Who WERE These Women?

Who were these women? The one on the upper right looks Russian. The lady next to her, in the middle, looks French. The one below and between them looks Jewish. The one on the bottom, far right seems Irish.

Plotnik's cousin sent these and several other mystery photos to him yesterday. Plottie is guessing the above photo to be taken in Europe, most likely the Ukraine, somewhere around 1910. And yet -- they look so modern, don't they? Their facial expressions, their hair, the way they sit? Plotnik imagines if they were wearing togas they could be Romans or Gauls and they would still be sitting the same way, wearing their hair the same way, smiling the same way.

This photo sure looks a lot like Plotnik's Aunt Shirley. Look at her hair!



Plot's cousin suspects they are from her father's family, but Plot doesn't know where he was from. His name suggests he was of German origin but the embossed writing on some of these photos looks like they came out of photo shops in the Ukraine or Byelorussa, the area where so many of the greater Plotnik clans came from.

Two of the photos are from Pitkin Ave and Lafayette Avenue. Both are in Brooklyn, one in East New York, then predominantly Jewish, and one around the corner from where PD and 5H live now, which then was probably upper crusty Waspy.

But how do you know? You see these photos and you ask yourself a million questions.

This was all brought about by Plotnik getting a phone call from the son of another cousin, in Florida, to tell him Plot's cousin John is on death's door. John is Plottie's age, exactly, went into the doctor for a bad back and discovered all his organs were failing and they can't do a thing about it.

Obviously, there is more to this story than Plotnik has been told.

This guy looks a bit like Plot's Uncle Len.



Or, given a camera in minus three hundred BC, Plottie's Uncle Socrates. We haven't changed all that much, that's the point here. The song is gone but the melody lingers on.