A Rare Beauty
As soon as I saw the subject for this carnival I knew there was only one picture I needed. To the best of my recollection I never saw my mother, Lois Orand Cheek, in a swimsuit. The only evidence to the contrary is this photo. As you can see she was not even Dad’s major interest in this shot and could easily have been cropped out. She did not particularly like the water and was never again photographed in a swimsuit.
I am the younger boy in the picture, two-three years old, and do not remember this day at the beach. I don’t know if my big brother James remembers anything about that day or not. I’ll give him a chance to comment on this after it is posted.
The beach is in the Philippines and was taken around 1947. Dad, an Army major, was transferred to the Philippines shortly after WW2 and we joined him there in 1946. I do have a few other shots taken that day, but none that actually show the swimsuit. The jeep in the background was our regular transportation.
Unfortunately, I have very few memories of our time in the Philippines, most of my Army brat memories came after this. But I do have most of the slides and pictures that Dad took to help me connect to that time in our life. And fortunately, Dad was a prolific photographer.
The Cheek That Doth Not Fade 