San Francisco in the 1920s. The memories of the 1906 earthquake were as fresh as the memories of 9/11 are today. The city had rebuilt, and the United States was entering what would later be called the Age of Prosperity [http://americainclass.org/sources/becomingmodern/prosperity/text1/colcommentary.pdf]

California agreed with my dad. Within five years of moving west with his mother, he went from being the kid from Brooklyn wearing knickers to being the young man pictured here. He’s 20 in this spectacular, hand-colored portrait, taken in San Francisco in December 1922. (View a larger version

This is the second-oldest photo I have of my dad. According to an annotation on the back, it was taken on Essex Street in Brooklyn in the fall of 1913. (View the full-size photo [https://storage.ghost.io/c/b5/3c/b53cd466-8d8a-4db9-8d23-0718468bb20e/content/images/2016/01/dad-in-brooklyn--essex-st--fall-1913.jpg] .) I don’

This is the oldest photo of my dad that I’ve found. He’s in the far-right row, second from the front. I’m guessing he’s about 10 or 12, which would date this photo at between 1912 and 1914. (View the full-size photo [https://storage.ghost.io/c/