I'm sure the day has no special significance -- just two Lutheran pastors and their families getting together and enjoying one another's company. In the first picture, you see (from left to right) Gladys Hasselquist, daughter Lynn (who had the most beautiful auburn hair), husband Gene, son Peter, Mom, Larry, and me. Behind Mom is the buggy in which Barb is sleeping. The Hasselquists would have one more child, a daughter they named Miriam whom I remember being close to Barb's age. A close-up and adjustment of the exposure of the first picture confirms that Gladys is probably just into the third trimester of her pregnancy, although it certainly doesn't look that way when she is shown lying on her back in the second picture.
Although Lynn and I are the same age and got along very well together, we never saw each other outside of these family get-togethers. We weren't regular playmates, in other words, probably because I had plenty of friends in the immediate neighborhood of the First English Lutheran Church and parsonage.
St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, where Gene served as pastor, was located just 7 blocks from First English, two blocks north on 8th Street, and five blocks east on 4th Avenue North. As a young child riding in the family car, it seemed to be a much longer drive whenever we visited the Hasselquist's. (Like First English, the St. John's parsonage was located next to the church.)
Though Whittier Elementary School, where I attended kindergarten and the first two months of 1st grade, was located just 5 blocks from the Hasselquist's house, Lynn attended a different school, three blocks west and two blocks north. If we had attended the same school, I sure we would have had a regular series of what are now called "play dates".
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