All the photos in this post were taken in the 50’s. I believe this photo was taken after my parents bought our home in Montebello Gardens/Pico Rivera, 4635 Oak St. These are all family and friends who immigrated from Persia to the United States. Russian Baptists and Russian Molokans together. Moisi (Pop) is in the front row with his head on Nadia’s (Mom) shoulder.
The photo above was also taken on Oak street. Our mom is standing on the left. Our aunt Anna is standing on the right. Kneeling, our mom’s cousin Luba, and our aunt Nina. I recognize the lady in the center standing but her name has slipped my memory. Maybe my brother Leonard or sister Vera can leave a comment with her name. 🙂
This is a very rare photo of our mom and our aunt Ouiliana with trousers on. Our aunt Katie is in the center. Both of these aunts are from our Pop’s side of the family. One married to Uncle John and one married to Uncle Alex.
Aunt Zena, our mom, and aunt Ouliana in the back. Aunt Nina(our only aunt on my mother’s side of the family), ?, Mrs. Hamzieff, and Aunt Luba. We called most anyone our parents age aunt and uncle.
I’m not sure where photo was taken. Possibly it was at our Uncle Pete and Aunt Anna’s house since she’s the one with an apron on. Yikes! Is that a cigarette in our Pop’s hand? He did smoke for a while but always kept it a big secret from us kids. Generally you can tell who is Baptist and who is Molokan by whether or not the men wear ties. Ties were not a common dress code for Molokans.
Our maternal grandmother, babushka Vera with her dear friend and the mother of our Aunt Nina, babushka Manya.
The photo above is taken in front of our driveway at 4635 Oak Street.
Front yard of 4635 Oak Street. Moisi (Pop) is holding me. I’m guessing this is Easter 1952.
Our sister Vera’s birthday since she’s holding the cake. This must have been in February in the early 50’s.
Easter on our driveway.
The same Easter but at our Uncle and Aunt’s home. Our maternal grandmother lived with Uncle Paul and Aunt Nina for many years before she got her own apartment a few doors down from the Russian Baptist church in Los Angeles.
We took a few camping trips to Big Bear with our cousins on our mother’s side of the family.
The photo above is a favorite of mine with our Pop working on a jigsaw puzzle while we were camping. He spent many hours working on jigsaw puzzles before he died.
Besides camping we’d drive to farms to pick berries and cherries for mom and pop to prepare for canning.
January of 1958 our brother Tim was born. This was in our living room on Oak street.
I’m guessing this is my seventh birthday.
Easter 1958 at our cousin’s home in Maywood, California. Our maternal grandmother lived with our Uncle Paul and Aunt Nina so we visited them regularly.
This photo above is from a road trip we took to Oregon stopping at Crater Lake.
Christmas 1958, Tim was 11 months old and we all needed to protect the tree from his curiosity.
This must be Easter 1959 at our Uncle Paul and Aunt Nina’s home in Maywood, California.
Backyard on Oak street after a deep sea fishing trip Pop took for yellowtail.
I’m guessing the photo above is from 1960 at our Uncle and Aunt’s with our maternal grandmother because our brother Steve was born in December of 1959.
The kitchen at a birthday for me just before we moved to Montebello. I’m guessing this is my 9th birthday. The next photo is of the same kitchen from a realtors more current photo. Looks like the kitchen has not been updated much from the 50’s!
Another photo from our backyard on Oak Street.
This is a historical post for my kids so I’m adding the three school photos I have from Montebello Gardens Primary School here, too.
And here is a current photo of what our house on 4635 Oak street looks like now.
This is the backyard now. Where this storage shed is today there used to be a pigeon coupe that Pop built.
This realtors shot of the hall to all the bedrooms in our house looks so dismal. I can see now why it was easy for us to jimmy up the walls since they were so close together. I ran down this hall one Easter or Christmas morning and slipped and slid into the cabinet of that utility room you can see at the end of the hall and broke one of my toes. I had to wear a slipper on that foot for church that day because of swelling, so embarrassing.
As I find more photos from our family’s time on Oak street I’ll add them to this long post. In a future post I’ll cover the time our family spent at 305 Los Angeles Avenue in Montebello.
