Just BECAUSE...

 they're so doggone cute.



This dynamic duo are from the Betty Schnabel estate. It's a little portrait from her mother's family album. No idea who the kids are.
_____

Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

Double HOCKEY STICKS!

Sepia Saturday suggests golfers this week. Alas, I have no photos of golfers that I can remember. But woman with hockey sticks? I've got hockey sticks!

Both of these shots come from the photo album created by Betty Schnabel's mother, Louise. I have no idea where either of these shots were taken, but don't they look lovely in the first one. The second one they look like they're a bit more serious about playing than posing. And Betty's mother is in the second one behind the word "Candy." No idea what that means. And I'm confused how this is the 1919 hockey team if it was shot in 1916. Any suggestions?

Click on image to see it larger.

Click on image to see it larger.

I can remember playing hockey in high school. It was ludicrous. We went out onto a wet field in the winter wearing white Keds. And of course they watered the lawn each morning before we went out, even if had just rained. And then our shoes and socks would sit in our locker each day growing mold. We'd come back the next morning (I had PE first period which was the worst!) and have to put the wet shoes back on. I'd always try to bring a dry pair of socks. We all ended up putting our socks on followed by plastic bags followed by stinky shoes. The whole locker room smelled like a toxic waste dump.

And then there were the shin shields which were useless. The buckles were so loose that as soon as you ran down the field the shield was covering your calf. It wasn't a pretty sight. Lots of black and blue shins during hockey season. I hated it and always hoped I'd be on the best team so I could stand at the back and "guard" the goalie. I was very good at standing behind everyone letting them break into a sweat. I should have been given an award for that.

Don't get me started about swimming during the winter at first period. Only two hair dryers for over 30 girls in the late '60s when everyone had long hair. Complete frizz each day for weeks. There was no hope. I hated PE and by my senior year I'd developed a really bad attitude. It was my only time in high school where I let be known I'd had enough.

_____

Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

Donald Jr.'s FRIEND or Wife

This is the same Louise that was in yesterday's photo of Betty Schnabel's brother Donald.


Click on image to see it larger.

This slide is not Kodachrome. I can't remember what it was, but it was PINK! Very PINK! It took a bit of work to bring back the colors.

It's a very '50s look.

And the original PINK slide.

_____

Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

Betty's BROTHER

Another slide from the Schnable estate. This one is of Betty's brother, Don Jr., and Louise. I do not know if Louise was his wife.

Sure would like to see more of this ragtop. Anyone have an idea of what model it might be?


Click on image to see it larger.

I do love the color in old Kodachrome shots.
_____

Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

Schnabel MODEL

The second shot of the model from Donald G. Schnabel's leather folder. By the way, his name is in gold on the leather. It's a nice old fashioned leather zippered portfolio.

This shot was most likely not used since her feet got cut off. The old adage of using photos in design was if the feet are cropped off crop the photo even more. Sometimes there's no choice and you end up with footless folks.

Love her swimsuit or should I say sun suit? That suit never got in that lake.


Click on image to see it larger.
_____
Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

Coming or GOING?

Another from the Betty Schnabel estate. It, like the photo of Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa I, was in the leather folder that belonged to her father Donald. I'm trying to imagine how this shot might have been used in some sort of promotional piece for Standard Oil. It's obviously a staged shot that looks like something from a 1940s movie. 

There is one other shot of this young lady from the same folder that I will post tomorrow. 


Click on image to see it larger.
_____
Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

HEADLESS at the Beach

Click on image to see it larger.

At first glance it appears to be a headless child standing on the beach. Nah, just a white sunhat that over time has faded in the photo. But it is sort of odd looking with the headless child and the head protruding from the left. These two are actually familiar if you saw my post Sandcastles at the CLIFF HOUSE.

This is another photo from the Betty Schnabel estate.
_____

Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

Not ANTHONY QUINN. It's Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa I

This man looks nothing like Anthony Quinn, but the first time I saw this shot I thought of Quinn in Lawrence of Arabia, still one of my favorite films. Every couple of years I put Lawrence... on and escape into my childhood. Seeing Peter O'Toole on the huge screen at an elaborate theater in San Francisco, his blue eyes huge on the screen, I was in love. He was beautiful. My old scrapbook has pages of Peter O'Toole in it.



This photo is from the Betty Schnabel estate. It was in a leather folder that belonged to her father Donald.

The reason the fella has white paint around him is that the photo was most likely used in some sort of printed publication. The white was painted around the photo to silhouette the man for printing purposes. There is no information with the photo as to who the people are or how it was used.

