Andy and His Dad

Andy and Dad, Summer, Ocean City, New Jersey, 1969

Our Andy at Christmas

A Christmas tradition at the Frommers: As soon as you get up, you can run downstairs and get your stocking. Then bring it up to sleeping parents and discover what is in it. Our Dad always had all kinds of little surprise crazy things for stockings. This scene shows Andy in a typical stance: studying John.


Andy is a year and a half this Christmas, I believe. His first Christmas he was 6 months old. Here Andy is with a new toy, and I am encouraging him to play with it--I think the element of surprise was the way the toy made music when you rolled it.


Andy works the drums with John in the background.


John and Andy visit Santa--John is trying his best to go along, but Andy seems dubious.

Andy and 49th Street

Andy began going to the 49th Street Beach in Ocean City, NJ, when he was only 2 months old and we stayed on the bottom floor of Mrs. Minster's house. This was the vacation place that he loved, where he was introduced to the Atlantic Ocean, which he fell in love with. In his second year at the beach, I often took him out on the beach after dinner where he raced around in perpetual self-amusement. Here are pictures of Andy on the beach as a young child.

Here is Andy (standing on the chair) and clockwise from him, Mom, our Uncle George, our Dad, Grandma Gill, John, our cousin Betsy, our Aunt Libby, our cousin Chris.

Andy on the beach (at right) with John Hetherington, Aunt Jane's son.

Running around with John and John Hetherington.

Digging with John, Lee Hetherington, and John Hetherington

John and Andrew--like brother like brother

Always Ready for Fun

Andy Is Ours

Andy came to us on June 24, 1963, but his birth mother had six months to take him back if she wanted to. That meant that on December 24, 1963--Christmas Eve--Andy was officially and permanently a member of the Frommer Family. We had a great celebration and put our 6-month-old Andy into a big Christmas stocking and took his picture in it on the mantle (anyone have this picture?). Here is a picture taken around the same time of Linda and Andy.
Here is another picture of Andy with his John. He looks well-protected by his big brother.

Andy in DC

My dad in Washington, D.C. My dad was outside the Metro (subway) and he pretended he was lifting this giant ball. We were taking pictures.

The Day Andy Came

Andy was born on June 19, 1963, and came to us when he was five days old. That day was one of the most wonderful days of my life. Mom and Dad chose Aunt Jane, Mom's very first and dearest friend, to get Andrew from Pittsburgh, where he was born, with our lawyer, Mr. Havlin. Aunt Jane came from her home in West Chester either the night before or early in the morning and then we drove her to the airport. We arrived so late at the airport, that even though Aunt Jane had no bags to check in, she barely made the plane, and I will never forget the sight of her, holding on to her hat as she raced across the tarmack to the stairs to the plane. She did make it!
Here is a picture of Aunt Jane about 35 years later. She looks exactly the same today as she looks in this picture and looked exactly the same on the day she went to get Andy. She says that the day she brought Andy home was a day she treasures.


Aunt Jane has fun telling about this trip. She and Mr. Havlin got in the plane with Andy to go back to Philadelphia, and she had only a little diaper bag and was feeding Andy with a bottle. I remember her saying that when the plane took off, he was holding her fingers with his hands and he squeezed them. It must have looked odd to people, since Aunt Jane and Mr. Havlin did not seem to be quite man and wife, and Mr. Havlin was concentrating on paperwork. So a lady who was sitting across the aisle spoke up to Aunt Jane: "What a beautiful baby." "Yes, he is," said Aunt Jane. "It's such a new baby," the lady said. "Yes, he is," said Aunt Jane. Then the lady became a bit alarmed and said to Aunt Jane, "You're not going to give that baby away are you?" and Aunt Jane said, "Oh no. I would never give this baby away." The lady was stumped. End of conversation.
Meanwhile, we were waiting for our stork and our baby. In an attempt to try to ease our nervous anticipation, Mom took John and me to the zoo, and even allowed my "boyfriend" of the time to come, and I remember strolling through the lion house extremely happy. Of course there were no cell phones then and I do not know what communications went on between Mom, Dad, Aunt Jane, and Mr. Havlin throughout the day--or even if any occurred. We got home, and I am not sure how Aunt Jane got from the airport to our house that evening, but she did, bringing Andy with her in his receiving blankets and little baby undershirt and diapers. What a blessing for us!
I remember holding him on the brown sofa in the living room. I was very, very happy. We had all wanted another baby in the house, and Andy finally came to us through private adoption after my mother had two very difficult miscarriages. Was Andy destined for our family? I think so.
As you will see from the pictures that we will be posting, Andy was loved of course by Mom and Dad and also very much by his big brother John (a difference in age of 4 years) and by me, his 14-year-old sister. Here Andy is, probably at the age of 2 months or so, being held by his Grandma Gill (he was her favorite) and then joined by a pensive and loving brother.