Again, that's not my photo; I didn't want to break your monitor. (And I don't have any photos of my flying days, unfortunately.) Actually I brought along an extra T-shirt the day I soloed, thinking that my instructor might want to do the 'clipping' thing, but he was too busy that day. Oh, well.
I had two excellent instructors, both older gentlemen. Bob McDaniel, an Air Force Wild Weasel pilot, took me from first lesson through my solo in the Decathlon. Then he found an opening as a charter jet pilot; his plan from the beginning was to move me into a Cessna 172 for the second half of my instruction when I had to learn basic instrument maneuvers. Jon Disler, a superbly experienced instructor whose day job was working for NASA, took me up under the hood in that Skyhawk in actual IMC (just barely...light clouds/rain). When I didn't panic and kept full control of the airplane even when he partial-paneled me, he said, "You know, I think you really could finish this up in that Decathlon." And I did. He also taught me basic aerobatics after exacting a promise, which I kept, not to practice them solo until I had my private ticket in hand.
I was a student at Fletcher Aviation at Hobby; my checkride was administered by WWII flight instructor Maybelle Fletcher. I had a nervous moment when she wanted me to do a full power-on stall; in a Decathlon that's basically an aerobatic maneuver and you're hanging on the prop. Sure enough, it snapped. I caught it in a quarter-turn; she said, "WHAT was THAT?" But she was impressed that I caught it so quickly; she had me repeat the maneuver with a little less power and I had no problem with that. That was my only glitch, she signed my ticket as soon as we landed back at Hobby.
Did I mention that my final checkride prep dual lesson the night before finished up with spins and recovery, under the hood, at night?