HAIR TODAY, gone tomorrow

If you lived through the 1960s you'll remember that hair played a huge part in everyone's life. Hair wasn't just hair, it was a statement. Okay, hairstyles have probably always been a bit of a personal statement, but now it was a political statement. I guess tattoos and piercings are the fashion and political statement being used today.

Men have always had the potential problem that they'd lose their hair. Often when a man loses hair at the top of his head he chooses to grow it out of the bottom.

This weeks Sepia Saturday theme is facial hair. I give you two examples of facial hair making a statement. And then I give you examples of some seriously whacky hair atop men's heads.

GEORGE KALLMAN grows up

The past two Sepia Saturday posts have been about a fellow named George Kallman. The first post is where I gave out all the actual details I have about this man and showed him with his sister Gladys. To see the second post click here.

I'm hoping someday a former student will do a search for him online and find these photos. It would be grand if someone were to step forward who knew him during his 40 years of teaching elementary school. There must be hundreds of former students from the San Francisco area who remember him. So I'll keep my fingers crossed.

For now, we look at George as he moves from adolescence to an adult and what must have been a life changing event.

This first shot has no date on the back, but I'm assuming he's probably around a junior in high school.

These next two shots are dated June 12, 1945. Senior photos?

The following three are dated November 3, 1945. George joined the Army, either by choice or by draft.

And this final shot is dated February 2 1948.

I'm wondering when George got out of the service and where did he go to college to get his teaching degree? Most likely we'll never know.

This is my Sepia Saturday entry for this weekend. More of the Kallman family next week.

GEORGE KALLMAN, only child

George Kallman was not an only child, but for a few years in his life, before his sister Gladys came along, he was the single apple of his parent's eye.

I don't have any dates for any of these photos. You'll need to use last weeks Sepia Saturday post to put these in some sort of time frame. All we have are images to create a life for George and his family. That's where we'll be going for the next few weeks.

From these we learn George played the accordion which probably helps to explain his love for the polka.

Click on any image to see it larger.

This is my submission for the latest Sepia Saturday.

Sometimes THE LOAD GETS TOO HEAVY

I have again been away, but this time it is due to lack of net access. This happens every so often when I reach my bandwidth limit which is actually quite small. The downside of satellite internet. It's very expensive and unless you pay even more through the nose your access is limited. Within a week I'm hoping I can get back on. Until then I post this one shot for Sepia Saturday.

This was purchased at an antique store. I was taken by the handsome young man in the ruins of a cabin. Nothing is written on the back, but looking at the evidence I believe that the roof caved in following a very heavy snow load. I've seen cabins like this more than once. Our snow load in the Sierra's, on the western slope, can be incredible. We get the first snow to hit the state and thus the most water. The beams that were in my folks cabin were huge because of the load they were expected to bear. The cabin was just down from Donner Summit. If you know your history of those who came across country to California by wagon you'll know the story of the Donner Party.

An odd photo with a place seemingly frozen in time in ruins. I love it. Click on it to see it larger.

Unfortunately I will not be able to comment on other Sepia Saturday posts this weekend, but trust there will be some very interesting images to ponder. I'll just have to wait and see them later.

Only HALF THE MAN He Used to Be

My initial intention was to be gone from blogging for just the length of my vacation, but the time wore on. As I mentioned in my last post, several days ago, I needed time to recover from the final day of vacation that all went horribly wrong. Complete exhaustion took over. Then I've been emotionally wrapping my brain around the fact that one of my best friends may have cancer. This woman has already had a horrendous year, so to think this might be happening is beyond my current grasp of reality.

The past few days have been spent setting up my new computer. Everything is now up and running and beautiful. I shall now begin to get back to what I like to call "normal."

I mentioned the other day that I only bought two photos on vacation. Nothing else struck my fancy. Both were bought at a small antique store in an old school house in Graeagle, California.

Graeagle, in Plumas County, north of Truckee on Hwy 89, once was a timber town, but now is a sweet little town of historic and new buildings. The historic buildings are mostly painted red with white trim. The photos below are mine, the text is from Wikipedia:

Originally brought to life by the pioneers of the timber industry, the town of Graeagle was the site of the Graeagle Lumber Company and its “Box Factory” owned by the California Fruit Exchange. Thousands were employed to build boxes for shipping fruit and vegetables in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. Modernization closed the mill in 1956 and the town was acquired by the West family in 1958.

The entire area is dotted with old towns with mining and timber pasts:

As with all of California, the Graeagle area was initially inhabited by Native Americans. The Maidu in particular lived in this area and made encampments throughout the locale. The famous African American mountain man James Beckwourth discovered a nearby way across the Sierra’s in the 1840s that paved the way for immigrants to filter into this portion of the Sierras. The California Gold Rush of 1848-49 also lured lots of miners into the surrounding hills searching for gold. Then, farming families followed and they too migrated into the Mohawk Valley, the Sierra Valley and other areas of California. Ranches were established as the meadows were ideal for raising beef and dairy cattle, providing hay for feed. The plentitude of fertile soils in the area provided for the growing of wheat, potatoes, and other vegetables. These not only sustained the farmers and ranchers, but also supplied the nearby mines.