UPDATE: Thanks Mike for figuring out who this fella is. Well, was since he died in 1961. This is Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa I who was the ruler of Bahrain from 1942 until his death in 1961.

Source: Wikimedia

_____

Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

Sandcastles at the CLIFF HOUSE

This is a repost from several years ago because gosh darn the photo of the tourist car fits the Sepia Saturday theme…several weeks ago. And I have a nice new photo to share of the old Cliff House if you scroll towards the bottom.

If you've seen past posts about the Kallman family you will probably recognize Alfred, patriarch of the family. This photo is from the George Kallman estate.

This is Alfred aboard a touring car in San Francisco, probably around 1919. He was on his way to see the Cliff House restaurant and Sutro Baths. The Cliff House still exists, the Sutro Baths not so much. And when I say the Cliff House still exists, it's not the Cliff House Alfred would have seen.

Click on image to see it larger.

The Cliff House has burned down several times. The photo below shows it at its most gorgeous, but it too burned down over 100 years ago.

I'll let good old Wikipedia fill-in some details about this San Francisco landmark.

The Cliff House is a restaurant perched on the headlands on the cliffs just north of Ocean Beach on the western side of San Francisco, California. It overlooks the site of the former Sutro Baths and a room-sized camera obscura and is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, operated by the National Park Service.

Cliff House has had five major incarnations since its beginnings in 1858. That year, Samuel Brannan, a prosperous ex-Mormon elder from Maine, bought for $1,500 the lumber salvaged from a ship that foundered on the basalt cliffs below. With this material he built the first Cliff House. The second Cliff house was built for Captain Junius G. Foster, but it was a long trek from the city and hosted mostly horseback riders, small game hunters or picnickers on day outings. With the opening of the Point Lobos toll road a year later, the Cliff House became successful with the Carriage trade for Sunday travel. The builders of the toll road constructed a two mile speedway beside it where well-to-do San Franciscans raced their horses along the way. On weekends, there was little room at the Cliff House hitching racks for tethering the horses for the thousands of rigs. Soon, omnibus railways and streetcar lines made it to near Lone Mountain where passengers transferred to stagecoach lines to the beach. The growth of Golden Gate Park attracted beach travelers in search of meals and a look at the Sea Lions sunning themselves on Seal Rocks, just off the cliffs to visit the area.

In 1877, the toll road, now Geary Boulevard, was purchased by the City for around $25,000. In 1883, after a few years of downturn, the Cliff House was bought by Adolph Sutro who had solved the problems of ventilating and draining the mines of the Comstock Lode and become a multimillionaire. After a few years of quiet management by J.M. Wilkens, the Cliff House was severely damaged by a dynamite explosion when the schooner, Parallel, ran aground. The blast was heard a hundred miles away and demolished the entire north wing of the tavern. The building was repaired, but was later completely destroyed on Christmas night 1894 due to a defective flue. Wilkens was unable to save the guest register, which included the signatures of three Presidents and dozens of illustrious world-famous visitors.

In 1896, Adolph Sutro built a new Cliff House, a seven story Victorian Chateau, called by some "the Gingerbread Palace", below his estate on the bluffs of Sutro Heights. This was the same year work began on the famous Sutro Baths, which included six of the largest indoor swimming pools north of the Restaurant that included a museum, skating rink and other pleasure grounds. Great throngs of San Franciscans arrived on steam trains, bicycles, carts and horse wagons on Sunday excursions.

The Cliff House and Sutro Baths survived the 1906 earthquake with little damage but burned to the ground on the evening of September 7, 1907. Dr. Emma Merritt, Sutro's daughter, commissioned a rebuilding of the restaurant in a neo-classical style that was completed within two years and is the basis of the structure seen today. In 1937, George and Leo Whitney purchased the Cliff House, complementing their Playland-at-the-Beach attraction nearby and extensively remodeling it into an American roadhouse. The building was acquired by the National Park Service in 1977 and became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Many of Whitney's additions were removed and the building was restored to its 1909 appearance. In 2003, an extensive further renovation added a new two-story wing overlooking the Sutro Bath ruins.

The site overlooks Seal Rocks and the former site of the Sutro Baths. More than thirty ships have been pounded to pieces on the southern shore of the Golden Gate below the Cliff House.

The area immediately around Cliff House is part of the setting of Jack London's novel The Scarlet Plague (1912). (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

To get a nice overall feeling about the Cliff House through the years click here to go to the official site and stay for the opening historical slideshow, including the Sutro Baths.

