The GHOSTLY PIANO PLAYER in the Little Family Album

The final image in the little album which once belonged to Gertrude Helen Rich Bowen.

A near ghostly figure playing the piano while the photo of the patriarch of the family looks down from above. I don't know if this is Gertrude or Frances, but this is the end of this visual story. There are no more.

The GHOSTS IN THE LITTLE FAMILY ALBUM: Beau or Brother?

There's no information about this fellow. His photos is on a page with the various photos of women in hats. Gertrude married a man with the last name of Bowen, so perhaps this is him.

The GHOSTS IN THE LITTLE FAMILY ALBUM: Gertrude with Friend?

Is the woman on the left Gertrude? Seems plausible, but we'll never know for sure. As to the woman on the right...well she just looks so much like my friend that I'll have to talk to her about possible time traveling that she never mentioned.

The GHOSTS IN THE LITTLE FAMILY ALBUM: Gertrude with Mother

If you look at the very first post of this series you'll see an elderly woman seated in the foreground. I'm guessing that was mother Rich. I believe Gertrude stands behind the woman with the tie on. If this is indeed the case, we then have Gertrude with her mother in this photograph.


Click on image to see it larger.

The GHOSTS IN THE LITTLE FAMILY ALBUM: Frances Rich Cheney and Friend

Frances (Rich) Cheney is the woman on the right. I don't know if she was a sister or an aunt to Gertrude.


Click on image to see it larger.

A couple of fine hats. Imagine the boxes they kept them in. I mean, you'd need something to store it in because you certainly don't want to have to dust these things or try to get spiders out of the folds in the bows. I know, spiders on the heads...could have gone all day without saying that.

Click in the labels section for "Frances" see photos of her on her homestead.

Only four images left to see from this little family album.

The GHOSTS IN THE LITTLE FAMILY ALBUM: The Ladies

Oh to be out and about with these ladies on a glorious Spring day, having lunch, getting their photo taken, and then parading in their fine hats. I could use a day like that after dealing with computer problems for days. It's amazing how one little non-virus piece of errant software can do so much damage to one person's life. These ladies could never even imagine what we have at our fingertips today, nor the stress these things can cause.



I will imagine myself in the photo and how the rest of the day would unfold. I'm time traveling as I write this.

The GHOSTS IN THE LITTLE FAMILY ALBUM: Another House

No information about this house.


Click on image to see it larger.




Click on image to see it larger.

I'm wondering if this is one of those occasions when the little one story structure on the right was built first when they claimed their land; with the two story structure a later addition.

What I'd really like to know is if the house is still standing in Nebraska.

The GHOSTS IN THE LITTLE FAMILY ALBUM: Gertrude

Most of the images I have of Gertrude are when she was middle-aged or elderly, so this was a joy to find. When I scanned this very faded image I had no idea it was her. Working with it in Photoshop it was almost like watching an image appear in a developing tray. Slowly as I applied image adjustments I began to see her face. It's nice to see her in her youth.

The GHOSTS IN THE LITTLE FAMILY ALBUM: Men

This weeks Sepia Saturday photo was taken at the Potsdam Conference in 1945. These were the men, the small group of men, who made decisions that would affect the lives of the rest of the world. This is as it always will be. There will always be one group in control while the rest of us get on with our lives.

The photos below were taken long before the Potsdam Conference. These photos were taken long before World War I. But these men, their lives, were still shaped by what happened far from their prairie homes. The decisions made by the ruling class had consequences which directly affected them.




Click on either image to see it larger.

Two men from Nebraska, their photos faded to being merely ghost images, are long forgotten, just as what happened at Potsdam is forgotten. And yet these men are just as much part of our history as the small group of men who made the decisions for the world. All of them gone now, all of them ghosts from the past. But only a handful of men made an indelible mark that the rest of the world remembers. These Nebraska farmers had a much smaller sphere of influence and may not be remembered by anyone.

This week I have I have been featuring photos from an old album that once belonged to Gertrude Helen Rich Bowen. Perhaps you remember past posts about Gertrude the schoolteacher from Nebraska. If not you can see other posts that featured Gertrude by clicking on her name in the labels section.

To see the other posts from the album:

the Rich family, a photo so faded that I had no idea there were so many people in it until I brought it back to life,

the family home on the Nebraska prairie,

the barn with the work horses,

and the children of the prairie.

Over the coming days there will be more images from this album.

The GHOSTS IN THE LITTLE FAMILY ALBUM: The Children

These little fellows are lost to history, but fortunately their images were not lost through time. This photo was one of the few images that wasn't merely a ghost of its former self.

Life on a Nebraska prairie had to be beautiful, lonely, exciting, and heartbreaking.


Click on image to see it larger.

Does anybody have an idea what the structure in the background might be? I'm guessing it had something to do with hay.

