RELATIVELY speaking...

This real photo postcard comes from a collection of family photos from Scotland. Not one face looks familiar, so I'm left wondering who these ladies were and why did my grandmother have this photo.


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The influence of Japan on Western culture and art for the masses began, I believe, in the 1850s. Of course, this photo is not that old. I'm guessing this was taken sometime during the first couple of decades of the 20th century. It was never posted so it had to be before the late teens when my grandparents moved from Scotland to California.

A group of Scottish friends having this photo taken for fun? Sort of like photos taken today where you dress up like a character from the old West? Possible.

I'm more inclined to believe that these ladies were from a performance of The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan. Now who wouldn't want to hear it performed by a group of Scots with a thick brogue?

So this card might have been for a theater troupe. We'll never know unless someday someone else comes across a copy of one and has a better explanation.

Whenever I look at this photo I think of the kimono I had that was stolen. Many years ago my home was broken into and many items were stolen. Damn alarm system wasn't working. Over the years I would suddenly remember things that I hadn't seen in a long time, adding items to the mental list of what the burglar took. My kimono from my childhood was one of them. They left the yellow obi, probably not knowing what it was. It was a beautiful red kimono with flowers and butterflies.

When I lived in Hawaii as a child my best friend and I would play samurai and geisha instead of the cowboy and indians we'd played when living on the Mainland. It still makes me very sad to think my kimono was taken. It was mine, it was infused with my memories, and I cherished it. Now? Who knows where it is or if it still even exists. It might have ended up as a rag and now be covered in refuse at the dump. Okay, now I'm just making myself really sad.

Let's go back to thinking that this was a group of ladies who were friends of my Scottish grandmother. They went out for the day to Edinburgh, had their photo taken, then went somewhere pleasant for tea and scones. Girdle (griddle) scones, please.

This is my submission for Sepia Saturday this week.

UP on a rock

This is an image from my book Tattered and Lost: Telling Stories. When I saw the Sepia Saturday challenge this week I immediately thought of it.

I think there are probably a lot of stories for what's going on, but for me the main one has always been a question. Was the ladder already there or did they bring it? And if they brought it where else did they go with their ladder? Wouldn't it be grand to think this family had a series of shots of themselves on top of things?


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Nearing the END OF THE HOLIDAYS

Just in time, before we're all burned out, the holidays are coming to an end. How soon before Costco again has the aisles full of Barbie dolls and wrapping paper?

Until then, rest my friends, quiet rest.


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The INNOCENCE of BASEBALL

Professional sports are ugly. They're a big business full of egos and corruption. They sell a product based on lies. The saddest part are the kids who follow the sports and the "stars" who are overpaid and too often void of basic moral standards. It's not going to change no matter who they point the finger at. It's a business and it's sad.

All of this of course says nothing about the actual sports. The sports can still be played for fun and not profit, their purest form. But let's admit that even Little League games can be full of ego and ugly behavior, mostly by the parents who themselves have forgotten it's just a game and for some reason see their kid out on the field as a victim or, in some maniacal way, playing at the level of the "show."

Here we have a group of guys, probably sometime after 1911, who formed a team.


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I'm curious about the two players dressed in uniforms. Were they on pro teams and just playing a pickup game with these guys? We'll never know because there's no information written on the back. They look like old fashioned baseball cards. I once worked for a fellow who bought a Honus Wagner card with Wayne Gretzky. I think it was at that moment I understood that some ephemera could be worth a lot of money; just a simple piece of paper.



And the only way I dated this image was by looking at the logo on the bat on the left. It was made by J. F. Hillerich & Sons in Louisville, Kentucky, famous for making the Louisville Slugger.



Whenever I find vintage photos of baseball “teams” they’re always adults; I never find photos of kids with teammates. This isn’t to say I don’t find them with the tools of baseball. In one of my maternal grandfather’s class photos he is holding a baseball glove sometime around 1910. I never saw this photo until after he'd passed so I never got to hear stories of the games he played.

