The Case of PILOT MOUND

"Your honor, we submit into evidence Exhibit A. The jury will plainly see that this is a photo of the town doctor, Doc Jenkins, taken on the morning of April 6th 1953 doing what he did every single morning...tapping the handle of the town water pump. Doc Jenkins was a beloved member of this town and we all accepted that each day he tapped the pump then ran across the street and licked the barber pole. Not one of you here didn't think kindly of Doc Jenkins...except Mitch the Barber. Mitch the Barber who has held a grudge against Doc Jenkins since 1937 when the doc treated Mitch for an unfortunate boil."

Who really knows what this vernacular photograph is about. I haven't a clue.

Click on the evidence to see it larger.

Which came first...THE CHICKEN OR THE PIG?

So you're a happy farm family and you've just harvested some melons. You decide to have a photo taken while you have your impromptu feast. So which shows up first? The chickens or the pig? Or did they purposely go to where the pig was knowing it would eat the rind left behind? Were the chickens eating the seeds that were being unceremoniously spit in all directions? 

Click on image to see it larger.

I can say that this was a family that liked melons. Really enjoyed their melons, because I have other photos of them with melons...but no pig. This is the only one with the pig. It's a nice pig. I don't want to think about what happened to the nice pig. For awhile the pig enjoyed melon...and then not so much. Same with the chickens. 

So I add this to my collection. 

Category: pig eating melon vernacular photograph or 

child shoving fork in mouth vernacular photograph or 

farm hand forced to eat at back end of pig vernacular photograph. 

You be the judge. It's a category now. I  must find more.

Pick a category and then COLLECT THE HECK OUT OF IT

Some vernacular photography enthusiasts collect within rigid categories. Perhaps they only collect photographs with a looming shadow in the foreground. Or maybe only photos of children with dolls. I collect them all and I do keep them in mental categories. I've said before I'm a sucker for shots of people cutting cakes. I also like children with toys. And I do collect the looming shadow shots. 

Another category is people on horseback. I have a few. I realized I had to set up certain parameters so now the horses have to be alive...or plastic. I won't buy shots of people on dead stuffed horses. I have my reasons. They're private. And yes, I've walked away from some nice shots of a woman on a rearing horse when I realized the horse was not changing from shot to shot and it didn't have a shine to its surface.

Now...I think I've come across a whole subcategory. And I have the first for my collection. Henceforth this will be known as:

I. People on horses
   A. subcategory: women on horses
        1. sub-subcategory: women on horses in front of screen doors
            a. sub-sub-subcategory: women on horses in front of screen doors with kids looking out

I'm going to keep my eyes open and hopefully will add to this collection soon.

Click on image to see it larger.

Next post: people with pigs and melons

Living in a PARALLAX PANORAMAGRAM UNIVERSE

I posted some photos today at my ephemera site that might be of interest to people who like vernacular photography simply because we should all be grateful that this really didn't catch on. I can only imagine what it would have been like to carry around a camera that would produce photographs such as this. Eastman Kodak, along with Look magazine and Harris-Intertype Corporation, were originally involved in pioneering this product.

Click on image to see it larger.

If anyone knows anything about the demise or next stage of this process let me know. Basically all I found out I posted at my other site. You can read more about it here at Tattered and Lost Ephemera.

The MGM Grand HAD NOTHING ON THIS

This is for Robert at Live from the Surface of the Moon. I generally don't share personal family photos or anything that I've shot, but this is different. This is part of the human experience 40 years ago. This was a global experience and I haven't seen anything since then that has stopped the rotation of the earth in the same way. 

I was one of those people sitting glued to my tv for days awaiting the arrival of the astronauts on the moon and none of it was a hyped let down. It was all magnificent. I snapped pictures with my 35 mm Mamiya Sekor. I had my little reel to reel tape recorder going. All I have left are vague memories buried deep inside that can really only be conjured by closing my eyes or going outside on an especially beautiful full moon night. The reel to reel recording? In a box. I long ago lost the ability to play it. I'm sure there are thousands of photos like this all over the world in long forgotten boxes.

