Don't want to add another layer of mystery, but a little help and discussion would be appreciated...the following image would appear to be from around the same time as the horse-riding adventure...
So it's got to be the school group photograph that's out of whack.
Sorry, can't help, however, I couldn't help noticing this editeded paragraph.
You can't make this stuff up!
Hmm, Golden Gate Bridge. The horse riding picture does look like Northern CA.
The mystery certainly deepens. A fat boy, in Northern CA, and a thin boy in HI supposedly same time frame. Whatever time frame that might be.
From "Dreams From My Father"
"So it was with a great rush of excitement that Gramps accompanied me on my first day of school. He had insisted that we arrive early, and Castle Hall, the building for the fifth and sixth graders, was not yet opened. We sat beside a slender Chinese boy who had a large dental retainer strapped around his neck............. whose name was Frederick........“Your grandfather’s funny,” Frederick said as we watched Gramps introduce himself to Miss Hefty, our homeroom teacher.“Yeah, He is.” We sat at a table with four other children, and Miss Hefty, an energetic middle-aged woman with short gray hair, took attendance. When she read my full name, I heard titters break across the room. Frederick leaned over to me.
Excerpt from "Dreams"
I think that picture must be when he was in 6th grade as I don't see the student he was talking about and the description of the teacher isn't the same. But since he is so made up who knows