This rendition of I Smile for the Camera is especially appropriate for photographs from the extended Arline Allen Kinsel Papers. By that, I mean, extended from Arline’s turn of the century files into the current generation’s archive. It wasn’t hard to find photos on this topic, but narrowing the choices to two or three was pretty difficult.
Arline loved hats, hair-coverings, and theatrical poses. I remember my grandmother always wearing a little hat of some sort when she left the house. A funny little straw or felt thing if we were just going downtown for lunch at the cafeteria, or a dressy chapeau for church and holidays. Here she is in a tiny little photo-booth print I found in the Archive:
I wonder what kind of fowl contributed to that hat? Best guess is an ostrich or some other fluffy-feathered bird.
Arline would have loved her spirited grandson, Christian, a fiery-headed Californian who likes hats just as much as she did. Maybe it is that near-translucent classic red-headed skin tone, but Christian has learned to beware Ole’ Sol, although he was taking it a bit far in this picture, one of my favorites. Yes, Christian “We like your hats.”
Of course with orange hair (not red, but orange), it is a shame to wear a hat at all. Here he is a few years earlier sporting Big Hair. Alas, it was a look that did not last long.
Mama would loved to have known Christian, her Great Grandson. She wanted a red headed boy so bad I really think that is why she married my red-headed Daddy. Christian and Mama would have been best buds and two of a kind in their fancy hats.