YOUNG LOVE in pink

I really don't know about this shot. Brother and sister? Boyfriend and girlfriend? It comes from the Kentucky STRANGEST PHOTO ALBUM I Ever Bought. It's a sweet picture or is it?

Pretty in pink.

Tomorrow will be the final hand tinted photo.

Alas, no time to participate in Sepia Saturday this weekend. I simply don't have the bandwidth required to go around and make comments on other posts. Perhaps next week.

ANOTHER FRIEND of Juanita or Charles

Another image from THE STRANGEST PHOTO ALBUM I Ever Bought. I think that about says it all. Someone really went to town with their colors on this one, including the dress.

FRIEND of Juanita or Charles?

If you've been following this site since earlier this year you might remember the odd photo album I featured that belonged to Chas. E. Thomas from Kentucky. I called it THE STRANGEST PHOTO ALBUM I Ever Bought. If you haven't seen it you might want to go back in time and check out the series of posts that featured one of his wives, Juanita.

Amongst all the duplicate shots of Juanita, her daughter, her former husband, etc. were some photobooth shots that had been hand tinted. This is one of them.

There's no information as to who this woman is. It's all a mystery. Who is she and who applied the color? With the oddness of the album there are a lot of stories that could probably be told about this woman.

The STRANGEST...Part 11: JUANITA Being Taken For a Ride

Two Ponies of Bill's

Mother, Bill, Juanita, & Charles Taken Feb. 5, 1950

Mother's Home

Louisville Road

This caption appears in the middle of a page of photos of Juanita on a horse and a pony.

Click on any image to see it larger.

And the next year Charles is in love with Hattie L. Smith. No photos of Hattie are available.

The STRANGEST PHOTO ALBUM I Ever Bought, PART 10

From the album that just keeps on giving and giving and....

"Juanita + Friend 1943" is certainly a different Juanita from the shot taken with her husband in 1939. This photo is to the right of the photo of the one below showing Juanita with her first husband. This was taken the year before her baby was born.

I don't know about you, but I'm thinking Juanita was a child bride, maybe in her mid-teens. The difference in the eyes between her first marriage, this shot in 1943 with a friend, and the shot below taken in 1949, show she's been through a lot. In the 1943 shot she appears to be a woman seemingly caught in her own world. She looks very alone. By 1949 she was looking out for Juanita.

No doubt about it, Juanita is the star of this album.

The STRANGEST PHOTO ALBUM I Ever Bought, PART 9

Little comes through in this album about any of the personalities other than what we surmise by what we bring to each photo. Finally something different.

Juanita had a soft heart for strays. Was Charles a stray too?

Click on either image to see it larger.

The STRANGEST PHOTO ALBUM I Ever Bought, PART 8

For anyone who has been following this weeks posts, Juanita will not be a stranger, but this side of her life will be.

In at least 1949 and part of 1950 Juanita was married to Charles Thomas and they lived in Kentucky. But in 1939 Juanita was married to someone else. And by 1944 Juanita had a little girl named Mildred May or Mae.

This album contains snippet of lives, no cohesive story. What became of Juanita's first husband? Did he die during the war? Did they divorce?

And what of Mildred May who appears twice in the album, each time the same photo? One time her name is spelled Mildred May, the other Mildred Mae.

By late 1950 Charles seems to have married someone named Hattie, though there are no photos. Juanita not only disappears from the album, but everyone disappears. Nothing but captions and photo corners. A mystery that won't be solved. Are we looking at lives that ended tragically or simple dissolution of families?

And before I go, I ask you, do you think this man is Juanita's husband? This photo is in the album to the left of the shot of Juanita with her first husband? Are they the same man? Was her first husband Buddy Brooks?

There's still more to come, but for now this is this weeks Sepia Saturday post.