One Of My Favorites

I've finished scanning the slides that my parents had at their house last week.  I've shifted to scanning in the photo albums from my Grandmother Jennie LaPorte (nee Rock).  Her albums have filled in a lot of gaps in terms of photos of my dad.  Previously, I'd seen a lot of him as a toddler and then a lot of them from mid-twenties on.  But there was a gap as a child and teenager, like this one.

Its one of my favorites for a number of reasons.  First, my grandfather, Lloyd LaPorte just had a good eye and managed to capture a lot of objectively good quality images.  Second, it captures (not surprisingly) my dad with his trademark large grin.  Third, all of the clothes he's wearing seem to fit -- which was not typical in his day and age of the ubiquitous "hand me downs."  Fourth, it features a baseball glove that, if I'm not mistaken looks a lot like the one that I recall him having when we were kids (but maybe not). Finally, he's wearing actual shoes, not loafers or moccasins, which would become his trademark for the next dozen or more years of his life (perhaps I'll post a photo montage of the slippers/mocs later).  Also, the haircut, clothing, cars in the background, etc. all have that iconic 50s look.

By the way, nice, quality "two hands" catch there, dad!