The Beene's

Uncle Buddy and Uncle Sonny

Grandpa and Grandma Beene and Mom

Saudi Arabia Punishment

I am not sure how Dad got these pictures since Americans were not normally invited to view the punishments and no one was allowed to take pictures.  But someone did and somehow Dad got them. This was the price for crime in Saudi Arabia.  There weren't a lot of prisons over there.  You only stayed in one long enough for your case to come to trial and then you were either punished or released.  The punishment of lesser crimes like stealing was punished by the loss of a hand or a foot.

The punishment for more serious crimes or for the people who had no more hands and feet was be-heading .

I will say that the crime rate in Saudi Arabia is very low.

Some more of Alaska

Where we lived in Alaska in 1950

Dad on the far right with some friends.

Mom and Dad

Some times Dad would just get out the camera and we would take pictures of each other.  I recall that Dad didn't want us to look into the camera during these "official portraits". 

Mom in Alaska

Mom and I on July 4th 1949

Mom probably sitting on the front steps and watching Margaret and I playing

Mom on one of our outings.

Mom, Margaret and I.  A little snow wasn't going to stop us from having a good time.

Dad the Mechanic

Here is Dad working on the old DeSoto with me trying to climb up on the bumper to help him.

This Margaret trying to give him some advice.  Years later, I remember Dad telling this story on himself.  He had gotten up on one of those bitterly cold days in the middle of winter with a ton of snow on the ground and the temperatures well below zero and the car wouldn't start.  He soon figured out that he wasn't getting any gas to the carburetor so it must be the fuel pump.  He changed clothes and pull the old fuel pump and bummed a ride into town and got a new one.  He hitchhike back and put the new one on and it still wouldn't start.  He had a five gallon can of gas in the truck so he used part of it to prime the carburetor and the rest he put in the gas tank.  This time the car started.  He changed clothes again and went to work.  On the way to work he stopped at a gas station and filled up the car.  It took 15 gallons.  It was then that he knew that the only thing wrong with the car in the first place was that he was out of gas.

  This is Margaret test driving the car after Dad was finished working on it.

Margaret sitting in the apartment.  She looks like she is pouting about something.

Dad, Margaret and Bill in Alaska

I need to correct the spelling in the post "More Alaska pictures", the name of the lake is Spenard in Anchorage.

Dad holding his movie camera.  I am so thankful that Dad had a love of photography otherwise we might not have had these pictures so we can remember.

Margaret in front of our apartment.

Me but I am not really sure where.  I believe it is in Alaska because of the age and the size of the picture.

I must have had a part time job as a bush pilot while I was up there.

Picnic in Alaska

This was one of many picnics we had in Alaska.  This one was in 1950.  I don't have many memories of Alaska since I was three when we went up there and six when we came back to the lower 48.  I do remember and maybe it is because of all the pictures but it seems like we were always doing something.  I am sure that money was tight but it didn't cost much to get a bunch of families together and go on a picnic or maybe just go to a lake someplace and go fishing and let the kids play.

Mom and a friend

Margaret and a friend.  The wooden planks you see in the foreground and background were our sidewalks when the ground was muddy.

We must have been out on one of our outings or maybe we were coming back to the states.  Anyhow I was always scouting ahead looking for the best trail.