School DAZZLING!

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You can see the WHEELS SPINNING

This little fellow, from the Three Buck Big Box of Photos, has appeared numerous times on this site. He's been at a table with Wonder Bread, with a parakeet on his head, and most recently with a turtle cake. Here we have him with some lip-smackin' goodness. I also think the wheels are turning. It isn't just his tongue that's working. He's got plans, lots of plans.


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AIM FIRST BEFORE YOU SHOOT...

or be a cute little girl. Being cute can often get you out of all sorts of trouble.

NAMELESS FACES in a group shot

For this weeks Sepia Saturday I'm showing a post I did several years ago that will probably be new to all of you.

You know those lovely pyramid style group photos where everyone just looks like a peanut head? Imagine being a parent and paying for this. Granted the original is 8 x 10, but still, if the kids didn't get individual school photos and only got this group shot it's just sad. But all is not lost thanks to modern cheap technology. 

I like the way the kids are all playing at being adults. Each girl wears a corsage and each boy a tie. These kids were mercifully clueless about what was going to happen. Wonder what their lives were like? What they became? Anyone want to guess which grade? I'm thinking perhaps graduation from 7th.

The sitters.

Insurance salesmen, hairdressers, soldiers, doctors, members of  the Elks, husbands, fathers, wives, mothers, politicians, car salesmen, scientists, entrepreneurs, teachers, nurses? What was the future for the 7th grade graduating class of 1961? Looking at these little munchkins it would be hard to imagine them taking on the world and today being in their 60s.

I'll admit, to me, the first shot below reminds me of Tom Delay's mugging mug shot. Let's hope this young fellow took a wiser path. And the last two fellows? Well they just about sum it up, don't they?

Lovely Ladies TAGGED AND WAITING

I really don't know what's going on in this photo. A group of lovely ladies of various ages all sitting on steps, many with tags hanging off the front of their blouses. Amongst them is one little girl. Who were these ladies and what prompted the gathering?

I'll admit when I see someone with tags like this, tied on with string, I can't help but think of American citizens being tagged during World War II and carted off to relocation camps. That thought is even more in my mind right now because of what has happened in Japan. Another heartbreak that causes me deep and stuttered breaths.

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But blogging is a place to escape for a few moments from the real world, at least at my blog.

So let us ponder these ladies? Mail order brides wearing shipping labels? Their version of the "Hello. My name is..." name tag? Did they all go around shaking each other's hands, meeting and greeting for the first time? Wives of conventioneers? And what of the little girl? Was she the only child at this event and did she remember this event and tell stories throughout her life?

There's no information written on this photo. It is another image from Bert's collection.

A WOMAN'S WORK is never done

Okay, these days it can be just doggone annoying to have to get up off the couch to get new batteries for the remote. Think of how long it took to go from what you see in these photos to couch potato. Centuries and centuries required real labor to just get through the day. Virtually no one but the elite were immune to physical labor of some sort. Not so much today.

These photos were bought last year at an estate sale. No information available about the identities of the women. I can only surmise they were from Nebraska since other vintage images were from Nebraska.

I don't know why, but I'm convinced the second one is Cinderella.

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CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

Just taking a moment to stop in and give you a call. Happy New Year!

A tiny tiny photo from Bert's collection. This one measures approximately 1" square. Lovely little girl with one of those fun old phones. Always wanted to have a phone like this. Don't want the party line, had one of those in the Sierra's. They are a nightmare. But the phone, yes, I want one.

Have no information about this lovely young girl. She's just the Happy New Year vernacular photo princess.

The KNEELERS

Do you know about the Leaners? People who lean in when a photo is being taken? Sometimes it's just two people leaning towards each other. Sometimes it's a group of people all leaning towards the center, perhaps thinking if they don't they'll not be in the photo.

