ANOTHER Year

I've been away from this site and my other site for a long time. The joy had left me. The joy had left almost everything in life as I struggled to be a full time caregiver to my father. In the end he lost the battle. I lost the battle. I am empty. I miss his laugh.

Being a caregiver full time means putting yourself on hold. There is little time for self. It's a good lesson, but a difficult one. You don't get paid for being a caregiver so money becomes an additional stress. I looked at photos on ebay, but I didn't buy. There was no time (or money) to go to antique stores, flea markets, or estate sales. But friends, good friends, and a stranger were very kind to me.

The photo below was from a very kind woman named Brenda. She sent it to me because of the Hartsook connection. For that reason I start up again by reposting my original Hartsook post that enabled her to find me.

I quite like this young man. Is he younger or older than he looks? Is he just on the cusp of being an adult and has the clothes he feels make him look older? Or is he someone who goes through life always looking younger than his years? I think he should have been very proud of his portrait.

You'll notice this shot was taken in Seattle, not San Francisco.

And thank you Brenda!

And now, the original Hartsook post from May 7, 2012

These images came from my friend Bert’s collection. I don’t know where he found them, but I think they’re quite a nice find.

This is Edward in 1920. That's all I know about this young man. This lock of hair was tucked in with the two photos. I have not found anything online about the Nelson Studio in Santa Rosa, California.


Click on image to see it larger.

This second photo was taken at a Hartsook studio.



Click on either image to see it larger.

The following information about the photographer Fred Hartsook is from Wikipedia.

Fred Hartsook (26 October 1876 – 30 September 1930) was an American photographer and owner of a California studio chain described as "the largest photographic business in the world" at the time,[1] who counted Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, Mary Pickford, and sitting President Woodrow Wilson among his celebrity clients. He later became the owner of the Hartsook Inn, a resort in Humboldt County, and two ranches in Southern California on which he reared prized Holstein cattle. Hartsook was married to Bess Hesby, queen of the San Francisco Pan-Pacific Exposition of 1915.

Fred Hartsook was born on 26 October 1876 in Marion, Indiana to John Hartsook and Abbie, née Gorham. He was born into a family of photographers and studio owners, his father and two uncles were all successful in the business and his grandfather had been the first photographer to open a studio in Virginia. According to a 1921 profile by John S. McGroarty, "the first Hartsooks [took] up the profession when it was in the infancy of development with the old daguerrotype and the first wet plate processes."

After graduating from high school at age sixteen Hartsook was apprenticed by his uncle as a civil engineer, but spent most of his time in his father's studio. He moved to Salt Lake City, Utah and married Florence Newcomb, 12 September 1901. Flossie came from a family of photographers. She operated her own studio in Vernal, Utah in 1906. Flossie served as Fred's assistant for their traveling photographic studio throughout the Utah territory. They had one daughter; Frances born 25 June 1902. Fred and family then set out to establish themselves in California, arriving sometime after 1906. Initially, Hartsook operated as an "itinerant shutterbug, [wandering] all over the state, his team of mules pulling a homemade darkroom." Later he opened two studios, in Santa Ana and Santa Barbara, but eventually closed them in order to open a studio on 636 South Broadway in Los Angeles.

Hartsook's success as a photographer and studio owner allowed him to expand into other cities along the Pacific Coast, including San Francisco and Oakland. In 1921, McGroarty gives the number of studios as 20 and describes it as the "largest photographic business in the world". Bill Robertson, director of the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services, cited by KPCC in 2009, mentions 30 studios.

Even if the bulk of the business came from everyday studio portraiture, Hartsook gained prominence through his celebrity clients, which included silent era Hollywood actors such as Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, and Carlyle Blackwell, other celebrities such as pilot Charles Lindbergh, entrepreneur Henry Ford, and opera singer Geraldine Farrar, and politicians like House leaders Champ Clark and Joseph Gurney Cannon. McGroarty describes a 40-minute sitting with President Woodrow Wilson in September 1919 as "the first formal sitting since Mr. Wilson became president." Also in 1919, Fred Hartsook married Bess Hesby, who in 1915 was "Miss Liberty" at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. They honeymooned in a cabin six miles (10 km) south of Garberville in the redwood forest of Humboldt County, California. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

The last incarnation of the Hartsook Inn is still standing and I stayed there a few times. It was a lovely place with nice little cabins. It’s been vacant for a long time and whenever I drive by I feel a little sad. It’s along a busy two lane section of Hwy 101. I imagine someday the road will be moved, changed into a 6 lane freeway, and bypass the Hartsook. It will be forgotten, just as Edward may be forgotten.

