HARVESTING THE CROPS and Buckaroos and Buckarettes

My submission for this week's Sepia Saturday is a rather lovely scene of "gardening" on a larger scale than the Sepia photo. Sadly the photo is not in good shape, but it still reminds me of a sketch that might have been done for an old painting. I have no idea where it might have been taken, but imagine the architecture of the houses would be a good clue. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them. Click on the image to see it larger.


Click on image to see it larger.

Buckaroos and Buckarettes

The second part of my post is a repost from a couple days ago introducing the latest book in my Tattered and Lost series.

Do you have memories of riding the range though you never left your neighborhood? You might have been a buckaroo or buckarette.

Do you remember thinking you could vanquish the bad guys with a song in your heart and a six-gun on your hip? You might have been a buckaroo or buckarette.

Do you remember singing Happy Trails and knowing all the words? You might have been a buckaroo or buckarette.

Introducing the latest volume in the Tattered and Lost series of vintage snapshot books available at Amazon. Tattered and Lost: Buckaroos and Buckarettes should easily fill that void of forgotten memories when all kids dreamt of joining their heroes Roy, Gene, Hoppy, and Annie. You'll smile, you'll laugh, you'll wonder how you ever lost the dream.

Need a special gift for someone? Tattered and Lost: Buckaroos and Buckarettes might just be what you're looking for. Sure to start conversations for people of any age.

104 pages with 94 photos, available at Amazon. Photos from the early part of the 20th Century through the early 1960s.

SIX MULES and some bells

All you needed were six eight mules and a harness with bells and you were in business. Oh sure, you needed a wagon or two, and some rough and tumble fellas to drive the rig, but if you did you would surely garner the attention of a fair maiden with a camera.

Location and people unknown. Time period long ago when farming was done by people, not corporations. Oh wait, corporations are people too. I nearly forgot that little gem of wisdom.

Click on image to see it larger.

SISTER WIVES and the horse

As soon as my best friend saw this vintage snapshot she said, "Sister wives!" I think she's right. This image is calling out for a short story. Should you write one send me a copy to post. There's more going on here than what we see.

Click on image to see the whole gang bigger.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday this week.

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.

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.

CAN'T BUST 'EMS Are for Hard Workin' Folk

When I saw this weeks Sepia Saturday prompt my first thought was of can't bust 'ems, aka overalls. I have photos of my dad on the ranch in his can't bust 'ems with a big smile on his face. He wore them to school for years along with his hobnail boots. I have no idea who the people are in these vintage snapshots.

For me overalls have always been the clothing of hard working people who came home with dirt under their nails and a longing for a good meal and sleep...and country kids.


Click on image to see it larger.




Click on image to see it larger.

TWO NEW BOOKS AVAILABLE: I have two books now for sale on Amazon throughout the U.S./Canada and Europe, including the UK. One is a revised version of Tattered and Lost: Childhood, the other is completely new and called Tattered and Lost: Telling Stories. Take a look at the links in the left column to find out more about them or click on the Amazon links farther down the page.

      

I am currently revising the original first volume of Tattered and Lost and hope to have it available soon. Each of the volumes is in a new trim size with more photos at a reduced price from the previous books.

And if you're quick of eye you'll notice a man wearing overalls eating watermelon in the Telling Stories example in the lefthand column.

HARVEST Time Has Come

It's harvest time here in the Wine Country which means the grape crush is on. How do I know the crush is on? Because I can hear it. I mean REALLY HEAR IT! All day and night the wineries are working, and there is a metallic thunderous sound that can be heard. Manmade thunder cracking the silence of the night. It's okay, it only happens for a few weeks then things get quiet, except for the annoying tourists with their winery maps.

The leaves on the vines are starting to change and soon there will be rivers of color bursting along all the hillsides, flowing up and over into the next vineyard. Mile after mile of them.

This is the only time of the year I can stand the vineyards. The rest of the year I detest them. Too much land is now devoted to vineyards and only vineyards. Hillsides have been destroyed, forests clear cut, other crops displaced. I call grapes the yuppie crop. Only those with full pocketbooks can afford what grows around me. It doesn't feed anyone.

I have no idea when or where these harvest photos were taken.




Click on either image to see it larger.

We used to be CLOSER TO THE LAND

These days few of us are really close to the land we live on. We don't pay much attention to where our food comes from or the people who raise it. I'll be truthful and say I'm perhaps a little closer than most because I live in a working orchard. I feel the seasons change. I look anxiously for the bees each year when the trees have blossomed. I anticipate the harvest.

For most of us we can easily trace our ancestors back to those who in some way made a living off the land. On my father's side I need only go back to his childhood to find him living on a ranch. On my mother's side I must go back to her father and his youth.

Our ancestors knew what it was like to breath in the dust of a newly plowed field. To watch the weather in anticipation of how it would affect the growing season.

These photos were all bought at estate sales. The first group is of farmers in Nebraska.

Click on any image to see it larger.

On the back of the shot above it says "preparing ground for alfalfa."

And these are from California.

And though these have been posted before, they fit the theme perfectly.

This is my submission to this weeks Sepia Saturday theme of "work."