It's my father's birthday today. If he were still here with us, he would be 89 years old.
Growing up, my mother used to joke about how my father had broken one arm and one leg each three times, one on the left side, the other on the right. She never said how or when he had done that, but I took it on faith that it was true. He told me that he had broken an arm once racing cars when he was young, but he never mentioned a broken leg.
Going through my photo bonanza, I discovered two photos of my father wearing a cast. So now I can document at least part of my mother's story!
This photograph was taken at a Chevron/Standard Oil station, but I can't guess anything beyond "somewhere in the Los Angeles area." It might have been a station my father worked at, because I don't recall that he ever owned a Chevron station. I think his mechanic businesses were all independents. I've been told the car might be a 1958 or 1959 Buick, but I'm working on pinning that down more definitively.
Here's another photo of Daddy with a cast, which appears to be the same as in the other photo. The angles are different and the second photo doesn't show his hand as clearly, so I'm not 100% certain, but it's a pretty good match.
This broken arm had to be different from the one he told me about, because that one was while he was still living with his mother, before he was married. So I guess that means I've somewhat documented two of his broken arm events that my mother talked about.
After a little online research, the thing Daddy is playing with in this photo is a Johnny Astro Luna 3, which seems to have come out in 1967. The stockings attached to the fireplace bricks indicate this might have been around Christmas, so maybe the Johnny Astro was a present, although there's no way to tell from the photo whether it was for him or one of us kids. He might just have been testing the toy to make sure it worked, like so many other parents. I don't recognize the room so don't know if it's our house or someone else's, or where it could be.
Obviously, I have more research to do! But I feel I was able to identify enough to post this for Daddy's birthday.
These are two photos of the Johnny Astro and its components. I think the small oval white thing next to one of the stars on the launching station in the first photo might be the astronaut. And next to it appears to be a clear piece of plastic, which might be a bag of some sort; maybe inside it are one or two of the vehicles?
According to the box, the original came with a "control center, 3 space vehicles, astronaut and capsule, and launching station." There was also a sheet of paper, which was most likely the instructions.
Wow, if we still had the Johnny Astro now, I wonder how much it would be worth?