Let's take a moment to wonder what these little fellows might have been looking at. Take a look at this image at National Geographic of a prairie with a rainbow.

The GHOSTS IN THE LITTLE FAMILY ALBUM: The Work Horses

The family work horses with the house off in the distance. On a snowy cold Nebraska morning that would be a real trudge through the snow to get to the barn.

The GHOSTS IN THE LITTLE FAMILY ALBUM: The Rich Home

I have no proof, but I believe this was the Rich family home in Nebraska. This may be where Gertrude Helen Rich (Bowen) grew up. I love the round upstairs window. You will see it again tomorrow when you see the barn.

Imagine standing at that window as a storm blows across the Nebraska plains in the winter. The highest point around from which you can see the horizon and more of the same. How many people simply went mad staring off into the distance which never seemed to end? How many found poetry in their souls for what they were seeing?


Click on image to see it larger.

And in the summertime what were evenings like sitting on the porch? From a distance it would have been seen as lights at different levels breaking up the unending horizon.

The GHOSTS IN THE LITTLE FAMILY ALBUM of Gertrude Helen Rich Bowen

Some may remember posts I did several years ago about a woman named Gertrude Helen Rich Bowen; Bowen was her married name. She had a son named Arthur. All of the photos, several hundred, were bought at a flea market for $10 (known as the Ten Buck Box in the labels). Many were severely damaged, but there was enough to make it an interesting find.

One of the items I most prize from the box is a little cardboard photo album held together by a ribbon. Alas, the ribbon long ago broke off due to my constant looking at the album. Truth is, it was barely hanging on after being tied there over 100 years ago.

The images in the album are mostly faded to the point of just being ghost images. That's okay, because these days we don't have to accept ghost images thanks to Photoshop. So, don't think of these as images as having any monetary value. These are the ghosts from Nebraska around the beginning of the 20th century.




Click on either image to see it larger.

Just to give you some context, in case you don't click over to see other pages, Gertrude Helen Rich was born on December 21, 1885 in Nebraska. She became a school teacher. I'm guessing this photo, which is on page one of the album, is of her family. I'm not sure which one, if any, is Gertrude. I'll let you look at the other links and decide for yourself.

I will be featuring the photos for about the next two weeks, not including if I participate in Sepia Saturday.

To see previous posts about Gertrude click here, here, and here. You can also click on Ten Buck Box in the labels.

STRANGERS at the CARNIVAL

Have you ever been to a carnival when it's virtually devoid of customers? There's an eeriness to all of it. It's sort of like clowns; you know it's supposed to be a happy place, but without all the people covering up the ugliness it just becomes a bit creepy.

These photos are from the Ten Buck Box and most likely were taken by Arthur Bowen around 1951 when he was living in Germany. Arthur is Gertrude's son.

Look at these and tell me what you see?

Click on any image to see it larger.

I can't stop thinking of the finale in Strangers On a Train.

Teachers at the GRAND CANYON

As a kid I thought it was pretty cool that teachers got a three month summer vacation the way the students did. I can remember going on vacation and finding groups of women traveling together; generally they were teachers.

Here, from the Ten Buck Box, we have Gertrude Bowen on vacation at the Grand Canyon with friends in the late 1940s. Were they all schoolteachers? Most likely.

I think at some point everyone should go on a road trip with friends. I've been on many, but the most memorable was a five week road trip through Europe with two friends in a candy colored Opal. Oh sure, by the end of the trip two of us wanted to kill the third person, but I still have great memories of just being in the car driving and laughing. I'm hoping Gertrude and her friends had as much fun.

Click on images to see them larger.

The lady, the baby, and the WICKER CHAIR

I had a wicker chair very similar to this when I was a child. Mine had a tighter weave and was a rocking chair. This too may be a rocker.

The chair had been my dad's chair, then his brother's, then mine. Eventually it got passed along to my cousins who...let's just say the chair never looked as nice anymore and it no longer rocks.

I occasionally see similar chairs at antique stores and those old complex memories come back bathing me in a smile.

My mother always said that if she saw me sitting in the chair for too long it was time to get out the thermometer. I do remember sitting in my room rocking back and forth "reading" my books and listening to my Golden Records.

Speaking of Golden Records, there's a fun site worth visiting called Little Golden Records. This week Rockin' Jeff is featuring The Ballad of Davy Crockett. If you're of a certain age this will give you pause.

As to this real photo post card all I can say is I'm a bit confused.

Click on image to see it larger.

I can tell by the last name "Rich" that this woman and child were related to Gertrude Bowen since her maiden name was Rich. Other than that I'm simply confused.

"This is Frances Rich with Frances Rich."

Why do people do this? Why make life anymore confusing than it is?

This RPPC is from the Ten Buck Box.

THE PARTY is in full swing

I hadn't even noticed this shot went with yesterday's shot of the musicians. I had it separated into a different envelope. There are, I believe, 12 large envelopes full of photos and ephemera from the Ten Buck Box.

