Those were the days: The Soares clan, with friends & neighbors

Vintage photographs from the 1930s and beyond from the family of Victor Faria Soares, Sr. and Rose Raymond Soares of Somerset, Mass., my grandparents. These were digitized by my uncle, Arthur Faria Soares, who also provided me with many stories about my family and his experiences growing up. The children of Rose and Victor Sr. were: Victor Jr., Beatrice, Raymond (my father), and Arthur.

Today we're back home...here is my pépère, Victor Faria Soares, Sr., working in the garden. Given the size of this plot, I'm guessing this is during the war years, when many families grew "Victory Gardens." Note the grapevine supports in the right background. But today I want to focus on the building in the background, which we called "The Little House." According to my Uncle Arthur, the building had been occupied before the Soares bought the property in 1937. But in the 1940s, it was more of a spare room and storage unit. it contained an old couch, a card table and two shabby chairs. A framed photo of Victor's father, Manuel Faria Soares, Sr., sporting a "majestic mustache" hung on the wall. Some of the more interesting items stashed in The Little House included a Brazilian flag (Victor was born in Rio) and a violin. Uncle Art tried to find out more about the instrument, but never learned much. He suspected Victor had played it at one time, however. The Little House looms large in the Soares family lore, and I will write more about it in the future.