Most people would say this is a crooked picture of a family posing in front of a lawn that desperately needs watering. But it is really a picture of our 1955 Pontiac, the only used car my family ever had. When we moved from PA to NJ in 1962, my father sold our 1952 Studebaker. We took our 1960 Edsel. For some reason he thought we wouldn't need two cars. He was wrong.

So when he saw the Pontiac for sale, he bought it and brought it home, to my delight. It was a 2-door sedan with real leather seats, auto trans and radio. Some seams on those seats were coming apart. The radio did not work unless you went over a bump, then it did for 15 seconds.
It had an Indian face hood ornament that was supposed to light up, but it didn't. I loved that car, but I loved the Edsel more, so in 1967, when he said the first car to need any repair at all would be replaced, I made sure it wasn't the Edsel.

As for the people to the left of the Pontiac, they are my father Howard in the plaid shirt, my four year old brother Iden; me; my father's sister-in-law Mildred, who went by the name Margaret because she couldn't stand the name Mildred; my father's older sister Bertha, who went by the name Buddy, because she couldn't stand the name Bertha; Buddy's husband Abe, who couldn't stand me and my brother's names, so called me Princess and Iden "Johnny Boy." And my mother, Arlene who, as usual, is showing off a dress she designed and made (out of a checked fabric Abe gave her the year before). Taking the photo is my father's older brother Norman who kept his first name, but changed his last name. View full size.