This is proof there was a party. These are the ladies of the party. If you look closely you'll see the band still sitting next to the building off in the distance.

Still no information as to where this was taken. Time period would be late 1940s to early '50s. Neither photo has any information on the back. Usually for photos that Arthur took he had them processed in Wiesbaden and there is processing information on the back; no such luck with this and yesterday's image.

Click on image to see it larger.

Take a moment to imagine the sights and sounds of the party. The little band sitting in the warmth of the sun playing a little swing while others drank, smoked, and chatted. No raucous noise; nothing amplified. Hoping they had a good time. Also hoping food was provided, though there's none to be see in either photo.

THE PARTY was just getting started

Another vintage snapshot from the Ten Buck Box.

I believe the fellow standing at the fence may be Gertrude's son, Arthur Bowen. As I've mentioned in a previous post he was in the military stationed in Germany following the war. At some point I believe he became a civilian contractor of some sort for the US government, still in Germany.

Perhaps this shot was taken on a military reservation in government housing. I really have no idea where it was taken; no information is provided on the verso of the image.

It appears these folks are getting ready for a party. It looks like there are several containers full of cold beer against the fence. The lady and the gent, probably the mixologists for the evening, might be studying a "cookbook" which means it probably got more interesting as the evening wore on.

The band consists of drums, fiddle, and guitar. The fellow shading his eyes is holding something, but I don't know what it is. Perhaps a flute?

So what do you think was their speciality? Bluegrass? Swing? Bach concerto? Bloody Mary's?

Let's hope a good time was had by all, including the neighbors who were hopefully invited.

GLEN CANYON BRIDGE under construction

Once upon a time the U.S.A. was capable of setting goals and then achieving them. That is the country of my youth. Super highways and bridges were built by the government because they were the right thing to do. We went into space and out of that new technology was created that helped people all over the world. Civil rights and poverty were taken on by people who believed we were one nation.

These days ignorance is worn as a badge of honor. Well educated people are snidely referred to by the ignorant as the elites, when really the elites are the 1% who hold the purse strings and the puppet strings of the ignorant.

These thoughts come about because of this weeks Sepia Saturday image which reminds me of what we were once capable of as a country. Okay, I'll also admit when I look at the Sepia Saturday photo I can hear the Bangles singing Walk Like an Egyptian.

The following photos show the building of the Glen Canyon Bridge in Arizona with a film processing date of November 1959 and were in the Ten Buck Box.

Click on any image to see it larger.

The bridge was built in order to aid in the building of the Glen Canyon Dam. Now I'm not going to say whether or not the building of the dam and the destruction of Glen Canyon was a good thing to do. It's done and will likely never be undone.

The absence of rail facilities near the construction site of Glen Canyon Dam necessitated construction of Glen Canyon Bridge for the transportation of construction materials and equipment from railheads to the site. A single-span, steel-arch structure, the bridge has an overall length of 1,271 feet. At its completion in 1959, it was the highest arch bridge in the world and the second longest of its type in the United States. The bridge spans the Colorado River 865 feet downstream from the dam. The deck of the bridge is 700 feet above river level. (SOURCE: U.S. Department of the Interior)

Before the bridge was built it required a drive of 200 miles to get to the other side of the Colorado River.

On October 15, 1956, the first blast occurred and the construction of Glen Canyon Dam was officially underway. Before that date, the site was virtually inaccessible and construction crews were forced to drive 200 miles to cross from one side of Glen Canyon to the other.

The remote location was selected for the project by a group of Bureau of Reclamation engineers and geologist working from 1946 to 1948. The site met several criteria: the area forming the basin could contain an immense amount of water; the canyon walls and bedrock foundation were strong and stable enough to safely support the high dam; and a large source of good rock and sand was available at nearby Wahweap Creek.

By 1959, the Glen Canyon Bridge was completed permitting the trucks to deliver equipment and materials for the dam and the new town of Page, Arizona. (SOURCE: Canyon Country)

For awhile this bridge was one of the highest in the world. It now ranks, according to this list at Wikipedia, at number 28.

Construction on the dam began in 1956 and was not completed until 1966. Lady Bird Johnson, dedicated the dam on September 22, 1966.

To read more about the bridge and dam click here to go to Wikipedia.

Here's a video I found on YouTube created by "Hoosier Tim's Travel Videos" showing the dam and the bridge.

PEOPLE EATING WATERMELON. It's a CATEGORY

Imagine my surprise when I sorted through the Ten Buck Box and found this, a "category" photo. One to add to my prized collection of people eating watermelon. Alas, no pig in this photo, which is really a sub-sub-category. I shall hope someday to expand that sub-sub-category, but for now I'll just be happy with this.

Hmmm...new category, people eating watermelon in the middle of a road with a car quickly approaching. I must find more!

For those into sub-sub-categories just click here.