I can only find a handful of pictures from this period. My mother has stacks of them, so have no fear that horribly embarassing pictures are out there waiting to be scanned. I can think of one Easter picture from about 1974 where I am wearing an incredibly chic plaid polyester suit...

Here we see a picture of my cousin Nicole, here aged about 2½ years, and myself at about four. This photo was most likely taken at a petting zoo in Norristown, Pennsylvania. It's funny, I didn't remember my hair being this light a shade of brown as a kid.

At about my third birthday some number of uncles and my grandfather must have gone down to the South Jersey shore either fishing or crabbing. Our family doesn't exactly have a maritime tradition or anything, but we've always been fisherman of one sort or another. Trout, sea bass, bluefish, crabs - all sorts of things would be caught and brought home for the table. And of course, if luck didn't favor the fishermen, we always knew where we could pick up a bushel on the way home... Here, somebody closed off the kitchen to keep the dog out and left me to play with the live crabs.

My favorite picture with my grandfather. Actually, there's only one or two that I know of, and they're both included on these pages. I'm about 16 months old here, and don't worry the can was undoubtedly almost empty when Pop let me take it from him. Or maybe not - many have wondered how I turned out so odd. (I'm joking, Mom, take it easy.)