From Double-N Donn: A Neat Idea

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Using the family's 1935 photo as a template, Donn and his siblings recreated the memory in 2009.

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Donn Larson

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Donn Larson, one of Lake Superior Magazine's editorial advisors, shows us an idea he hopes might prompt others to try.

In 1935, when I was 6 years old, my parents took my sister, Lois, my brother, Roger, and me downtown in Duluth to the Glass Block, a department store on the southeast corner of Second Avenue West and Superior Street that was once an anchor of downtown shopping (where US Bank is now located). Glass Block had an official Boy Scout department, a tea room, a piano player who would play sheet music you might be interested in buying, and a photo studio.

Downtown was a favorite destination. There were no malls, and we would often go downtown just as a diversion - maybe to look at the turtles and goldfish at Woolworth's pet department, or simply to sit in dad's 1929 Chrysler in front of Snyder's Drug Store, eat Cracker Jacks and watch the people, while street cars rattled by.  

One Saturday we were nicely cleaned up and presented for a Glass Block studio family portrait, which was taken, displayed on the buffet for several years and then at some point stored away.

Moving ahead seven decades, while rummaging in a shoebox with a collection of old family photos, I ran across that old picture. It was a fun discovery, and I kept it out to show my sister and brother.

Lois, Roger and I, feeling fortunate that we're still vertical, so-disposed and not scattered about the country, decided to compare how well we looked in the middle of the Depression (a credit to our mom and dad) with how we look today. Our photographer friend, Jeff Fifield, perched us in the same arrangement.

So 74 years later, with all three of us still in reasonably good health and living in Duluth, we got together for a re-enactment to remind us of our good fortune at being able to make a gratifying life in our native city, with its wonderful Lake Superior and so many other advantages.

Of course, Glass Block sadly has come and gone, Lois' curls are altered a bit, my smirk hasn't changed much, and Roger traded his Moe Howard (remember the Three Stooges?) haircut for some chin whiskers. Still, we clean up pretty well.

The new portrait created an additional family keepsake for us and our children and grandchildren. If you are lucky enough to have an old family picture with siblings still available for a re-do, I whole-heartedly encourage you to get one made. Don't say, "We'll have to do that some day," do it now ­ for you and your family history.