To see images of the Hartsook Inn click here to visit CardCow.

Click here to read a newspaper article about the Hartsook Inn in 1949.

Click here to read a nice blog post at Ernie's Place about the Inn.
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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 9 available at Amazon.

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.
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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.



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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.

Drip…drip…DRIP!

Seeing a lake go nearly bone dry can change your perspective on a lot of things. Worrying your well will do the same thing causes some quiet anxiety.

I don't know where this lake is, but I'm guessing California. It just looks like a California reservoir. Well, what our reservoirs once looked like. These days those buildings would most likely be high and dry.


Click on image to see it larger.

I'm glad I'm used to the idea of saving water. I remember the drought in 1977. My folks were trying to sell their house and they had to let the lawn die and most of the plants. The idiot neighbor dug a well and bragged about how much water he was getting. He was too stupid to know all of that water was coming from my folks house as my dad tried desperately to save several trees.

When I moved to Los Angeles I was stunned by the stupidity I saw regarding water wasting. We were taking two minute showers in the north and in LA they were still hosing a single leaf off the sidewalk in Beverly Hills. I'm betting things haven't changed much in Beverly Hills and Bel Air with this current drought. I don't imagine the owners of those mansions have many brown lawns. I'd like to think they would, but I'm betting against it.

UPDATE: Thanks to Intense Guy we now know that this is the Pit River Bridge at Lake Shasta in Northern California.

The highest combination road and rail bridge in the world, the Pit River bridge is also the highest rail bridge ever built in the United States. Constructed in 1942, the colossal cantilever bridge was a necessary component of the Southern Pacific railroad relocation from the construction of the 602 foot (183 mtr) high Shasta Dam. The creation of Lake Shasta resulted in a dozen new rail tunnels and 4 towering trestles.

One of the highest concrete dams in the United States, the 602 foot (183 mtr) high Shasta Dam was constructed just downstream of the confluence of the Sacramento and Pit rivers. Extensive surveys were made prior to the dam’s completion to find the most suitable spot for the rail line to cross the deep canyon of the Pit River. The abutments had to be founded on soil that was not prone to landslides once the steep slopes became saturated with water. A route that would have closely followed the nearby McCloud river was changed for just that reason. The final route required large bridges across several major creeks including O’Brien, Doney and Salt in addition to the two big river crossings of the Pit and Sacramento. (SOURCE: Highest Bridges.com

SQUARE SALLY with an Alley

If Sponge Bob Square Pants can be the host of a kids tv show why not an apartment building? What about Square Sally with an Alley?


Click on image to see it larger.

This fetching young lady with the antennae boldly sticking up from the top of her head just screams out for a theme song. Make sure it's suitable for 1955.

Dave and Pat from GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA in 1955

A string of pearls and a man were about all you needed in the 1950s...or so I've been told.


Click on image to see it larger.

EDDIE in Oakland, California in 1955

Click on images to see them larger.

To see Eddie in his car in 1955 click here.

Take the FERRY ACROSS CLEAR LAKE in 1909

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.

SCHOOL DAZED PRINCESS with Court

No idea what's going on here. Appears to be a queen with her royal court of farmers and farmettes. The shot was most likely taken in Ukiah, California.


Click on image to see it larger.

Deconstructing UKIAH GRAMMAR SCHOOL 1928: Final

Little kids, each a gem, a bright star already shining.

Deconstructing UKIAH GRAMMAR SCHOOL 1928: Part 5

Deconstructing UKIAH GRAMMAR SCHOOL 1928: Part 4

I'm liking these little outfits many of the little girls are wearing. They're little dresses with matching pantaloons. I don't remember ever seeing this type of outfits before.

To see this little fellow older click here.

Deconstructing UKIAH GRAMMAR SCHOOL 1928: Part 3

Deconstructing UKIAH GRAMMAR SCHOOL 1928: Part 2

Deconstructing UKIAH GRAMMAR SCHOOL 1928: Part 1

Ukiah, California is a town located in Mendocino County in Northern California. My family once had a large ranch near Ukiah, but it is long gone.

I'm going to be deconstructing another school photo for several days; cute kids every single one of them.