Hope you all have a good Tuesday.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 
…Ellen, you are fortunate to have these wonderful photos!
I enjoy these old photos … and the details you add. Some, like the camping photos, bring smiles. It hit me again how women in particular like to look the same by following a certain hair style. I am attending a Bible Study where there are a lot of younger women and I notice that there are a lot of gals with hair pinned up in some sort of bun … there’s a certain style for today as there has been for every decade. It is fun to have so many memories in photos.
Such great family photos! Many more than my family has. I think someone must have recognized the importance of a photo record. I really like the group photo with all the young couples together.
Lovely photos and a good record of your life with family and friends. In Italy the young people also call adults ‘aunt’ and ‘uncle’ out of respect whether related or not. There are usually large family gatherings too. I found your camping photos very interesting. Nice to be out in the fresh air.
I am not sure but I think the lady in question may be Vera Shiskin’s mom. I don’t ever remember seeing the picture of mom in the slacks. I also do not ever remember her wearing slacks.
Can you remember the st. your Uncle Paul lived on in Huntington Park Molakans all lived on Grand Sr Hope St Olive St we lived on Hope. Your Uncles last name?
Hi Al, Uncle Paul Shvetzov lived on a corner in Maywood, on Heliotrope. He was part of Bethany Russian Baptist church in Los Angeles. I’m going to go in and fix my post. I got confused. We had Uncles in Maywood and Bell. Alex Bogdanof lived in Bell and my cousins went to Bell high school. I think my Uncle Pete Loscutoff also lived in Maywood.
I have so enjoyed seeing all these old photos Ellen, what a rich heritage you have, absolutely priceless! Loved your collection of photos here, thank you for sharing them.
I am so amazed at all the good photos you have of this time period. Your mom and dad were both good lookers….
My folks were pretty stressed for money all the time and I am not at all sure they even owned a camera. I have a few photos but nothing like yours.
Ellen, I am sorry to be late getting here today. But I have thoroughly enjoyed the pictures you have shared with us. Your parents were such a handsome couple! Your mom had the most beautiful eyes and when she smiled her whole face lit up. Thanks so much for sharing this bit of family history with us.
Ellen – the first thing that struck me is that I can see Addy in some of these photos. The lineage runs strong! And then I was thinking how wonderful it was that kids got dressed up for Easter back then. How “dress codes” have changed … I love jigsaw puzzles, but never thought to take one camping. I will tell my hubby – well, that’s what Moisi did!
I wonder if you have any UMCA Sunday School pictures. I taught 4 and 5 year olds from 1956 to 1958. We used Scripture Press, very Christ-centered materials. Bill Bogdanoff (relative?) was the Sunday School Superintendent at that time.
J.F.
Hello Jen! Thank you for your comment and memories. You might have been my teacher at UMCA as we attended Sunday School there for several years. I was 5 in 1956. Bill Bogdanoff is more of a distant relative. Cousin of a cousin. 🙂 I remember he also was part of Hume Lake. Did you go to YRCA, Jack Green’s youth ministry? Since Bill was Sunday School Superintendent I’m not surprised they used Scripture Press. My sisters were Sunday School teachers at UMCA in the early 60’s and they were still using Scripture Press but my sisters were cautioned by the church leaders not to teach certain parts of the Scripture Press lessons. My sisters rebutted with the fact that the lessons they were forbidden to teach were from the Bible. Thanks again for taking the time to comment!
And, sadly, I don’t have any photos from UMCA.
What a precious thought that I might have been your Sunday School teacher. I enjoy your blog, so much, and hearing about your faith journey. Also, love reading about your parents. Yes, I was in the YRCA, and then like so many of them, on to Biola. As we grew older with families, most of us moved out of the L.A. area, but have continued to serve the Lord in our respective churches. Hume Lake was special to me, too. Enjoyed reading about your sisters’ comment that what they were teaching was from the Bible. Thank you for inspiring me with your photos of nature and the Sunday hymn. Yours in Christ, Jen
What a beautiful legacy in photos, you have, I smiled all the way thru, as it brought so many memories of my parents old photos, Ahh! those were the days when women dressed so modest, and men were so galant! Thank you for sharing.
Blessings,
Sue