Happy Fourth

This is such a fun vintage photograph from Charles Phoenix.

It's a beautiful sunny weekend in California.
Tomorrow I'll be poolside with a South Carolina-style hot dog, macaroni salad, deviled eggs, and of course watermelon.
Happy Birthday America!

I Heart Maypoles

The photograph has a description but not a date.
It says this is May Queen Ellen Lied Berg, 20, of Little Neck, Long Island NY, in the middle of brownie groups at the Old Westbury Gardens.


The New Yorker Magazine, May 1941


(click on image to enlarge)
This undated photograph appears to be a Maypole at an elementary school.
The back of the photo indicates the film was developed in Winona, Minnesota.

Photobooth Friday

This smiling, pigtailed girl is from 1940's Germany.
The image is a found photo (well, I purchased it, but same difference, in that I don't know her history).
Something about her appeals to me--perhaps because I used to wear my hair that way in high school gymnastics competitions.

Photo Friday

Found photos.
Photos in flea markets or garage sales or thrift stores.
Photos of people that families no longer know or want to know.
Or perhaps the photos are just strays...lost on the wind.

Occasionally I'll buy these photos.
I'm not sure what I'll do with them, but I feel compelled nevertheless.

Like this pretty girl, so carefree.
The image is dated September 1967.


Other photos showcase events.
This one is from a May Day celebration in San Diego around 1900.

(click on image to enlarge)
This one carries a photographer's stamp, "Herbert R Fitch, San Diego Cal".
According to the ebay seller I purchased this from, "Photogapher Fitch was a highly sought after and respected photogapher of the time - making official photos of the San Diego Pan Pacific Exposition, as well as images of various public monuments and sights including Scripps University. His work is well documented in San Diego City Archives"
The scene is described as "c. 1900 depicting a large group of Highschool girls dressed in virginal white dancing around a large maypole in the center of a grassy circle while classmates and families look on"
What's fun for me is seeing the old buildings in the background, wondering if any still stand today.

One of my favorite found photos, previously posted here.

San Diego History

I wrote previously about my grandmother being at Tent City for her honeymoon in 1904 (post here)
Coronado's history is fascinating to me.

I recently purchased this original flier, dated 1919, advertising new amenities at Tent City


Here are some of the fees and information, such as "furs are only needed as an adornment".
(click on image to enlarge. The 'all sizes' icon over the flickr photo page will enable you to zoom further)


Vintage postcards of Tent City
This one postmarked 1906


Moonlight


Main Street


A later postcard, this one from 1944


And this, the creme de la creme...
Two photographs of what I assume is a family (or perhaps two families) in adjoining bungalows (or tents, or cabanas, whichever you prefer).
The seller I purchased these from didn't realize what she had, so I was able to buy these for a song.
Her description is interesting: "The photos show 13 people dressed for the beach in c.1899. The men are wearing coats and ties. The women are wearing full length skirts or dresses. The boy is wearing a tie. His only concession to the beach is that he is barefoot!
They are standing in front of two different tents. One is tent number S27 the second is tent S29. The tents are made by the San Diego Tent and Awning Company. There must have been a regular tent city on the beach because the tent was on Wyoming Ave."

The expression on the boy's face is priceless (again, click on image to enlarge)

Photo Friday

I'm a sucker for vintage photographs of San Diego.
This one is an ebay purchase, so I don't know the location of this interesting 'sculpture' these ladies are seated upon, nor the history of the ladies themselves.

On the back of the photo, writing indicates this was taken February 1920.
Writing on the top front says San Diego, and another word I can't make out.
The ladies are identified as Mae (or is it Mar?), Billie, and Peggy, and they are suited up fancy indeed!

My mom made a guess that this was taken in front of the US Grant Hotel, because she remembers a balcony like that.
I'm wondering if it might be closer to the port.
Does anyone know?

Photo Friday

Real photo postcard, circa 1916,
the boardwalk at Atlantic City, New Jersey.

I collect seagull images (mostly photographs, but also ceramics).
Seagulls epitomize where I live and my love of the ocean.
This postcard is an ebay purchase.

This seagull appears to be a taxidermy one, or a fake one.
Despite that eewww factor, the photograph itself is lovely.
The lace-up shoes, the twig bench, the painted sea scene in the background, the beret in her lap...

It seems fitting to post another excerpt from Kitchen Table Wisdom.
This story is called "The Wood-of-No-Names" (page 70)

"Just before she meets with Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Alice enters the wood-of-no-names and encounters a fawn. Neither the fawn nor Alice can remember their names. No matter. They walk a ways together, 'Alice, with her arms clasped lovingly around the soft neck of the Fawn,' until they come to the edge of the wood. Once there, the fawn suddenly remembers its name and looks at Alice with horror. 'I'm a Fawn!' it cries out, 'and, dear me! you're a human child!' Terrified, it runs away.