To see more images of these tour cars, including this very same No. 20, click here to enter the Cliff House project. And spend a bit more time clicking around the site to see other wonderful images.

The current Cliff House from the outside is not lovely at all. But oh my can you get an excellent meal there. I went there for my birthday a few years ago. The food was perfect, as was the view.

The following delightful snapshot is from the Betty Schnabel estate sale, specifically her mother's album. It is one of my favorite shots from my collection.



And just to make sure I have something for this weeks Sepia Saturday theme…another repeat from a few years ago.

Do a dogs ears lay flat against its head if a woman cackles in the background? You be the judge.

Until next week when I might just post something for a Sepia Saturday theme from years ago. It's been one of those weeks.

Saturday is LAUNDRY DAY

Saturday is almost always laundry day. These days with the drought I try to do one FULL load. I really push the stuff in hoping to not do a second load. Everything gets washed together. I don't sort different colors, unless there's a red item in the bunch. Just throw it in, wash it, get it out on the line.

Here in California we're being told to expect an El Niño this winter. I'll believe it when I see it. It has been stated that the rains will probably hit Southern California leaving the north still dry. If that's the case, and weather stays similar to what it's been the past few years, I'll still be hanging laundry out in January when the new norm is 70+ degrees.

All of these photos have been posted before, just not grouped together. This is my Sepia Saturday submission this week. Laundry and the lovely sun and wind that dries it. Perhaps even encouraging a bit of a dance. So if I don't get around to visiting other blogs until Sunday or later blame it on my laundry. Lots of sheets and towels to do this weekend, and maybe a little dance.

Click on any image to see it larger.

CLEAR LAKE with Clear Skies

About an hour away from me there is a raging fire that has consumed over 67,000 acres since Saturday. It is called the Valley Fire located south of Clear Lake. The fire has been devastating and because of the drought in California there is fuel in all directions. The fire has already jumped to my county. I tell myself there's no way it could make it to where I am, but I know that's not true. Areas burned in 15 minutes that were expected to take 24 hours. There may be some light rain tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed. So many have lost everything and are now living in shelters, not knowing if they have anything to go back to. Clear Lake is not a wealthy area, so many of these folks may never recover.

I thought I'd repost two Clear Lake posts from the past showing how beautiful Lake County can be.
____________

Clear Lake is in Northern California, the county just north of Napa County. This vintage snapshot dates from 1909 when apparently there was a ferry running on the lake. I don't know of any ferries running there now.






Click on any image to see it larger.

Clear Lake is a natural freshwater lake in Lake County, California and is fed by runoff flowing into many streams as well as springs in Soda Bay. Its sole outlet is Cache Creek.

Clear Lake is believed to be one of the oldest lakes in North America, due to a geological fluke. The lake sits on a huge block of stone which slowly tilts in the northern direction at the same rate as the lake fills in with sediment, thus keeping the water at roughly the same depth. Core samples of the lake's sediments, taken by U.S. Geological Survey geologists in 1973 and 1980, indicate that the lake is at least 480,000 years old. Some experts feel that Mono Lake, to the east of the Sierra Nevada in California, is older than Clear Lake. However, the sedimentary history of Clear Lake is unbroken, while Mono Lake's sediments have been disturbed by past eruptions of the Long Valley Caldera and associated volcanoes.

The geology of Clear Lake is chaotic, with numerous small faults being present in the south end of the lake as well as many old volcanoes, the largest being Mount Konocti, sitting at the middle of the lake's south shore. 

Area: 69.5 sq miles (180 km²)

Surface elevation: 1,329' (405 m)

Length: 19.01 miles (30.6 km)

Fish: Largemouth bass, Channel catfish, Brown bullhead, Lavinia exilicauda, Ictalurus catus

Islands: Rattlesnake Island, Weekend Island, Fruit Island, Garner Island, Tule Island, Slater Island, Indian Island, Anderson Island

Cities: Lakeport, Clearlake, Lower Lake, Lucerne, Nice (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

When I think of Clear Lake I think of hot summer days. Very hot summer days.

To read about a tragedy against the Pomo people that occurred at Clear Lake on May 15, 1850 click here.



____________

Again we view slides from the Betty Schnabel estate. I'm guessing these were also taken by her father, Donald G. Schnabel, though I can't be sure.

These first two are of Clear Lake in Northern California. Sunrise or sunset? I don't know the lake well enough to judge from which side these were taken, but they fit nicely with the third photo.




