I mentioned that I bought a stack of old photos while in Jacksonville. Let's travel back in time and enjoy this sample selection!
Written on the back of this first shot: "On top of a torpedo boat, sitting on a torpedo. Easter Sunday, April 8, 1928."
Pretty sure that's not a torpedo, but whatever.
Someone was really proud of their shiny pantsuit! Satin, I presume?
Written on the back: "This is the old barn, over 200 years old. I'm the one petting the dog. The others are the tenant and his children."
What are the odds this barn is still standing somewhere?
Dated 5/16/38 with this message typed on the back: "If I really looked like this -- no wonder you went to Mobile."
The more I look at this picture, the more interesting it gets. The toys (including a creepy clown!), the kid's pained expression, the fact that there's so much featureless vegetation off to the right. It's very strange framing. I guess they were trying to put the kid in the center.
How much more 1950s could we get? The standing ashtrays, the wood paneling, the sundress, the big earrings, and of course the bottle-fed baby. God forbid she should breastfeed that child! (Assuming she's the mom.)
Written on the back: "Dorothy was 'Grandma' in a play the last day of school."
Her costume reminds me of the old lady in the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons, but this might have been taken before those even came out. (According to Wikipedia, Tweety first appeared in 1942; Sylvester in 1945.) I guess it was a pretty conventional old lady look.
Finally, a shot of Key West's beloved Conch Train from 1963, with the Flagship Restaurant and some great old cars in the background. Key West must have seemed like the end of the world back then, a sunny remote speck at the end of a long, narrow highway. When I first went just over 20 years later, long before the cruise ships came, it felt that way to me.
If you're interested in seeing other old pictures I picked up in Jacksonville, the online album is here. (It also contains some I bought in February from the same shop.)
What a great memory jogger. I remember those ashtrays. They were the height of elegance.
ReplyDeleteThese are treasures! My first glance at Dorothy as Granny I thought she looks like the character from Sylvester and Tweety! Proud and shiny pantsuit looks like it was homemade.
ReplyDeleteEvocative pictures of times gone by. Insects caught in amber. Needless to say but I found the tight fitting satin trouser suit rather alluring, nay - sexy! What a doll!
ReplyDeleteThe one with the woman feeding the baby looks like it could have been in a motel room. Not many homes had window air conditioners back then then even in the Deep South. I grew up there in the 50s and 60s and the bed, chair, walls, ac, and furniture all look typical of mom and pop motels of that era.
ReplyDeleteIt is about a decade since my mother wore a bright but dark pink satin blouse. I thought it looked ok but a blogmate thought it was very old lady.
ReplyDeleteIs Mobile a town? Miss 1938 looks like she is enjoying the sailor attention. I cannot criticise her for that.
The baby feeding mother has taken either a shot, speed or coke. Maybe she is just delirious from lack of sleep.
Conch train? Conch = shell?
Another intriguing collection!
ReplyDeleteThe young man with the pained expression is squinting against the sun, and learning to walk, working his way around the bench.
Let's see ...
ReplyDeleteI spent Easter Sunday sitting on a piece of artillery?
I believe the pride in the pantsuit is that it's homemade.
I bet that barn is still standing, they seem to last forever.
She may not have liked her looks, but the two military men are nuzzled closely.
It's a pretty scary picture; that kid is conjuring a spell.
I'm guessing the woman feeding the baby is a grandmother because she's very well-dressed, as in for a visit.
Now THAT one's scary; what if there was no play and this is just how she dressed?
I always said Key West feels like "a world away" and that picture reminds me of that.
I'm pretty sure I know what that kid is doing, and I'm pretty sure it will involve a diaper change. Ha!
ReplyDeleteYou'd have a pained expression if a duck was biting your fingers! Great bunch of pictures. I was in key West in the early 70s, still very quiet then, like a different world from the rest of the state.
ReplyDeleteThese are all so great! Good finds, Steve. In the first picture, if that's not a torpedo, what is it? I am clueless. They were so gussied up for Easter. Do you suppose they went to church, first?
ReplyDeleteThe pants suit does indeed have to be homemade. Lots of satin used in that one. I wonder what color it was.
The lady with the sailors obviously had a terrific sense of humor. I love her!
That little man with his toys. Look how carefully his hair was combed.
I, too, am wondering if that's the bottle-drinking baby's mother. I'm thinking maybe an aunt. But it could be Mama.
Dorothy-Grandma's face reminds me a bit of a very young Mick Jagger's face. Can you see it?
I'm pretty sure I rode that Conch Train just about three years before that picture was taken.
The clown toy is not creepy. Clown toys were popular back then and not associated with anything scary yet. My sister's favorite toy was a clown named "Clowny" and mine was a teddy bear named "Beary". We weren't very inventive with our names for them!?! We still have these toys, tho!
