Place and Time

Lillian knew J.C. well enough to know he could always find trouble on an Army base, and usually gave him just one piece of advice: “Don’t do dumb things!” He didn’t always listen. He had inherited her grin, but his father’s red hair and freckles—which came to his assistance one day when he climbed into a neighbor’s yard to explore. The neighbor, an elderly Japanese woman, ran out to yell at him and stopped cold when she saw his face and hair. She pointed and yelled, “Howdy Doody!” J.C. was already running for the fence by that point, but for half a block as he sprinted away, he heard her indignantly shouting the only English she appeared to know: “It’s Howdy Doody time!”

We didn't have any good images from Japan, so this photo shows Lillian a little earlier.

The images below show a pair of traditional wood-block prints she brought back from Japan.