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Memories. 1950's-1960's. One of my siblings, if not Jonathan then Bess (Lisa, or Pooh, then) or Caroline, was lucky enough to be given the Sutros as his godparents. Oh how we loved to go to the Needham manse to see that family: smiling Joy would always be doing something cool and worthwile, Sally would have some art to show us, as would Ruth; Roger was always a clown, and Louis would always entertain us from his seat in the living room, with Ruth by his side, the two surrounded by her paintings on all available wall space. When it got to be late in the Saturday or Sunday evening of our visit, and we Mayer children began to get a bit restless, but knew better than to interrupt Ruth and Priscilla as they chatted, Louis would take pity on us and pull out his antique stereoscopes for us to explore. We'd handle their sepia photographs with great care and admiration, studying the twin photos, and then putting them in the viewer and watching them transform into three-dimensional images.
That helped seal our memory of Louis as the Harvard fellow (with the fabulous speaking voice) who sent the frog's eye to Mars.
And we'll never forget the Sutro kids as the actors in the little home movie, Arsenic and Old Lace. We've all done movies since, in fact Bess is working on a pretty major feature right now! Caroline is a painter, Jonathan a photographer, and I teach piano and teach at the Phillips Academy summer session (my children attend the school during the year). So, I guess the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree, or the trees in the neighborhood!
Love to you all...... Diana |