I give my best friend an elbow nudge about this because so often she has sent me family photos where one or more family member is leaning. I call them The Leaners.

I now give you...the Kneelers. An entire family of kneelers. And they did this because...?

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Were they worried someone across the street would see them being photographed so they tried to hide behind the porch railing? Did they know their nosy neighbor Mrs. Plunken would come rushing across the street wanting to be in the shot?

Were they a family of performers that liked to duck walk?

Or was it because that's where the sun was? Did the photographer want them to go off the porch onto the lawn, but the patriarch of the family refused and sat his rear down on a tub of nails forcing the rest of the family to kneel to be around him?

We'll never know. Nothing is written on the back. They will henceforth be known as The Kneelers.

Another image from Bert's collection.

LEAVING the Station

The more I look through the Three Buck Big Box of Photos the more interesting it becomes. There are no quality shots that would be worth any money, but individually examined I'm finding them fascinating. Instead of just a jumble of images I begin to see threads connecting different people, moments in their lives. Very ordinary people in ordinary moments.

I'll never have definitive answers about these folks, but when looking at vernacular photography, for me, that isn't really the goal. Each image stands on its own leaving me to create my own stories. Adding in a few more photos really only adds more details.

I've shown several photos that have handwriting on the back by the same person including:

Trouble ON THE RED CARPET

Confusion in RENO, NEVADA

Now I know that the handwriting belongs to the woman in today's photo.

More to come.

Eating WATERMELON Together

Though you might be inclined to keep a watermelon for yourself, I find it much more fun to share. It's nice to see friends and family reduced to dealing with the juice running down their chin and forearms, forced to spit seeds in all directions. Alas, this Labor Day I will not be eating watermelon. I will be eating the peach pie I just baked using the last of the peaches off my tree. It smells like heaven and I know I'll be checking on it constantly as it cools just so I can inhale and dream of the taste to come.

I give you another in my "people eating watermelon" collection from the big bag of negs. Don't worry, it's a small collection. These same ladies appeared in the July 7th post eating, of course, watermelon. A vernacular photography Labor Day watermelon eating event!

Confusion in RENO, NEVADA

Another "gem" from the Three Buck Big Box of Photos. A snapshot that would, and should, be overlooked, but then I figure there's got to be something there. I paid 3 cents for this thing and I want my moneys worth.

Beyond the fact that even without the date on the front you'd know this photo was from the early 1960s because of the clothes, hairstyles, and car there is the added fun of the back of the photo. I'll just post it and let you deal with the apparent confusion that existed as to where and when this shot was taken.

I can tell you that the handwriting on the back is the same handwriting that was on the back of Kenneth's photo and again exact time was important. Witness protection program? Why was time of so much importance to this person if not for an alibi?

Once again, a vernacular photograph worthy of any collection...as long as your collection is the type that people dread having to look at.

Taken in RAY WITT'S BACKYARD

Brew brothers or real brothers? Best friends or twins?

Okay, they're not twins, but as to the rest of it I just don't know. On the back of the photo it says:

Taken Ray Witts Back yard in Cupertino Calif July - 57

So perhaps one of these guys is Ray Witt. No way of knowing. If they aren't related I find it fascinating that friends would so closely mirror each others smiles.

Wonder where I found this gem? Can we say Three Buck Big Box of Photos? I know we can. I'm figuring each photo in this box cost about 2 to 3 cents. I'm getting easily a mile out of them. Vernacular photography at its finest.

And is it just me or does the fellow on the left look like Kenneth from yesterday?

Trouble ON THE RED CARPET

I don't watch awards shows on tv so I might be late reporting this, but I hear Angelina Jolie had a little trouble last night on the red carpet. Something about her shoes and stockings. I think this photo about sums it up.

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Seriously, this is from the Three Buck Big Box of Photos. On the back it says "MarJarie Dale Bailey, Evelyn's girl. Jan 1956"