Family Portrait

Winning the Little League national championship requires more than ability from the players and coaches. Tolerance and understanding, dedication and determination are equally important. And a strong dose of humor doesn't hurt, either. Northridge players and coaches virtually lived together for two months, practicing every day from the last week of June until the World Series championship game Saturday. The team became a family, with each member contributing.

Stephen, 73, retired furniture factory worker Johannes, 46, truck dispatcher Ellen, 40, ANC finance official Sibido, 38, union organizer Ivy, 34, salesclerk Rapu, 33, ANC candidate for Parliament Joseph, 29, unemployed warehouseman Miriam, 26, mother of three * Home: Soweto * Politics: Most members support African National Congress. * Background: Stephen moved to Soweto in the 1940s from Orange Free State.

Louis, 32, human resources and industrial relations manager Mercia, 30, teacher Juanita, 4 Chris, 2 Kotie, 56, Louis Botha's widowed mother * Home: Amsterdam, Eastern Transvaal * Politics: Leaning toward National Party * Background: Descended from Dutch, German and French Huguenots who arrived in 17th Century. * Louis Botha: "White South Africans, Afrikaans- or English-speaking, are extremely unsure .... about the future....

Family portraits are always a wonderful gift, but are usually the result of careful advance planning. With new computer tech nologies, however, a family or a child's portrait can be a last-minute gift--and one that will be treasured for generations. Recently, I researched several of these portrait studios and found one in the Glendale Galleria that offers quality at a good price--Portraits & Memories.

When Gregory Peck teams up with Lauren Bacall for a new TV movie, they don't have any trouble fitting together as a family. To add to the family dynamics, Peck's daughter Cecilia co-stars as their daughter. Peck co-starred with Bacall 36 years ago in "Designing Woman," and has remained friends with her over the years. Last month he presented her the Golden Globe's Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement. "I first became acquainted with Betty when she was 17," Peck said.

If your children adore being photographed, behave in an exemplary manner when in photography studios and have furnished you with prize-winning results, I applaud you. If, however, the proofs of your children's most recent journey to the photographer moved some friends and relatives to tears (from laughter), consider your family not unique. The proofs of our most recent attempt at a family portrait detail an afternoon when only two out of our four children responded positively to the idea.

Tell John Hufnagel all about sailing as a rich man's sport, and he'll tell you a story that will blow that theory right out of the water. Actually, his mother told it by telephone from Marblehead, Mass., where she's lived since 1960 and has raised six children. When this America 3 grinder was a wide-eyed 8-year-old, Hufnagel fell in love with a little wooden sailboat he saw in a local toy store. "But with five other children, we just couldn't afford it," Audrey Hufnagel said.