I happened onto a baby picture of me on Ebay yesterday
I wonder who bought the photo. It's of baby me in 1945 and the Coast Guardsman who made me my first pair of shoes on the troop transport ship taking us from India to America. I took my first steps wearing those shoes. 
(Sorry - I don't know how to make photos smaller here.)
Here it is/was on Ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1945-Eleanor-Austen-Child-Coast-Guardsman-Joseph-Hegener-Chief-Shoe-Press-Photo-/162530710080?nma=true&si=DnqEGQPuGPdPYnhvSZ5psYrRaNI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
= new reply since forum marked as read
Maybe a relative of Joseph Hegener's bought it. That would be cool.
Have you reached out to the seller?
this morning and asked if they could let the buyer know that I'm the baby in the photo, in case the buyer is a descendant or other relative of Joseph Hegener's. I explained I'd merely like to touch base with someone who knew him, to complete the circle in a way - not to try to obtain the photo. I hope I hear back from the seller and that it's good news.
thought it was something like that too. 
was stationed in India. He met a young Anglo-Indian woman there, the widow of a British soldier. She had a two-year-old daughter. My dad fell in love with the woman and she with him, and they married, even though the Army didn't approve and confined him to barracks for a while afterwards as punishment. A year later, I was born, and three weeks after that, my mother died. She'd had rheumatic fever as a child, which weakened her heart.
My dad put in for transfer to get my half-sister and me to the U.S. and when I was nine months old, we all began the three-month voyage on a troop transport ship operated by the Coast Guard. My dad was on active duty aboard the ship during the voyage, but an American Red Cross worker heading home to the States on leave became caretaker for us girls. In India before the voyage, my dad had made arrangements with New Britain Children's Home in Connecticut (now Klingberg Family Centers) to take us girls in until he could establish a home for us. He'd read about it in a Reader's Digest. My half-sister and I were there for a few weeks, then Dad and our new mother, our ARC nanny, came for us.
That's it in a nutshell. Thanks for asking.
The Ebay seller said it wasn't sold and she relisted for me. It'll soon be mine. Makes me happy.
I've learned through Google that Joseph Hegener died in 1965 at age 72 and is buried at Arlington Nat'l Cemetery. 
congratulations and thank you for sharing! 
Except for losing your mother.
I'm so glad I came back to this thread!
and I bought it! Yay!
I don't why I'm so excited about this, but I am.
very funny) story! I love it! I'm going to pass it around. 
and probablymade that card very special
While I've never been accused of being either, my grandmother once found a 'To My Grandson' Hallmark card with me on it (about age 3 or 4). I was holding a puppy the photographer apparently asked me to hold for the photo - though I have no recollection of that happening.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could hold on to our toddler-era memories?
Thanks for sharing! 
My grandmother (God rest her) mailed it to her for one of my kid birthdays 30 years ago or so. It must still be in her postcard shoebox, I'm sure.
I think it says: 'To My Amazing Grandson' - as far I know, the only time I've been called 'amazing'. 
Amazing photo!
It's been so long that I don't remember how I came across it. But, a seller was selling a CdV of my great-great grandfather in his NYV 111th uniform off to fight in the US Civil War. I saw the auction after it had taken place but it was the first time I'd ever seen him (the thumbnail of the picture from the auction).
I contacted the buyer and offered $1000 for it, but he refused. He did scan the image in for me, though:
<a href="https://imgur.com/mpidUtg"><img src="
" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>
I keep getting reflabbergasted!
Thank you!
The seller said she was happy to sell the photo to the baby in the picture, and now it's a done deal.
I don't remember the scene in the picture, but my earliest childhood memory is from that voyage. I woke to sirens screaming, and my ARC "nanny" lifted me from my cot and hurriedly carried me to the deck of the ship. She had tied my half-sister around the waist to her own waist with a rope. It might have been right before dawn, and I remember being put in a life jacket and looking down at the dark, churning water as lifeboats were being lowered. Men were shouting and the siren kept blasting. People were running everywhere. The nanny said we might have to go swimming. I remember clearly that I didn't want to go swimming in that dark, foggy water. It wasn't a I-don't-get-it type of thought that people might think of as a baby type of thought. I experienced the same emotion about it that I do now when I am dead-set against doing something. My last recollection of the incident was of being carried away from the railing and back down the stairs.
When I was about 10, my half-sister and I were talking about our earliest memories, and I told her the we-might-have-to-go-swimming story. She didn't remember it. Our ARC nanny was now our mom, and she stopped what she was doing in the kitchen, came into the living room where we were sitting, and said to me, "You couldn't remember that! You were only 10 months old!" But she believed me because everything I'd described was accurate. She said that our ship had been torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, but that it had been destroyed.
Never underestimate how much babies understand and may remember forever. I am sure I remember that incident because it was traumatic and very noisy, and I didn't want to go swimming.
You've got me beat. My earliest memory was the doctor or nurse putting the ether mask over my face when I having my tonsils out at age 3. I remember the feeling of not being able to breathe and how scary that felt, then, of curse blotto. I was also a traumatic memory, but mine happened a couple of years after yours. Wow. So glad you shared your story and I'm so happy you'll get your picture!
is very young too, and I'll bet if you'd had your tonsils out when you were a baby, you'd have remembered it too. Traumatic experiences can stay in our memories, but sometimes so can ordinary ones. Brains are weird.
because here I am, trying to find him again all over the Internet.
and that you actually found it. Wow. 
some of my family members and when I typed my dad's name into Search, I saw a link to a vintage newspaper site that showed the page with the picture. When I clicked to enlarge the picture, there was a Buy Now Ebay link right there. I didn't click it, but I went to Ebay, and using the photo watermark as a guide, I found the Ebay store and the photo.
My dad's name appears in the information on the back the photo, and I think that's why Google produced the link. I've googled my dad's name before, but this was the first time I got the vintage newspaper link.
that although it was no longer listed, it hadn't sold. The seller re-listed it for me, and I bought it.
The photos were taken by the American Red Cross.