PALAISLEL UNION RESTAURANT

In keeping with this weeks theme image at Sepia Saturday I give you some patrons and staff at an old restaurant. These folks do not appear to be having the same level of fun as in the Sepia image, perhaps because the alcohol is not yet flowing.



I have no idea where this restaurant stood, I'm not even sure of its name. It appears to be Palaislel Union with Cosmopolitan Exchange next door. I have not been able to find anything about the restaurant or the exchange. I can say the image was purchased in Eureka, California.

They are an interesting mix of characters. The fellow with the crease looks like he might have been a butcher, but no, that is just damage to the image running down his white robe, not blood. And the fellow to the left of him looks like he might have been just as comfortable on a riverboat as on shore. I think the fellow on the right, second in, is probably looking at the lads in the Sepia image and wondering how he can get there.


Click on either image to see them larger.

Amos Wood, J. J. Reilly, Enno Nesemann, and THE UNKNOWN WOMAN AT WOOD'S GALLERY

Sometimes trying to research an old photo can be simply mind-numbing. When searching for a photographer I hope to find a nicely written page where someone else has done the leg work; that rarely happens. Sometimes I find a few other shots credited to the photographer; too often I find nothing.

In the case of this photo I actually found quite a bit of information about the different photographers who owned the gallery/studio. I only found one other photo with the same Wood’s imprint as shown above, which is available here on eBay.

I cannot really be sure as to when this shot of the woman was taken, thus I cannot be sure who the photographer was. Yes, the obvious would be to say someone with the name “Wood” was the photographer, and perhaps that’s true, but I found at least three people who owned this studio/gallery. Perhaps if I’d continued I’d have found even more.

The first owner of the studio I find was Amos Wood, who was originally from Massachusetts. I’m finding dating his ownership to be confusing. In this document it states he was the owner from 1870-79. However, the border we see on this photo should date it from the 1860s. I also found a reference in information about the second owner claiming the name “Wood’s Gallery” had been in Marysville since 1860.


The second owner, who bought it from Wood in 1878 or 1879, was John James Reilly, who by far is the most memorable of the three I researched. Before purchasing the studio, Reilly’s work, his stereographs, were marketed by Amos Wood.

J. J. Reilly was a young Scottish emigrant in search of a new life when he arrived in California in 1856. After serving as a volunteer in the Union Army, he became a naturalized American citizen in 1866. (SOURCE: National Stereoscopic Association)

In 1870 or ’71 he traveled from New York to California, where he remained for the rest of his life. A friend of John Muir, he lived and worked in Yosemite Valley for seven summers (1870-76).

In July of 1878 Reilly had moved from San Francisco to Marysville, where he established himself as a portrait and landscape photographer.

He ran an advertisement in one of the local Marysville papers which touted:

...his many years of experience in posing sitters, his chiaroscuro lighting effects (the so-called “Rembrandt effect”), “the latest style” (bust portraits in three-quarter profile), correct exposures with shadow detail, great skill in retouching eyes and in hand-tinting lips and cheeks, and "a picture that never fades…Fine works is done in Woods Photo Gallery, Odd Fellows Bldg. Marysville by J. J. Reilly, inventor of the new magic process for making the baby’s pictures in from one to two seconds." (SOURCE: National Stereoscopic Association)

Reilly retained the gallery name, which local residents had associated with the business since 1860. He was also retained by the city of Marysville to take mug shots of local prisoners.

In 1886:

Reilly abandoned his second wife and his life’s work in Marysville. His master set of stereo negatives—a d of work twenty years in the making—was acquired by Enno Nesemann, the proprietor at Woods Gallery for the next fourteen years. Like his predecessors in the small, country town, Nesemann earned a lving by taking “dogtypes” and “mug shots”, and by marketing views to a regional audience. (SOURCE: National Stereoscopic Association)

In 1890 J. J. Reilly was listed as an “artist” at 313 Stockton Street in San Francisco.

In 1891 he wrote a letter of inquiry to C. W. J. Johnson, a portrait photographer in Monterey, about a job running Johnson’s gallery:

“Have you found a man yet to run your gallery for the summer? If not, I think I would try it, provided the place would pay anything above living expenses. I have been in the business for 25 year, but always for myself till lately.

Here is a photo Reilly took of the Del Monte Hotel in Monterey.

In 1893 he ran a gallery in Eureka, California called The New York Photograph Gallery with a partner named Evans. They remained in Eureka for three months.

