This is my Aunt Florence in her parents' back yard in Burholme, an area in northern Philadelphia. Her father (my grandfather, who died before I was born) built duplex houses independently, lived in one side while renting out the other and moving on to build yet another duplex, often on the same street. Believe it or not, Burholme was semi-rural at the time. It's a bustling part of greater Philly now. The picture was probably taken in the early 1930s.

Aunt Florence was the second youngest of six siblings. (She's the one on this side of the fence. The other little girl would be a neighbor friend.) She was a mischievous, unpredictable child, troublesome at times, but held her own and as a grownup was the mother of three boys, my cousins. During the War she worked in a bomb factory in the city and once had her picture in the paper, posing with her bombs, because she was a good looking young woman. The newspaper caption read, "Beauty and the Bombs."

She was also one of my two "kissing aunts," the other being Aunt Rose, who took this picture. View full size.