This photograph is of “Bud” and “Dot”, brother and sister. Dot is Dorothy Strader Scott, my grandmother, and “Uncle Bud” was her brother, Clarence L. Strader. He was actually my mom’s uncle–my great uncle–but we all affectionately called him, “Uncle Bud”. The way he looks in this photo is the way I’ll always remember him. Since I obviously never knew him as a younger man, I only ever saw him with his stark white hair and those crazy eyebrows!
I really never saw Uncle Bud much throughout my life since he lived mainly in the New York city area until his death in 2003. And he didn’t come very often to visit the family in Cleveland, so I can count on one hand how many times I actually saw him. But oh what an impression he made. Uncle Bud was larger than life, especially to an impressionable little girl, as I was growing up.
I can’t be sure who’s birthday these two would be celebrating, although it looks as though the cake is right in front of Uncle Bud. They are in my parent’s dining room in the house I grew up in on Eddy Road (in Willoughby Hills). And for sure my mom made the cake since she had a nice little cake decorating business in the 1970’s and 1980’s. So let’s suffice to say, “Happy Birthday Uncle Bud.” Now blow out your candles.
