handstand, c. 1930

This is my grandfather (left) and his brother Elvis doing some kind of stunt in their front yard in Coalinga or thereabouts. Remember that in the early part of the century, the name Elvis was not considered silly.

They were very close. One year apart. Elvis was dark and tanned, Everett blond and pale. When Elvis went to first grade, Everett tagged along out of boredom, and the rules were sort of fast and loose in those days so he got away with it.

It was a family of six or seven kids, and they had a series of adventures growing up in the middle of the valley with nobody around. Driving ancient metal cars across the empty landscape, taking the cars apart and putting them together again, playing on abandoned oil equipment, pet dogs... you name it.

Elvis ended up dying of a heart attack in his fifties. Some people felt like he kind of gave up. This was generally viewed as a tragedy, so don't make the same mistake he did. Marry the right woman (see next photo) like my grandfather did, and you can live to be eighty, like my grandfather did. Unless you don't like girls, in which case you're SOL as far as I'm concerned.