Click on images to see them larger.

Written on this third slide is "Mother Clear Lake" and it is in the box of slides taken in Sweden in 1959. Clearly she is in the sunset of her life. I believe she was Betty's paternal grandmother, but again, it's just a guess.


Click on image to see it larger.

UPDATE: Intense Guy has kindly supplied me with the following about Donald's mother:

Donald's mother, Mary G Schnabel nee Maguire was born 20 Feb 1877 in Lima, Ohio. She married George E. Schnabel in 1897. George was born about 1876 in Ohio. If the photo was taken in 1959, she would have been about 82 years old. She died in 5 Dec 1964. She and George had about 10 children.

On a SUMMER DAY…Betty Floats Into Dreamland

Believe me when I say this is the oddest and most interesting shot you'll ever see of Betty.


Click on image to see it larger.

Perhaps she was lying on the grass watching clouds roll by when she suddenly realized the earth was turning and she might fall off.
__________________

Available at Amazon:
Tattered and Lost: Cakes, Picnics, and Watermelon

Donald and Betty in ENGLAND IN 1949

It's always fun to go through another box of slides from Betty Schnabel's estate. Her father, Donald G. Schnabel, traveled a lot and took thousands of slides; sometimes Betty traveled with him. In this case it was to England in 1949.

These are all black and white slides. I'll admit to not knowing there ever was such a thing. Their quality is not particularly good, but they do give the feeling of stepping back in time, only four years after the war.

The theme for Sepia Saturday this week is hotels. Below I give you a hotel. This is the Welcombe Inn located near Stratford-upon-Avon. This shot certainly doesn't make the place look particularly interesting, but click on this link and you'll be impressed.

Click on images to see them larger.



Betty and Donald visited Shakespeare's home while in Stratford-upon-Avon. Two chatty ladies with a pram would have never imagined they'd one day be shown to people around the world.



And here we have some folks considering a tour of Shakespeare's home. Looks like one of them wants to first lean in and see if it's worth it.



Betty and Donald also visited Kenilworth Castle. The second shot is labeled "Stables Kenilworth Castle 1949." Personally I think I could live quite nicely in the stables.





The strange thing about all of Donald's slides is that his wife, Louise, never seems to be in any of them. She died in 1972. Occasionally there are shots of his son, Donald Jr, who died this past year. Betty traveled with her father on several trips. Now, since I only have slides from Betty's estate I have no way of knowing what photographs her brother had or what became of them. He lived in Florida, Betty in California. The family images are doomed to never be together.

So I'll leave you with Betty in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1949. I can't decide if that's a feather in a hat or some strands of hair blown straight up. It doesn't help to see the photo larger. You can decide for yourself. Betty does not appear to be enjoying herself.



To see more photos taken by Betty's father click on his or her name in the links below.

Betty's friends CATTIN AROUND AT A MOTEL in room no. 12

Raise your hand if you remember motor courts. Little motels that were always one floor little cabins or duplexes. Sometimes there was an actual garage to pull into.

Here are Betty's friends with an unknown woman (not that Betty's friends aren't also unknown) holding a cat. Was she the motel manager? A friend who got them a good deal to stay there? We'll never know.






Click on images to see them larger.

That's it folks. As of now I haven't found anymore photos from the girls getaway. Who knows what will show up in the future.
_________________

Available at Amazon 
Tattered and Lost: The Quiet Art of Reading

SNACKS and stuff

As a child I can remember getting fun things at tourist spots. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? The HUGE pencil with scenes of the location on it. The pen with the floating whatever that moved back and forth when you rotated it. Seashells at the shore. Postcards, figurines of bears from national parks, maybe even a tom-tom made with a black rubber top. Saltwater taffy was always exciting. It was so colorful and smelled wonderful.

I do remember visiting Atlantic City and getting one of those toy monkeys that played cymbals. I put it on the motel room nightstand and let it bang it's little cymbals over and over until my mother probably wanted to throw it out the window.

Alas, few of the things I got as a kid at tourist spots are in my possession. A lot of the stuff simply disappeared over the years (grumble grumble my original 1955 Mouse ears).


Click on image to see it larger.

So what did Betty and her friends buy at Mystic Seaport? If I'd known what to look for I might have found it in her house during the estate sale. Or was Betty too practical to keep such things? I should have paid closer attention to the what-nots in her home. I was too focused on photos to have noticed the flotsam and jetsam of her life.
_________________

Available at Amazon 
Tattered and Lost: The Quiet Art of Reading