The first event occurred when I was in my early teens. I lived on Long Island New York at the time. It was the mid 60s and most of the Island was still rural small towns minus the crowded areas and malls that it has become today. At that time there were a few big Department stores that we would travel to shop. My mother liked Gertz which was a favorite at the time of many of the mothers. The Gertz we shopped in was located in Bay Shore along the south coast of Long Island.

My mother would visit Gertz about once a month or so to shop for the family. I would usually go along in hopes of talking my mother into buying me something new, as teenage girls do. During our trips to Gertz my mother would often point out an albino family by whispering for me not to stare but look when able at the unusual family also shopping in Gertz. It seemed we would notice this family shopping almost every time we were in the store. My mother would comment on how well dressed the entire family was at all times. I found a family of albino’s extremely odd and could not help watching them as we shopped for bargains at Gertz.

The five members of the albino family all were 6ft or over in height including the mother and daughter. The male members stood between 6ft –3 inches to 6ft- 5 inches. They were extremely tall people. When they walked through the department store they stood a head above most of the other shoppers.

Each of them had thick full pure white hair. They were beautiful people with high cheekbones and straight model like features. Their skin was white – pure white. They all had the same color eyes, which were clear, big, and very light blue. They kept to themselves. They would stay together when they shopped and seemed to be quiet and polite.

Even as a teen I thought about the possibility of two beautiful albino people who looked so much alike in height, looks and facial features meeting and marrying. Although it may be possible I knew the odds had to be nearly impossible. I continued to run into this family when shopping or walking along the main street of the town of Bay Shore for most of my teen years.

Time passed and life moved on. I never forgot this unusual family. Years later while attending college in the late 1970’s I came upon an article that talked about the eye problems that went hand and hand with those who were albino. I also read that the eye color of the typical albino runs towards the pink or reddish tint. I know that there are degrees of the condition which would have a lesser or greater effect on things like eye and skin color (or lack of it) in those with this condition. I could not find anything concerning albino’s who had clear big blue eyes.

I tried to find out if there were blue-eyed albinos or if this oddity could run in an entire family but came up empty handed in my search. I am not qualified to answer the question to the chance of this happening but feel at best it would be a very rare occurrence.

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