ReplyDeleteinteresting selection of photos. I don't really have anything to add to the other comments. fun to see them though.
ReplyDeleteA great collection of old photos. You do find some interesting stuff. I often wonder why people give up their family photos like this.
ReplyDeleteThese are so much fun to look at. I'm trying to figure out what was meant by "If I really looked like this". But that aside, You couldn't pay me to sit on that top rung of the ships railing. The lady in satin is making a fashion statement. And, Dorothy as 'Grandma' made me ponder the differences between aging then and now.
ReplyDeleteGreat set of photos.
The hats on the torpedo are enviable! Wonderful hats!
ReplyDeleteThe lady with weird stubby looking legs in the photo , flanked by gentlemen in glaring white, curious.Short granny looks legit like she just stepped out of some sort of cult.
Love these old photos, so many stories!
Old photos like that always make me feel a little sad. Nobody cared to keep them. My husband always says, “A hundred years from now, nobody will even know I existed”. I guess it true more often than not.
ReplyDeletePictures no doubt once dear to someone, now discarded and forgotten. I can't understand why they were not kept in their families. I find it almost painful now to see these people once so full of life.
ReplyDeleteThis is an extra good collection of photos and I love all the comments, too! Seeing the woman perched on the rail between the two officers makes my heart drop into my stomach a little. That would be a painful (if not deadly) fall backwards!
ReplyDeleteThe past makes a brief appearance in the present. Those are great photos. Love the barn, it's a good barn.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting batch! I love the creepy, grouchy kid and the little "Grandma." Especially love your interpretation!
ReplyDeleteI love that picture of the "little old lady" with the cane. Before I read your caption, I was thinking "Little Women" and I don't think I've ever read that.
ReplyDeleteWelcome Home - Fabulous Photos Here - Long Live Olga Girl
ReplyDeleteCheers
Interesting as always.
ReplyDeleteThe liquid n the baby bottle doesn't look like milk, so it may be water or diluted juice, with the baby wearing almost nothing I'd say it was summer so it's probably water with grandma or aunty feeding it to him/her
ReplyDeleteP.S. great photos.
ReplyDeleteCaro: Which is weird, because they're not particularly elegant. Funny how our perceptions change over time.
ReplyDeleteMitchell: Yeah, I think you're right about that pantsuit.
YP: Tight-fitting?! Are you seeing the same pantsuit I am?
Don: That's a VERY good point. It does look like a motel.
Andrew: Yes, Mobile is the main port city in Alabama. The Conch Train is indeed named after the conch shell, which is also the name Key West residents use for themselves and their island. They call it the "Conch Republic."
GZ: That's probably why the toys are on the bench -- to attract him to it.
Bob: Great observations! I think the woman with the baby is too young to be Grandma. Maybe she's an aunt?
Bug: Ha! It DOES look like that!
Boud: I wish I could travel back in time and visit Key West again the way it used to be.
Ms Moon: It's some kind of artillery gun -- basically a modern cannon! I can indeed see the Mick Jagger resemblance on Dorothy. A long-lost ancestor?
Ellen D: It's sad the way perfectly innocent clowns have been made scary by our modern culture! (Thanks to John Wayne Gacy and Stephen King.) My brother and I used to name all our animals and toys in similar ways -- just add Y!
Ellen: It's always interesting what can be found in the antique stores.
Robin: Hard to say. I think sometimes they put them in storage and then lose them because the bills on the unit don't get paid. Or they die and they're the last in their family line.
Sharon: It IS funny to see that "Grandma" costume and think how Grandma would be depicted today. She'd probably be carrying a pickleball racket!
Linda Sue: "Cult" granny -- ha! I love it!
Linda D: It IS sort of sad to see old photos abandoned, which is why I buy them and put them online -- so the world can enjoy them and they remain "alive."
Tasker: It's hard to say. Maybe whoever owned them never had kids, or the kids didn't want the pictures. I think many kids figure, "I don't know who these people are -- why should I keep them?" But I think some images still have cultural value, even if they don't have identities.
Kelly: I completely agree about the woman on the railing. That looks dangerous as heck! I'm guessing she was holding onto those two guys for dear life.
Allison: That's a good way to put it -- the past making a brief appearance in the present. I bet that barn is still standing somewhere. They were built to last.
Jeanie: That kid is so funny. Definitely not enjoying whatever's happening.
Catalyst: It DOES look very "Little Women." I've never read it either! I really should.
Padre: She's snoring away right next to me. (Subject of subsequent post!)
Ed: Cheers!
River: Good point -- it does look like juice, maybe? Definitely a warm setting, given the air conditioner behind the woman. (Probably Florida!)
The shiny pantsuit looks like PJs. When my mom told me how they used to make my "formula" I realized that I'm lucky to still be alive.
ReplyDelete