"Okay," she said, and left me alone in the kitchen. Five minutes later she reappeared and tentatively handed me another album; one I’d never seen before.

This one was of her family. The one she came from, not the one she produced. All the pictures were ancient and browned from age. I’d only seen her parents in the photograph she had on the mantelpiece. Now there were aunts and uncles and cousins, all from a distant age and a far away land. Grandma was born in Russia. Grandpa in Ireland. It made for a strange mix.

"You were a cute baby," I said to her, when I’d gotten a few pages into the album.

"Yes, you got that from my side of the family. Be glad you didn’t look like your grandfather when you were born. Your mother might have left you at the hospital." She grinned at me and handed me a cookie. I accepted it and continued perusing the album.

Mom was right about one thing; Grandma did grow up poor. You could see it in her clothes and the furnishings of her parent’s home. Still, someone had a camera around. And from one page to the next, I watched as my Grandma grew up. And out. The latter pictures were probably the reason my own mom had never seen this particular album.

"Yikes," I said. "I didn’t know that you…that you were…"

"Such a looker?" Grandma finished my sentence.

"Well, to quote someone from your generation…hubba hubba."

"Yes, that was the general response I elicited. Back then."

Of course, I had been right about the girl in the picture at the club and the woman now sitting next to me. There was no denying it. Grandma was a go-go girl. I gulped down my cookie and looked up at her. "Um, Gram, guess where I was the other night?" I asked as she sat down and admired herself in the photos.

"Where’s that, dear?"

"Oh, some bar in North Beach. It’s called the Condor Club. Ever heard of it?"

Grandma stopped looking at the album and looked over at me instead.

"So that’s why you wanted to see these old pictures, huh?" she asked, closing the album. "Well now you know."

"Does mom know?"

"Heaven forbid," she said, and grinned. "Though I’d sure like to see her face if she ever found out."