From here, the album seems more organized and arranged with more care. I begin to wonder if Nora put together the previous pages. Perhaps they are disorganized and random because of the prism through which the arranger was looking. She knows these stories, and even the images but for her they are even more remote than for me-- simply unconnected images from a history she is part of but not intimate with.

There two pages are infant pictures of my brother Andrew. The first page is a famous set, a family legend: my brother's first taste of zwiebach. This is the first set of photos in the album with a clear narrative thread. It is also one of the few stories that I can connect back to my grandfather's Swedish heritage. Why else would a Greek woman and an Irishman even know about zweibach? The first shot is typically adorable-- wide eyed baby holds food. Food is good! yum! He attempts to get his mouth around it in the second shot, but it's hard and awkward and an odd shape. Third shot is the action pay off. Ptuuii!

On the facing page are Andrew and my cousin Jimmy McCormick, less than a year old, checking each other out in a crib. Jimmy was the scourge of our childhood. Mean and bullying, bigger than everyone. Jimmy joined the army.

Jimmy's dad, Uncle Jimmy (Col. McCormick) was my favorite example of the government triple dipper-- Army pension for his 20 years in uniform. Retired at 40 with a full Colonel's pension, got a government desk job, which he stayed in for his 20, retired at 62 with a second full government pension, and then started collecting social security. Your tax dollars at work.