Out of all these people, I only recognize four faces: my great-grandparents Anna and Max, my great-uncle Arthur, and my cousin Saul, the son of Anna’s sister Sadie.  I have no idea who the rest of the people in this photograph are - for all I know, they may be long lost cousins descended from Anna’s as-yet-unaccounted-for brothers, Harry and Israel.  Or maybe they were simply friends, neighbors, fellow congregants of Temple Beth Israel of York, Pennsylvania.

I don’t know where they are either, or what they were doing there.  All I can do is surmise that they were on some kind of country retreat in the woods in the summer (to judge from the summer whites, the largely necktie-less men and the rolled-up sleeves).  The fact that Saul’s parents, Sadie and David, aren’t in this photograph seems to suggest that Saul came without them on this trip, a New York City boy in need of some fresh air and playtime with his cousin Arthur, his junior by two years.  The photograph itself has no captions written, no photographer’s name printed on the cardboard mat that surrounds it - no hints besides those in the photograph itself.  I don’t really know if I have any chance of ever figuring out where all the hints are pointing, but I’ve barely even started to puzzle it out. 

                               Anna Cohen Kalisch (1879-1937),        Saul Harris (1904-1991)

                                    Max Kalisch (1875-1947)

                               and Arthur C. Kalisch (1906-1949)