The baby didn't fall. Maybe he fell, but he survived to become the eldest of eight children of Lynn and Hugh Massman, and he wore clean, boiled diapers.
For this photo, taken in December 1943 for the Office of War Information, Lynn Massman's kitchen was illuminated with floodlights. The family was living in Washington, D.C., at the time, while Chief Petty Officer Hugh Massman was undergoing training.
After the war they returned home to Montana, where Lynn Massman opened a tailoring shop that she ran until the 1960s. No doubt she sewed the dress she's wearing here, and it must not have been easy to match the stripes when setting in those sleeves.
But her son (this baby is Joey) and his brothers and sisters remember their mother at the stove, not the sewing machine, and in particular, they remember her cooking with a pressure cooker. As she lay dying in 1986, they recalled, and slipping in and out of consciousness, she asked if the pressure gauge had been taken off the lid.
Somehow, amongst the babies and the pressure cooker and the sewing machine, she managed twice to run for state senate.
This photo was left large in case you want to zoom in and see all the details of kitchen life.
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