All his children

This is the only photograph I am aware of that shows my father, James Vernon Dale Sr., with all of his children. Dorothy Dale Warren, in the red dress standing at the left, was the eldest. On the far right is James Vernon Dale. Jr., grinning for all he's worth. Dorothy was born Sept. 3, 1924. She died Dec. 8, 1990. James Jr. was born May 28, 1926. He died Oct. 29, 1974. They were the children of my father's first marriage, to Lillie Pearl Durham, who died when her children were very young. Dorothy and her husband, William Russell Warren Sr., had two children, Billy and Mary. James Jr. and his wife, Shirley Ann Barker Dale, had two children as well, Mike and Terry.

On the lower right is my father's middle child, Robert Edward Dale, who was the son from his second marriage, to Louise Elsie Meador. Louise and my father were married Oct. 28, 1933. Bobby was born Nov. 15, 1934. Louise and my father were divorced on March 5, 1941. Bobby and his wife, Camilla Robinson Dale, have two children, Annette and Jeffrey.

Six months after his divorce, my father married my mother, Mary Helen Nichols Dale, on Sept. 6, 1941. I was their first child, born a year later on Sept. 11, 1942. (That's me in the back with the mustache and camel sport coat.) To my right is Dianne Christine Dale, who was born March 8, 1946, after my father returned from service in the Solomon Islands in the Navy in World War II. (My father's eldest son, James Jr., also served in the Navy in the South Pacific in World War II.) Dianne died Feb. 9, 2005.

My father is at the lower left. He remained married to my mother until he died Aug. 28, 1972.

I think this rare photograph of my father and all of his children was taken in either 1970 or 1971 at a family reunion at Bobby's house. My brother Bobby and I are the only two of my father's children who remain alive.

That family reunion at Bobby's house was a festive holiday party as well as a family gathering. Dorothy and Jimmy Jr. were great fun to be around. I always thought of Dorothy as a kid masquerading as a grownup - and I mean that in the best possible way. It was hard to be around Dorothy and not have fun. Jimmy Jr. was definitely a grownup, but he had a wicked sense of humor, too. Some of my best memories of Jimmy Jr. are of playing bridge with him and his wife, Shirley, which we did much more often in the years just before he died. He and Shirley always found interesting women of their age to be my bridge partner (although the truth of it is that I was usually the person they called when they desperately needed a fourth; they played much more bridge than I did, and were far better at it). Bobby is the quietest and most grounded of us children. That meant than when he did talk, we all listened to what he had to say. Dianne, the youngest of us, could hold her own in our word-play conversations, which seemed to be a Dale trait. She was quick-witted and very determined that no one would treat her as anybody's kid sister. She was a fierce social advocate on the moral issues that divided the country in the 1960s and 1970s, and in dinner-table disagreements with our parents about Civil Rights, the Vietnam War and feminism when she and I were in our 20s, I never saw her retreat one bit. She could drive our parents to distraction on occasion.

But back to the reunion. Bobby's wife, MIllie, deserves all the credit for organizing it at her house and supplying us with excellent food and drink. She told me recently that she did it because she thought it was about time for a gathering of all of the Dale clan. And speaking of food, what will forever live in my memory of that party was Millie's big silver bowl of iced boiled shrimp. I am afraid I made a pig of myself on that shrimp.