Photo of my great-great-grandfather, Charles Cunningham, and great uncle. (I think it's Charley Cunningham, though no one remembered to note names on the old photos.) My guess is that this dates from the teens and was taken somewhere in Northern California. I'll guess that Charley is a Boy Scout, but I'll bet someone else can identify the uniform better.

Charley's family lived in the South-of-Market area of San Francisco, but after getting chased out by the Great Earthquake and Fire, moved up to Vallejo to live with the grandparents until the city rebuilt. They ended up in the Mission and finally Castro District of San Francisco back when those neighborhoods were solidly Irish.

Charles emigrated from Ireland in the 1860's, so he must have shook his head at how different life was for his grandchildren in the modern United States. Everyone looks upstanding and proper here, but I've got another photo of Charles and his wife laughing as they try not to fall out of a hammock. Even Victorian-era grandparents laughed and acted silly. View full size.