit from reader feedback. As always, thanks for stopping by, and while you’re at it, feel free to visit my camera shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com (CC Design Studios hosted by Etsy). – Chris Whelan
At the Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Disney Wilderness Lodge.
I first met Carol on my birthday in 1972. We started dating in the Summer of 1973 and married in March 1974. Hopefully there’s many more years together.
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Thanks for stopping by, Chris
Follow me on Instagram at @ccphotographyai
Comments are always welcomed, as I’ve learned quite a bit from reader feedback. As always, thanks for stopping by, and while you’re at it, feel free to visit my camera shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com (CC Design Studios hosted by Etsy). – Chris Whelan
A simple Thanksgiving dinner with family. This is as fancy as we get!
The plates and glasses are my mom and dad’s passed down to us. I believe they received them back in the early 1950s. It’s a very small way to have them share dinner with us.
A mess but it’s what we like to have for our Thanksgiving meal.
I hope everyone had a chance to spend the day or weekend if you were lucky with some or all of your family and friends. I can remember more than a few that we weren’t able to do that and are thankful whenever we can. Thanks for stopping by, Chris, Carol, and Tim.
Follow me on Instagram at @ccphotographyai
Comments are always welcomed as I’ve learned quite a bit from reader feedback. As always, thanks for stopping by, and while you’re at it, feel free to visit my camera shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com (CC Design Studios hosted by Etsy). – Chris Whelan
Please respect that all content, including photos and text, is this blog’s property and its owner, Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Yashica Sailor Boy, Yashica Chris, Chasing Classic Cameras with Chris.
My mom Mary pictured here at NAS Jacksonville, Florida in the early 1980s.
Today is the 106th anniversary of her birth. She’s always in my heart.
Follow me on Instagram at @ccphotographyai
Comments are always welcomed as I’ve learned quite a bit from reader feedback. As always, thanks for stopping by, and while you’re at it, feel free to visit my camera shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com (CC Design Studios hosted by Etsy). – Chris Whelan
Please respect that all content, including photos and text, is this blog’s property and its owner, Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Yashica Sailor Boy, Yashica Chris, Chasing Classic Cameras with Chris.
We’re celebrating our 48th wedding anniversary today – here pictured with my best friend and wife.
At a New York Mets spring training game in Port St. Lucie, Florida (Spring 2015).Way back in 1973 – no we weren’t stoned.1980 – We’re just back from my tour of duty in Japan aboard the USS Midway. We lived in Yokohama.Retired from the US Navy in March 1997.
Thanks for stopping by! – Chris and Carol
Comments are always welcomed as I’ve learned quite a bit from reader feedback. As always, thanks for stopping by, and while you’re at it, feel free to visit my camera shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com (CC Design Studios hosted by Etsy). – Chris Whelan
Please respect that all content, including photos and text, is this blog’s property and its owner, Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Yashica Sailor Boy, Yashica Chris, Chasing Classic Cameras with Chris.
Chasing Classic Cameras with Chris 