Why on earth?

A few weeks ago we were at the bank (well, actually, our credit union) and the young woman who was helping us had a picture of an adorable little girl on her desk.  I asked her if that was her daughter.  She beamed and said,"Yes, but that was some months ago.  Here's a more recent one."  She then powered up her phone, did a few clicks, and proudly showed us the latest picture of her adorable little girl, face almost entirely covered with Spaghetti-Os.

I smiled, and said something like "Cute..." but was thinking to myself "Why on earth would she take a picture like that?"

When we got home I began looking through our albums and ran across the following.  Now I know why.

My, what big ears you have.

Joe Yule, Jr.

Well, the newspapers, magazines and television programs have been overflowing with all sorts of tid bits about Mickey Rooney's death at age 93.  I might as well add my own.
Being nearly the same age, I Identified with the characters Mickey Rooney played through his long career (1926-2014). When I was in my teens, Rooney was the highest paid star in Hollywood, all because of 16 Andy Hardy movies he made.  I saw them all.

Judy Garland was in three of them, but never played "Polly Benedict", Andy's one true love.

Here's Judge Hardy and his family
Lionel Barrymore was Judge Hardy in the first film, but Lewis Stone played
the all-wise father in all the rest.

"Love Comes to Andy Hardy" had Judy and other equally young starlets.

"The Human Comedy"
You won't hear or read much about this one but it's one of my favorites.
Mickey plays a young man working in the telegraph office during WWII, and
is burdened with trying to keep the telegrapher (Ralph Morgan) sober enough
to do his job as well as delivering telegrams that usually started "We regret to
inform you that your son..."  An extremely moving WWII movie.

The bad boy that changes his ways under the influence of
Father Flanagan (Spencer Tracy), proving that "There's no such
thing as a bad boy."

You won't read or hear anything about Mickey's role in
"Breakfast at Tiffany's"
His buck-toothed portrayal of a Japanese man
offended just about everybody.
(It really was grossly overplayed.)

Before he was Andy Hardy he was the perfect Huck Finn.

His career went downhill after he lost his youthful exuberance but he
came back with flying colors in such movies as
"Requieum for a Heavyweight", with Jackie Gleason and Anthony Quinn

He held his own with these comics and many more in
"It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World"

But this is the Mickey Rooney I will always remember
when he and I were both teen-agers in the 1940s.
It's been sort of like a death in the family.