Young Tom (1989-99)
Here he is on the left celebrating his 6th
birthday at Disneyland Paris in October
1995, with
Nick in the picture and the rest of us around the
table, all courtesy of Grandma Stock. She offered us
all annual passports during that visit, and we developed a great admiration for
the Wonderful World of Disney!
Goofy is hugging both boys in the California
Grill.
Here is Tom on the right
next to the graves of his ancestors. The photo
was taken in 1994. As the gravestones say, two of them were called Thomas. They've been gone a long
time, and Ian never even knew his paternal grandfather. The cemetery that
the graves are in had been "renovated" recently, but somehow
these graves survived. Not knowing if the graves were in this
cemetery, or where they were if they were, we bumped
right into them just strolling around.
Water has always been a source of pleasure for Tom. The one
on the right
was taken at the pool at a London Hotel in August 1994 on the day that
Ian
scraped his nose on the floor of the pool. The children, of course,
behaved much more rashly, and did not get a scratch.
Here
is a great one of Tom at full speed on a water ride in England.
On the left is more water, as he gets older. Half way down from a five meter board at a swimming pool on the beach
(literally: it gets covered at each high tide!) in Saint Mâlo, one of our
favorite holiday spots. That board sure looked high In other words, Papa
chickened out of jumping off it! He did brave the three meter board, easily and
with courage to spare!
If you look closely, you can see
Nick clambering out of the
water. To see him jump, click here: Saint
Mâlo.
Tom also likes sand. Here he is below right rolling around on the beach
during the summer of 1992.
Here is Alban doing the same thing the same
summer, before they had spent any time together! The two of them were born
within three weeks of each other, and much as they would hate to admit it at
times, have
a lot in common.
Here is a cute one, below. It was taken at
a VVF, or French holiday camp, in Normandie during a short break from the rigors
of daily life in the late fall or early winter winter of 1992. If we
remember correctly, Tom was given the roller skates for his birthday, just a
month or two before the vacation, and spent much of his time learning to use
them happily on his butt!
Here on the right below is the required baby shot, taken at his
Grandma's house in Marlow
(just west of London on the Thames) in March 1990.
Tom was six years old when his Grandma Stock died, and so never got to know
her very well. But she was able to get to know him as well as Nick, and spent
her last years living for the days that we would all come to visit. Then
we would arrive, a constant low-key hurricane of interaction and action, running
here and there and everywhere, noise, noise and more noise, and within a couple
of days Grandma was looking forward to her peace again! Below left, Tom is
squirming on her lap early in 1990.
