5818 Bayshore Boulevard, Tampa, Florida circa 1949-1951

 

This was one of the few photographs that I have of the house my parents lived in when I was born in September of 1949 and Ann was born in September of 1950.  Dad had been stationed at MacDill AFB before we were born.  Mom had had Rheumatic fever when she was younger and was told that while she could physically have children, she ought not to.  Unlike her three siblings, she produced a boy and a girl.  Jean, Doris and Robert each had had one boy.  Ann became the only granddaughter on the Breeze side of the family.  (Dad's brother, Leon, would later have three girls and two boys, but that would be a few years off.)

The parents may have rented the house on Bayshore Blvd.  Just below is the way the house looks today.  Except for the foliage, not much seems to have changed.  The house lists for over $1 million these days.  (The tear in the B&W photograph above was due to my clumsy attempt to remove it from a photo album and scan it.)  I believe that mom is the woman sitting on the right.  Dad might be the one sitting on the top steps, holding the girl.  However, both Ann and I were infants at the time, so that the kids had to be someone else's offspring.  According to Redfin, the house was built in 1926 and renovated in 2017. 
                                                                                   

We lived there until after Ann was born and then we moved, my mother told me, to Valdosta, GA, and the Air Force Base there, for six months before Dad was transferred to George AFB back in California, where he was born in Martinez, CA, in 1920.  Mom had complained over the years that Dad was often homesick for his Mother, and he repeatedly drove across country to see his parents in California before and after we were born.     

The following  photograph might have been from Christmas of 1948 (the parents were married in 1947) and might also have been in the house on Bayshore.  While she appears to be wearing maternity clothes, she could not have been pregnant with me on 1948, nor with Ann before Christmas in 1949.  (After I scanned the photograph, I identified the date as 1947.  The only reason that I thought this might be 5818 Bayshore is the wooden flooring which can be seen in the contemporary color photo below.)   
                                                                               

                                                                                 

The opposite view of the living room shows even more windows, and the grain of the flooring flows in opposite directions in the two photographs.  So I might be reaching, and the 1947 date is correct and likely not from the Tampa house.

The following photo is from 1949, not long after I was born.  Dad is holding me.  It's hard for me to read the expression on his face.  Pride?  Wonderment?  Discomfort?  Hope that he doesn't drop me?  Who can say?  But he likely never imagined, holding me, is that the son in his arms will grow up to be gay.  A fact that Dad never quite seemed to get over.  One of the porch urns is visible n the background.
                                                                             

Here is Mom on the same porch, holding me.
                                                                              

Here is Grandma Sanchez holding me, her first grandchild.
                                                                              

To give equal time, here is Grandma Breeze with an infant Ann and a 1-year-old me.
                                                                                  

Here is Mom holding me while sitting in the passenger side of the car.  Just returning from the hospital after I was born?  Probably later since I don't quite look like a newborn.
                                                                           

Mom loved to have professional photographs taken.
                                                                                 

This seemed to be an era of naked baby photos.
                                                                                 

                                                                                   

This was also the era of telegrams.  Rarely did anyone call with news of a big event.  But a telegram was fast and, with a judicious choice of few words, informative.  Even today, a telegram looks far more impressive than an email and, typically, a man delivered the missive to your door.  
                                                                              

The address still exists, but the house that the Sanchez grandparents lived in back in 1949 is clearly no longer there.  The current house is gorgeous, was built in 2016, and sells for nearly $7 million today.  

I suspect this photo of Ann and me was taken before we left Florida for Georgia, but I have no way of knowing for certain.                                                                                

Here we are at a beach with Dad.
                                                                                  

This is definitely on the same front porch on Bayshore.
                                                                                

The following are from Christmas 1949 and 1950 (if they include Infant Ann).