I found this little gem in my mum’s stuff – natch.
The child in the front is my mother, holding a small caliber revolver, possibly police issue. The little boy behind her is her cousin Floyd. (Their fathers were brothers.) He appears to be holding a Derringer. She has it dated May 14, 1922, which would have made her 14 months, and Floyd 13 months.
Today, of course, CPS would have hauled off the whole clan.
This was probably taken in the backyard at the Dickmann Street house. That is an outhouse behind them. They did have running water in the kitchen, and there was what they called a “swinging bathroom” upstairs; I can remember even as a child, there was a tub and sink in the room, but no toilet. The room was added well after the house was built, and stuck out over the kitchen door.
thisendoftheswamp 
I can’t see anything in the baby’s hands and can’t enlarge the pic :(. But, yes, amazing. Oh man, have times changed (or not)!
It is hard to see, but that’s as large a picture as the site will allow. Floyd is holding the gun in his right hand, with the barrel pointing almost directly at the camera, but slightly toward the viewer’s left. The original photo is only 2×3, and I never noticed the gun until we enlarged the picture.
I just saved it to my computer and enlarged it to 800% and then I could see it!!! I think it’s the angle that makes it so hard to see.
It’s quite shocking these days… I played with toy guns when I was a child, but nobody in the UK would have allowed a child then to play with or hold a real one (most people didn’t – and don’t – have them here). Your mom’s holding hers at a bad angle, anyway – I am presuming, as you exist, that the gun was not loaded! Chilling, really. Were you brought up around guns, yourself?
Was the bathroom called a ‘swinging bathroom’ because it stuck out or for some other reason?
By the way, apropos your reply to Luanne, you can post larger photos to your blog, but they need to open in a different window. I explained this to Eilene in a comment a few posts back, here, if you’re interested: https://colouringthepast.com/2019/04/05/little-girl-with-unusual-eyes/#comment-3809
If you use the new block editor you have to do it via the classic editor block which you can drag into the editor.
Those houses were built without bathrooms (or closets!) and a bath was added later on. It was called a swinging bathroom simply because it stuck out. I certainly hope it didn’t sway back and forth in a high wind!
We were not brought up around guns at all. I have no idea what the back story is to this photo, as everybody involved is long gone. It is *possible* that my great-grandmother’s second husband was a police officer, but I really don’t know for sure.