... here's the original scan, from 3-1/2x5 color photograph ...
... and this is my restoration ...
... i think that's our car off to the left, dad never owned anything near as fancy as the one we're propped against ... i'm guessing this is spring of 1958, shortly before we drove to alaska ... those red suspenders were my most prized possession ... one morning in my west palm beach first-grade classroom i looked down and realized that i'd forgotten to put them on before i left the house ... i went into a total melt-down, locking my arms and legs into my little wooden school desk and refusing to move or cease wailing like a wounded cat ... the teacher had to call for the principal, who, unable to either cajole or pry me from refuge, was forced to send my personal super-hero, mike, sprinting all the way to our house to fetch the suspenders ... when my brother returned with the errant elastics, pouring sweat and panting to do pheidippides proud, he helped me hook the backside clasps, something i could never quite manage by myself, then nonchalantly returned to his studies ... i, of course, instantly reverted back to normal, as if nothing had happened ... my poor teacher, i can picture her years and years later, when the term "manic depressive" had become the vogue, muttering to herself, "ah, yes, that explains it all" ...