Sadly, Reilly’s life did not end well. In 1894, back in San Francisco, he was boarding at the Pioneer House, on the corner of Fourth and Mission Streets.

He had already exhausted his disability pension. He was out of work and running out of money. Infirmed and despondent, he wrote the following suicide note:

This is to certify that I, J. J. Reilly, am tired of this life and so close up my accounts with all humanity on this earth. My reasons for doing so are: First, I am 55 years old: I have been disabled in the War of the Rebellion. Second, I am out of money and can find no work, so life to me is not worth living for. What are the few days, weeks, months or years which might be ahead of me? I am no good to any one, neither to myself, and why should I allow myself to suffer and go hungry? No, I wll never do it. And as I see the country is in a very bad condition, and the Government is rotten, and it is only bloodshed that will purify it. (SOURCE: National Stereoscopic Association)

On June 27th of 1894 Reilly, in his room at the Pioneer House, locked his door, and shut the window. He extinguished his lamp then turned the gas on full “and went to bed to die.”

On June 28th he was found by a chambermaid. He was rushed to the hospital where he succumbed to the effects of carbon monoxide asphyxiation on June 30th. His body, as requested by Reilly, was given to the Dr. Toldan Medical College for study because “I am afflicted with liver and other troubles, which may be of use to the medical men.”

Reilly was survived by two ex-wives and a son from his first marriage. A trunk filled with personal effects was shipped to his son. His work survives today as stereographs collectors covet.

There is much more to read about J. J. Reilly, and Enno Nesemann, here, including a photo of Reilly with his second wife, Jennie.


The third owner of Wood’s Gallery, as I mentioned above, who bought it from J. J. Reilly, was Enno Nesemann.

Enno was born in 1861 in Marysville, California and died in 1949 in Berkeley, California.

In 1866 Enno, age 5, sailed from Bremen, Germany to New York aboard the SS Bremen. He sailed with his father, Diedr, age 37, a baker; his mother, Lisette, age 30; and his sister, Elise, age 6. They are listed as residents of San Francisco. No information is given as to the reason for this trip. (SOURCE: Immigrants Ships)

Enno Nesemann operated Woods Gallery in the Odd Fellows Building, located at the corner of Third and D Street, in Marysville, California from 1883-1900

Nesemann appears to have acquired many of Reilly’s work since he continued to reproduce Reilly’s stereographic images.

Click here to see a stereograph of a giant redwood in Mariposa Grove taken by Nesemann and here to see a photo of Denny Hall at the University of Washington around 1890.

You can see a painting he did of the Golden Gate, not the bridge, but the opening from the ocean into the San Francisco Bay, here.

Nesemann was also known for creating humorous stereographs.

(SOURCE: Taylor Francis Online)

Click here to see one of Nesemann's humorous images in the Library of Congress.


Sadly, after all of this, I have no information about the woman in this portrait other than that it was taken in Marysville, California. To read about the history of Marysville, California click here. One of the men listed above interacted with this woman. She will remain a complete mystery.

Edward in 1920 and FRED HARTSOOK

These images came from my friend Bert’s collection. I don’t know where he found them, but I think they’re quite a nice find.

This is Edward in 1920. That's all I know about this young man. This lock of hair was tucked in with the two photos. I have not found anything online about the Nelson Studio in Santa Rosa, California.


Click on image to see it larger.

This second photo was taken at a Hartsook studio.



Click on either image to see it larger.

The following information about the photographer Fred Hartsook is from Wikipedia.

Fred Hartsook (26 October 1876 – 30 September 1930) was an American photographer and owner of a California studio chain described as "the largest photographic business in the world" at the time,[1] who counted Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, Mary Pickford, and sitting President Woodrow Wilson among his celebrity clients. He later became the owner of the Hartsook Inn, a resort in Humboldt County, and two ranches in Southern California on which he reared prized Holstein cattle. Hartsook was married to Bess Hesby, queen of the San Francisco Pan-Pacific Exposition of 1915.

Fred Hartsook was born on 26 October 1876 in Marion, Indiana to John Hartsook and Abbie, née Gorham. He was born into a family of photographers and studio owners, his father and two uncles were all successful in the business and his grandfather had been the first photographer to open a studio in Virginia. According to a 1921 profile by John S. McGroarty, "the first Hartsooks [took] up the profession when it was in the infancy of development with the old daguerrotype and the first wet plate processes."

