The last time I visited Texas, I dug into more of my father’s slides for scanning. Sometime during 1958, probably, my father, mother and brothers visited my grandparents on Padre Island. My grandfather (left), a civil engineer, was working in some capacity in the creation of the Mansfield Cut, though we’re not sure what. On the right is my father. Jay and I call this the wearing funny hats shot.

My grandfather (my mother’s father) and my mother. I suspect she borrowed the bonnet from my grandmother for the sunny day. Even in the late ’50s, it would have been considered old fashioned.

My mother and brothers. It’s always a little odd looking at a picture of your family at a time when you don’t exist.

The Mansfield Cut separates Padre Island from South Padre Island, and was made to provide access from the sea at that point to the Intercoastal Waterway. Jay says that mother marveled at the large numbers of shells on the beach there, since it was remote — it’s still remote — and not many people collected them. There’s a jar of shells at my mother’s home, and some of them might have been picked up during this visit.