The picture is of my dad's Aunt Nell and her beloved Boston Terrier, Trouble (#1). This was taken at Aunt Nell and Uncle Sal's home on 259th St. It was a small home with a beautiful backyard garden. I envision a young Trouble capering through the gardens and maybe getting into some mischief digging holes or otherwise damaging the greenery.
Later on in their marriage, Aunt Nell and Uncle Sal moved to a large and lovely home at 34 Emerson Ave. It had 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, but that wasn't because they had dozens of children to raise. In fact, they had no children of their own. Instead, Uncle Sal (though he had married into the family) took in any of his wife's family who needed help. At various points in time, my dad's grandparents, his Aunt Eva, and his Aunt Tani and Uncle Jerry lived with them. Tani and Jerry's kids, Pete and Sara, also lived with them for a time. Of course, Trouble lived with them, too, and he snurfled into stiff and cranky old age in a beautiful house with multiple staircases, a grand piano, and one of those rooms that everyone looked at but no one went into.
My dad tells the story of how Pete and Sara wanted a dog of their own. They got Cindy. Dad didn't remember what kind of dog Cindy was, but she was large and rowdy and considerably younger than Trouble. As Dad put it, Cindy would be tear-assing around the house, and you could hear Trouble snurfling around trying to get out of the way. Trouble was too old to get up the stairs easily, and Cindy would go flying past, and Boom! She would knock Trouble over. Poor Trouble. I guess Aunt Nell must have felt sorry for him, too, because after he went to that great dog park in the sky, Aunt Nell got another Boston Terrier, and she named him Trouble 2.
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