Shirley Seigel ~ 1961

I spent part of 1961 at my grandmother's house in New Bedford, MA a couple of blocks away from where Shirley lived. Whenever I'd go over there to take her out her dad would get me involved in a major discussion on the international economy, capitalism vs. communism, and most of all, the economic theories of his idol, Adam Smith. I was probably the only teen in all of New England who got daily lessons on Smith's theories of a free market economy. He never did win me over, but I learned a lot about the politics of economics.

Shirley looks properly bored in this shot, in no particular hurry to finish dressing or put on her make-up, because her father was only perhaps half an hour into giving the evening's economics lecture to me. I must admit that it did give me some insight into the ways of the world, but I would have rather spent the time learning more about the ways of his daughter! Shirley is another one of those people that I haven't seen in about half a century. Maybe Kay knows where she is and what she's doing these days.

At this point I was shooting 127 film, probably Tri-X, in one of those cute little twin lens reflex cameras, a Ricoh 44. This crummy scan is made off of the contact sheet.