For those who weren't alive to experience this, I'm sorry. You missed a humdinger!

Click on images to see them larger.

Years later friends dragged me nearly kicking and screaming to the MGM Grand for a show. First off I don't like casinos, secondly I hate casino shows. This was billed as an extravaganza with the high point...a real plane on the stage with half naked woman standing on the wings waving and truly lousy dancers cavorting across the stage as the curtain was pulled back. I gritted my teeth while the people in the audience sat mesmerized and applauding. It was all nonsense and I wondered how they could be excited by this when less than 10 years before we'd seen two men walk on the moon. People forget and they move onto the next shiny object. Not me.

Take my picture with my ROLMONICA

When I bought this vernacular photograph I kept staring at the little girl wondering what the heck she was holding. I couldn't make it out. Maybe a camera, but it didn't look like any sort of camera from that time period. I figured I'd scan the image and get a better view. So that's what I did and I still didn't have a clue as to what she was holding. 

Well, it's a Rolmonica. Once I saw the crank on the side I googled "crank harmonica" and lo and behold up comes some information about this antique instrument. I never knew anything like this existed. I found the following information:

Rolmonica player harmonica, circa 1929

These interesting instruments were made in Baltimore in the late 1920's.  They employ a modified harmonica in which the instrument plays the same note on the draw as it does on the blow (so that the instrument can be played continuously without pausing to take a breath), and paper rolls with holes are passed over the harmonica holes to determine which notes will be played.  These instruments were one of the first commercial applications of bakelite, an early plastic-like material that proved very important as an electrical insulator. (SOURCE: http://www.billsbanjos.com/rolmonica.htm)

I love the photo. The mother is clearly doting on her son who has some crumpled tissues in his hand. A tender moment? Not as far as the sister is concerned. She's not putting down her Rolmonica for any tender mushy stuff. I can just imagine her wandering around in that garden, busily playing Turkey in the Straw, in her own world, when she's called over to take the photo. She stops cranking long enough for the shot to be taken and then skips around the fountain back into her own little world.

Click on image to see it larger.

There were quite a variety of songs available on music rolls. You can see a list here. I would especially like to hear Sidewalks of New York. Always loved that tune. I even see the Hoagy Carmichael song Lazy Bones listed. Quite a variety, including Christmas and patriotic songs. So she could have driven people nuts all year long, through every holiday.

Here are a couple of fun videos of gentleman showing how the Rolmonica works. I certainly learned something new today.

Dorothy and THE TIN MAN?

This is Dorothy and Fred. That's what it says on the back. They're Dorothy and Fred. At first I thought maybe she was Rebecca of Stoneybrook Farm in that big hat. Then I thought, no she really is a Dorothy and Fred is the Tin Man. A cross-dressing Tin Man. It's possible. Times have changed. I'm open to that. 

Fred was a good fellow with a good sense of humor...I hope. I  hope this wasn't a photo relatives trotted out to embarrass him in front of friends and family...or worse yet the young ladies he courted. Poor Fred, dying of embarrassment when his mother rushed to get the photo album to show his sweetheart his childhood photos hoping she'd get to know the family better. 

I hope things worked out for Fred.

KIBITZING over a cone

It's 104 degrees outside and the idea of walking into a nice cool ice cream parlor seems very appealing. Can't you just hear the whirring of the ceiling fan? Wonder what these two were talking about? A little town gossip? Is the one behind the counter saying "No, really you don't want the strawberry, believe me. Stick with the chocolate. It came in fresh this morning. The strawberry (looking from side to side) last Friday."

Click on image to see it larger.

I don't know what year is on the calendar. Not sure I can even pull that in in a really good scan. I'm guessing early to mid-50s. 

Oh, the thought of those seamed stockings on a hot day. No way. NO WAY! 

And my big question is when are scientists going to finally tell us we need a cone a day. Okay, I'm really grateful that I lived long enough to have chocolate declared healthy, but come on. Let's hear it for ice cream. A cone a day. That's all I'm asking.