Two of these kids are not like the others. But, who would know when a Fair Haven neighborhood in the 1960s was pretty much a family affair anyway, right?

Right. It was a pretty common occurrence for neighborhood kids to end up at the dinner table of any given family on any block in those days. No mind paid. No kid head count or face check, either. It was also, apparently, pretty status quo for a couple of neighborhood kids to end up in a family Easter photo, too.

Who knew? No one, really. Actually, more than 50 years later, the neighborhood interlopers just realized this happened at the Croft house in, we think, 1967.

Sure, the Crofts had a lot of kids. But, little Scott Lang (first row, second from left) and I (right) somehow skipped out on our own family egg hunts, brunches or dinner table skull dullery to be there for the formal sitting in that Croft kids’ portrait of the “all dressed up with somewhere to go” Easter parade hopefuls.

I mean, getting lost in that big ol’ family crowd was a fun challenge. We were up for it, Easter hams that we were. Somehow our siblings were left out of this and parents were, by this time, likely screaming down the street for us. We were too enthralled with the intrusion to listen, though. Apparently, we fancied ourselves to be quite the family intruder stars. Smiles wide as a kid who swallowed a big ol’ chocolate canary, we sported.

No bonnets here, though, save for little Florence Croft’s Easter babushka, but there sure were some, let’s say, festive outfits fit for a fine post-church Easter couch pose. Who bothered checking names and IDs at the door? It was more like, “You! Sit, shut up and smile.” OK. Of course, there were some wiggly antics that preceded the pose. None the wiser, though.

We weren’t found out for decades! Even the skirmishes didn’t give us away. For instance, what the heck was Scott Lang yelling in poor little Florence’s ear? Scott? And I look like I am sitting on an Easter secret of glee.

Hey, it’s all in the neighborhood. Fancy that and say, “Cheese!”

— Photos/courtesy of the Croft family

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