Childhood, Sleeve 0, 1922-1925

I didn’t run out of boxes yet, but while perusing photo sleeves, I came across some transparent Hy-Klas Stockton Process Sleeves with 116 or 616 format negatives.

It was immediately clear that Joel didn’t take these images, and I assume it was Thomas Lawrence Dardis Sr. photographing few family events.

The first one that jumped out was this negative.

Margaret and Thomas were respectively half sister and half brother of Joel, by Thomas Lawrence Dardis Sr. and Hazel Small, his first wife; she passed away in 1918. This is the only image of the three children of Dr. Thomas Lawrence Dardis together I’ve seen so far.

Next image shows Joel in the arms of the nanny with grandma Pauline Pahl-Dietrich watching.

The nanny is most likely Marie Henrietta Niles, she was boarding Margaret and Thomas in the 1920 census when father Thomas Dardis and mother Clara Pahl were traveling. (Germany ?) The woman at right is not positively identified but could be Pauline’s sister Emma.

It should be clear that the Dardis-Pahl family was well-to-do prior to the Depression. They lived in a large house with a sizable yard.

Both images above were printed on March 15, 1938 by Hy Klas Photo Processing in Stockton. Joel must have found these negatives and printed them out with his first roll of 35mm film while still in St-Mary high school.

These negatives have suffered over the years, no wonder, they are almost a century old !

The image below was titled “Pahl Boys” and dated in 1925. Joel is the youngest member of the family while Pauline Dietrich is the matriarch.

This older negative intermezzo sheds some light on Joel’s early days. There negatives and prints are almost a century old and stood the test of time fairly well.

Cheers !