Christmas, Box 96, Dec 1954

This box is equally in the familiar Kodak yellow instead of the old brown cardboard boxes.

Actually, the side reads ” Xmas 3 sons + Uncle Bud Dec 24 1954″. Quite frankly, the “uncle Bud” threw me for a loop for a few seconds, wondering which yet unknown family member would pop up.

Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long before finding that uncle Bud is actually uncle August Julius Pahl. I guess “Bud” is shorter, more American.

The 3 sons are of course Rudolph Mentz Pahl, John “Jack” Pahl and the youngest Emil Frederick Pahl. The latter named after his grandfather.

By 1954, most of the Pahl family members reside in Stockton, and August Julius Pahl is listed at 4269 Yacht Harbor Drive. You may remember that Joel photographed K.P.F. products in 1948 in San Francisco, prior to that year’s family Christmas celebration in San Francisco.

The current listing seems to have a brick veneer added at a later date.

In addition to the three sons of August Julius, we have a few of the spouses and grandchildren.

John August Pahl stands in between his father John and grandfather August. Richard Brooks Pahl sits down next to his mother Genevieve Brooks and Penelope Pahl kneels at the feet of August Pahl. The other woman is Emil F. Pahl’s wife, Bonnie Wardwell, with their youngest child Gaye Pahl.

In the last two images we see that Clara and Amy Pahl make their appearance in front of the entrance door. There’s a lady with dark glasses holding arms between Jack Pahl and his son John, presumably this is Florence Bexton, grandma Brooks. (Boon for the Pahl genealogists our there.)

This Kodak negative box has a few “misplaced” negatives.

The above negative is from a 1946-1948 shoot in Santa Cruz or Carmel. We’ve seen other negatives and few Kodachromes of this young woman in the same bathing outfit.

Next misplaced negative is the only one I had missing from all the negatives that Joel had published in Naranjado 1946. This makes full count !

And this may sound odd, but the absence of unexpected subjects, reinforces the notion that Joel really was on a hiatus from late 1949 to late 1954. We’ll need to keep an eye out for interloper negatives.

Cheers !