Music • Photography • Writing
The
Bishops
Chicago
Years
Wolf
Place
Skyway
Park
Julie
West Oakf
In June of 1951, the Bishops moved to Colorado Springs, probably in this black sedan. Bob, Betty, Laura, and an unnamed black cat pose for the photo. Legend has it that Tom's great-grandmother Teresa Padbury threw a dish towel under his arms and helped him start walking, which he practiced at every stop all the way to Colorado. That may explain his absence from this picture: he just wandered off somewhere.
The house Bob bought was an older home up a hill on Wolf Place on the west side of Colorado Springs. At center left is a chicken coop where Bob planted tomatoes, which flourished in the rich soil. Betty and Laura lived in the attic room, the dormer of which is seen on the roof. In that room, Betty contracted polio, which was a serious illness but which passed without too many lasting effects.
The change of scenery shows in the girls' clothes. Gone are dresses and purses, here are bib overalls and suspenders.
Marge brought something special with her from Chicago: she was pregnant with Rob. Robert Louis Bishop, Junior, broke the mold from the get-go: usually first born sons are named Junior. Tom doesn't seem to be bothered by the slight, though, and may be practicing something like a regal wave. There don't seem to be any other baby pictures of Rob, perhaps because Bob was busy just keeping up with everything else a young father of four has to do.
Marge's brother Ted, who had come to Colorado Springs with Bob on that first trip, came for Thanksgiving one year. He and Betty and Laura and Bob all seem to be looking forward to dinner. Tom seems to be wondering what happened to his little brother. One year Tom actually did manage to stuff Rob into the stove (which, admittedly, was off). For some reason, they never got along all that well after that.
The Bishops sent out a personalized Christmas card in 1952, an ambitious undertaking back then. Bob probably did the calligraphy. Tom's uncle Ted used to refer to him as T-bone, which Bob called Tom the rest of his life. The "Tommy" version of his name lasted only until late grade school. Most of the people who called him that are now deceased.
Marge worked at the phone company in downtown Colorado Springs while Bob worked at the bank. They hired Mrs. Dillon to babysit for us, and we loved her. She was a tiny lady: Betty, only eight here, is almost as tall. She had wondrous long hair though which she kept bunched in a braid on top of her head because if she let it down, she would step on it. Tom is either eating candy or practicing shooting himself in the head. Betty wears a printed T-shirt, a rarity back then. It was probably for a bowling league.
Bob and Marge soon discovered that the house on Wolf Place was just too small for their growing family so Bob contracted to have a home built for them in the new subdivision on the west side of Colorado Springs called Skyway Park. While it was being built, the Bishops, all six of them, plus Uncle Ted part of the time, rented and crammed together in this tiny house on 17th Street in Old Colorado City. Someone is showing off her finery out front.
