Young Nick (1986-1998)
Although Nick was born in Manhattan, he was moved to Paris when he was only six
months old in February 1987. There he stayed for over twelve years, until moving
with Tom to California to rejoin the rest of us in 1999. The rest of us had
moved here in 1997, but Nick and Tom were held up by the French courts until
1999 (see History). By now, he has
graduated High School.
But this page is devoted to the early years. Here he is on the left at age four at Aquaboulevard de Paris, a water park that was
kind enough to open on the southern outskirts of the city while we lived there.
Our children all adore swimming pools.
On the right is one taken around the time that Tom arrived, when Nick was a little
over three, with Banane, our little tortoiseshell cat. Nick named her Banane
because when we were given her and asked him to name her, "banane" was the only word that he spoke.
Guess what he ate an awful lot of!!
On the left, and jumping around in time, with his dad at
Disneyland in Paris. Needless to say, the hat
was his father's.
Paris had the advantage of being relatively close to his paternal
grandma, who lived just west of London. Here she is
(on the right below) in
early 1990, in the kitchen of her home in Marlow, with Nick aged three and a
half and Tom just a baby.
Under the tea cozy there was certainly a pot of tea.
Grandma loved her cup of tea. Nick was very sad when she passed away in July
1996.
By an unfortunate coincidence, she was buried on his birthday. So after
the funeral we went to Cadburyland, England's real live chocolate factory
amusement park, not ten miles from the grave. Cadburyland is always there now
when we visit the grave, which has all kinds of good consequences.
On the left, he has always been an adventurer. Here, in
Yosemite, during our 1998 summer vacation he jumped
into the Merced river. Cold! Tom and his dad were in a raft floating
around the bridge, and took the picture from the raft.
On the right, a little later, early 1999, in Disneyland.
Below right, here he is taking care of his first little brother, Tom,
at the local park in Paris when he was four and Tom was one and a half. The
relationship between the two
goes up and down, and can be extremely loud, but the roots were good and
should win the day in time.
And he's always been a bit of a clown, quite a convincing little clown. The
photo below left was taken at 4, rue Ernest Cresson in Paris, probably in 1991.
