I was at my computer a couple Saturdays ago when the soft ping of an incoming text message sounded.  It was a group message from my brother-in-law Tony sent to six or seven of us Sweeneys and Alcocers. I don’t get a lot of texts from Tony, and given this was a group message, I sat-up in my chair. The text simply said: Major Robert Michael Sweeney…Mary’s dad. Attached to the text was a photo of dad, scratched and faded with age. It had to be over 50 years old. He’s wearing a Marine Corps field cover with his captain’s bars pinned to it. And there’s a sweaty T-shirt hanging off him.

Then came another text from Tony. Attached was a screen shot of his half-brother, Maj. Edward Alcocer, USAF. Finally, a third text sounded. The attached photo showed a package addressed to my nephew, the recently appointed Rear Admiral AJ Alcocer of the Santa Rosa Fire Dept. It took a moment, but I figured out where Tony was taking this. “I didn’t know you had a half-brother, Tony. Or that the FD even had admirals,” I texted back.

AJ shared that he is charged with ordering supplies each month for the fire station on Sonoma Ave. He said he started adding funny titles in the address forms awhile ago, but only recently have they taken root. The ploy was very Tony-esque. Humor, like most things in the Alcocer family, doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Truthfully, though, I was more intrigued with the photo of dad. My first thought was a halting “I don’t think I’ve seen this picture of him before.” My second thought was more immediate: Jesus Christ, look at how skinny that guy is.

I asked Tony about the picture. He said he didn’t know a lot about it, only that it’s a snapshot Mary keeps on the desk near their computer and that he’d asked her for more info about it.

A week later Mary and I chatted about the picture over the phone. No, she said, she didn’t know when or where the picture was taken. It’s mounted in a white fold-over, 4×6-inch, cardboard Polaroid (!) frame which prevented her from seeing if there was a date or i.d.s on the back of the photo.

Initially, I thought the picture was most likely taken at the Marine Corps base at Parris Island, the tree in the background providing the biggest clue. But given dad’s rather thin disposition (and penchant for photography), I’m wondering if Viet Nam is the more likely setting.  I suppose it could have been Hawaii or (least likely) Mare Island as well.

For grins, I ran the file through Photoshop and was generally pleased with the result. It’s too bad, though, that there’s no metadata embedded in Mary’s hardcopy. It’d be nice know when and where the picture was made.