As a child I spent many summers alone on a deserted beach on Long Island, gathering shells, digging for little clams, leading a far different life than the city life I led the rest of the year. Day after day, I watched everything, developing an eye for change in all its subtlety. The rest of the year in New York City, I did not look directly at anyone I did not know and did not talk to strangers.

There was great peace in those summers and a new ability to be without people and yet not alone. I have many good memories of that time. Every morning the sea would wash up new treasures--pieces of wood from sunken boats, bits of glass worn smooth as silk, the occasional jellyfish. Once I even found a pair of glasses with only one lens left in them. Some of the most vivid of these memories concerned the beautiful white birds that flew constantly overhead. I remember how their wings would become transparent when they passed between me and the sun. Angel wings. I remember how my heart followed them and how much I too wanted wings to fly.

Many years later I had the opportunity to walk this same beach. It was a great disappointment. Bits of seaweed and garbage littered the shoreline, and there were sea gulls everywhere, screaming raucously, fighting over the garbage and the occasional dead creature the sea had given up.

Disheartened, I drove home and was halfway there before I realized that the gulls were the white birds of my childhood. The beach had not changed. The sacred lives beyond labels and judgment, in the wood-of-no-names."

Photo Friday

Insanely expressive--such a fun image.
I mean, LOOK at that boo-boo face!
And the cute sailor suit!

This is just a 'found' photo, so its history is unknown.
Writing on the back says Billy and Bobby (Bobby was also known as either Spot, or Spat, or Spar...I can't decipher the handwriting).
It's dated 9-6-42

So many interesting characteristics in the background too--hairbows, brick, pipe smoking, and old car...

Photo Friday

I don't know the history of this photo,
nor the identity of this man,
nor the location of the house he's painting.

I purchased this image on ebay because it so eerily looks like my dad.

I love the Irving Gill-style eaves pergola eaves, and can imagine the shadows cast...
an interplay of shadow and light.
I envision the breezes that blew...
the blossoms that danced.

I love the high-waisted, swabbie-style pants,
and the carefree playfulness of this moment captured in time.

Photo Friday

I wish I knew the history of this sepia-toned wonder.
Who was this artist, and where is he painting this scene?
In what year?
Who is the woman watching?

I find this fascinating...an artist in the process of creating.
Something about a view that sparked an urge to capture it in paint.

For now I'll just have to speculate.
This was an eBay purchase.
Once I mat and frame it, I think it will be even more intriguing.

Photo Friday

I came across another pic of one of my birthday parties. The photo is damaged, but still okay.
(you can click the image to enlarge)

I posted another pic on an earlier post.
I'm not sure why in this pic I'm wearing socks and tennies, and in the other (from the same day), I have on black tights.
I do know my mom made the dress I'm wearing.

My birthday parties were famous!
My dad would act like a gorilla and throw pennies.
We squealed with joy.

There were innocent games, like Pin the Tail on the Donkey.
Sometimes the kids got fun packages to take home.
I still remember the names of the girls pictured: Susan, Jeanine, Eugenie, Lisa, me, Jane, Kelly, Kerry.

Years later, I was still referred to as the girl with the good parties.
I was lucky in that regard--my childhood memories are filled with fun moments.

Photo Friday

(click on image to enlarge)

I love May Poles.
The epitome of sweet innocence.

This is from a stereoview, A June Carnival – Dancing ‘Round the Daisy Pole.
Keystone View Company, Manufacturers and Publishers.
Copyright 1900 by B.L. Singley

Vintage lovely lady

I was going to post this for Photo Friday, but I can't wait.

I purchased this at the rummage sale.
She may be from the late 20's or early 30's. I love the curl on the forehead.

She has some speckling damage to her face because the mat was not archival.
I still really like her, and wonder how she was lost without a family history.

Speaking of lovely ladies, Aubrey has some amazing posts (probably my favorite blog of all), like this one, about the 'professional beauty'.
No one writes like Aubrey--she's exceptional.

Flapper Friends

(click on image to enlarge)

I haven't posted a photo in awhile.
I purchased this on ebay. Something about it just appealed to me.
It appears to be the 1920's, perhaps school chums.
I love the unposed quality of it, the comradrie.

1940's Photo Christmas Card

Little boy on Santa's knee, mid-1940's.
That little boy, named Butch, is in his 60's now.
Note the cute little US Navy outfit he's wearing.
This is my mom's cousin (so that makes him my second cousin?). I've never met him.
I think the photo is precious.