After graduating from high school at age sixteen Hartsook was apprenticed by his uncle as a civil engineer, but spent most of his time in his father's studio. He moved to Salt Lake City, Utah and married Florence Newcomb, 12 September 1901. Flossie came from a family of photographers. She operated her own studio in Vernal, Utah in 1906. Flossie served as Fred's assistant for their traveling photographic studio throughout the Utah territory. They had one daughter; Frances born 25 June 1902. Fred and family then set out to establish themselves in California, arriving sometime after 1906. Initially, Hartsook operated as an "itinerant shutterbug, [wandering] all over the state, his team of mules pulling a homemade darkroom." Later he opened two studios, in Santa Ana and Santa Barbara, but eventually closed them in order to open a studio on 636 South Broadway in Los Angeles.

Hartsook's success as a photographer and studio owner allowed him to expand into other cities along the Pacific Coast, including San Francisco and Oakland. In 1921, McGroarty gives the number of studios as 20 and describes it as the "largest photographic business in the world". Bill Robertson, director of the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services, cited by KPCC in 2009, mentions 30 studios.

Even if the bulk of the business came from everyday studio portraiture, Hartsook gained prominence through his celebrity clients, which included silent era Hollywood actors such as Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, and Carlyle Blackwell, other celebrities such as pilot Charles Lindbergh, entrepreneur Henry Ford, and opera singer Geraldine Farrar, and politicians like House leaders Champ Clark and Joseph Gurney Cannon. McGroarty describes a 40-minute sitting with President Woodrow Wilson in September 1919 as "the first formal sitting since Mr. Wilson became president." Also in 1919, Fred Hartsook married Bess Hesby, who in 1915 was "Miss Liberty" at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. They honeymooned in a cabin six miles (10 km) south of Garberville in the redwood forest of Humboldt County, California. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

The last incarnation of the Hartsook Inn is still standing and I stayed there a few times. It was a lovely place with nice little cabins. It’s been vacant for a long time and whenever I drive by I feel a little sad. It’s along a busy two lane section of Hwy 101. I imagine someday the road will be moved, changed into a 6 lane freeway, and bypass the Hartsook. It will be forgotten, just as Edward may be forgotten.

To see images of the Hartsook Inn click here to visit CardCow.

Click here to read a newspaper article about the Hartsook Inn in 1949.

Click here to read a nice blog post at Ernie's Place about the Inn.

AMUSEMENT PARK rides

This week’s Sepia Saturday shows a miniature train with children on board. I’ve decided to use this as my jumping off point for a few amusement park photos.

These first two vintage snapshots were purchased years ago. I have no idea where or when they were taken, but I’m guessing the 1930s. I’ve always thought the one poor boy is upchucking his cookies after the ride.

Click on either image to see them larger.

Looking at these little cars I think back on the Disneyland ride Autopia and how desperately I wanted to drive the cars myself. As I recall, when Disneyland first opened there was a lot of dirt near Autopia. Disneyland was far from complete when I first visited around three weeks after its opening. I remember the sign which showed how tall you had to be to actually ride in one of the cars by yourself. I was way too short. It wasn’t until I’m guessing 1962 or ’63 that I finally was tall enough to go zipping around the track without a parent in the car. In those days you were actually able to steer the car within the cement “trough” that wound round and round. Later they more or less nailed you down on a metal beam that meant you didn’t do any steering. You were left just pushing the gas pedal. By that time driving one of these cars wasn’t nearly as exciting as simply driving a real car in Los Angeles traffic. Ahh, simpler times.

This last photo is of me in the early 1950s, possibly at Fairyland in Oakland, California, though I don't think they had rides. So actually most likely at Balboa Park in San Diego.

Children's Fairyland, U.S.A. was the first theme park in the United States created to cater to families with young children. Located in Oakland, California on the shore of Lake Merritt, Fairyland includes 10 acres of play sets, small rides, and animals. The park is also home to the Open Storybook Puppet Theater, the oldest continuously operating puppet theater in the United States.

Fairyland was built in 1950 by the Oakland Lake Merritt Breakfast Club. The sets were designed by artist and architect William Russell Everritt. The park was nationally recognized for its unique value, and during the City Beautiful movement of the 1950s it inspired numerous towns to create their own parks. Walt Disney even came to Fairyland often to get ideas for Disneyland. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

I have fond memories of Disneyland and Fairyland. I look at this little girl with the butterfly wings and wonder what became of her.

To see more images from an amusement park visit Tattered and Lost Ephemera.