Besides the famous mines along the downstream Feather River and the mines on the Yuba in Sierra County, gold was discovered above Graeagle in 1851 by a small group of miners who discovered a rich ledge of exposed gold bearing quartz high on Eureka Peak. This spurred a great influx of people into the area above Graeagle, in the present day community of Johnsville and Plumas Eureka State Park. Thirty six mines formed the Eureka Company, 76 the Washington Company and about 40 miners claimed the Rough and Ready. With mining comes development and in 1853 the tent city of Jamison City sprang up. It quickly evolved with 12 buildings, 6 of which were saloons. About 1872, the town of Johnsville came into existence, it being more of a business and family oriented community. Johnsville, adjacent to Plumas Eureka State Park, is still a small mountain community with one restaurant, The Iron Door and many historic looking buildings. A British company, calling themselves Sierra Buttes Mining Company entered the picture and consolidated all of the mines on Eureka Peak. Bringing in new technology of the day this mine improved profits and continued through mining cycles until the turn of the 20th century. Another mining venture, the Jamison Mine started in 1897 and continued to prosper until 1917. Little by little, these mines diminished with boom and bust times when by 1943 mining essentially halted. By then $25 million was extracted and 65 miles of tunnels were carved out of the hills of Eureka Peak.

Graeagle began as a mill town, being part of a 12,000 acre timber tract acquisition by Arthur Davies from the Sierra Iron Company back in 1916. This vast parcel stretched from Blairsden to Calpine in present day Sierra County. Davies also owned a sawmill operation in Sardine Valley (located off of Hwy. 89 near Dog Valley and Stampede Reservoir) as well as a sawmill in Delleker, just outside of present day Portola.

Arthur Davies built a new sawmill in June of 1916 behind the current Graeagle grocery store (The Graeagle Store). Initially the new plant was cutting about 50,000 board feet of mostly pine lumber per day, but in 1917 a fire destroyed the mill. It was quickly rebuilt and about 13-14 million feet of timber was cut that year.

The new mill needed housing for its employees at this new endeavor, so Davies had his company houses in the Sardine Valley transported via the Boca-Loyalton Railroad to Graeagle. The homes were sawn in half so that they would fit on the B&L flatcars, then moved by rail to Beckwourth, where they were transferred to NCO trains and carried to Clio. From this point, a combination of horses, wagons and vehicles moved the assorted buildings to Graeagle. To this day, one can still see visible signs of the joining on the red houses that adorn the main street. Other dwellings also came from the Clairville and Delleker areas by placing giant logs under each to act as a skid and then they were methodically moved by either horse teams or Mack trucks to Graeagle. (SOURCE: Graeagle Merchants)

Visit the communities official site here with more of their history here.

As for the handsome fella in this photo, alas, I have no information about him so we can speculate all we want.

My story is that he came West following a lady to San Francisco. His romance did not pan out, but not wishing to return to the family farm in Iowa, he instead headed into the Sierra's where he found few riches in gold, but made a home for himself in a small mountain community. How this photo ended up in the old schoolhouse in Graeagle we'll probably never know.

This is my first post for Sepia Saturday in quite awhile.

There's a MYSTERY TO BE TOLD

This photo, a prime example of tattered and lost, was purchased for 25 cents. It's torn with tape on the back. Of no monetary value, which doesn't mean this image doesn't hold value.

I have no information about these young girls and this house, but I think a quick bit of imagining could create numerous stories. It's such a wonderfully odd photo. A portrait of a home and the children that lived within. Was it professionally taken or by a family member? The girls seem insignificant next to the size of the structure. They look more like figures placed in position. It all looks a bit haunted and ominous.

This is my contribution to this weeks Sepia Saturday.

Click on image to see it larger at Picasa. Once there click on the magnifying glass.

KARNAK the Magnificent

This photo, and indeed it is a photo, not a real photo post card, was purchased last Friday at an estate sale for 50 cents. I think it's stunning and I wish I knew the history of it. I know it was taken at the Karnak Temple Complex in Egypt. Other than that, I know nothing. I'm imagining it is a tourist souvenir, but I can't be sure because nothing is written on the back to indicate its origins. So I'm hoping by posting it on the net someone someday will step forward and say they have one. Perhaps it was part of a series sold to tourists of various images at the temple.

I find it very romantic and mysterious. Has a nice Indiana Jones quality to it. There's an interesting story here if we could find out its history.

This is my submission for this weeks Sepia Saturday. For a change I actually have something sepia. Keep me posted if you ever see another one just like it.

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Here is a photo, taken by Steven Beikirch in 1992, of the same basic image, for a book called Ancient Egypt. You can see the photo in context on the web here.

Photo: © 1992 Steven Belkirch, Ancient Egypt

I call her POLLYANA

I have no idea who this young lady is. She could be a relative or just a friend of my maternal grandmother. The photo is approximately 1 inch square and was found in the bottom of a small box of photos that had belonged to grandma. All I can tell you, with any certainty, is that she lived in Pennsylvania, near Harrisburg. Other than that, it's anybodies guess. She will forever be nameless.

I call her Pollyana because she reminds me of the character. I know the name Pollyana is often used to describe someone too good, too cheerful. The actual character isn't anything like that, and it's a shame that trying to find the good in bad events and learning from the experience should so often be frowned on by those who consider themselves too hip and too cool.

I wish I knew something about this young lady. What became of her? How did her life turn out? It's highly possible at some point when I was a child I met her when she was a grown woman in her 60s. I'll never know.

For now she is my post for Sepia Saturday.