December 1961. Maybe people who lived in the Hollywood Hills or in the pages of Sunset Magazine dwelt in high-concept Case Study homes, but regular young marrieds of this period were more likely to have furnished their abodes from the Early American section of the Montgomery Ward catalog. Here is a classic example of its kind, down to the ubiquitous braided rugs.

My nephew Jimmy, on the right, is visiting his cousin Bobby, and apparently I came along to record the event on this 127 Ektachrome. Jimmy is pulling the talk string on his Casper the Friendly Ghost, one of about a billion times he did it that year. "I'm co-o-o-o-ld." After 47 years that sound still echoes in my brain. Bobby's got himself a Mr. Machine, who didn't talk, but the TV commercial jingle still resonates. "Here he comes, here he comes, greatest toy you've ever seen, and his name is Mr. Machine!" I know that because at the age of 15 I was still watching cartoons on TV every day. In addition to the incredibly cool army truck, somebody has gotten a "Super Sonic Jetliner," whose wings were cleverly designed to deliberately detach. Someone else, presumably, has gotten the gift box of Kools up there on the end table. View full size.

October 1908. Fairmont, West Virginia. "These boys (and one other small one) and their father work in Monongah Glass Works. Father gets $1.75 a day, one boy $1.25 a day, four get 80 cents. Total $6.20 a day. Live in a tumble-down house. What is the trouble?" Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.

July 9, 1925. "Boy Scouts, Camp Roosevelt." National Photo Co. View full size.

July 1942. Fairfax bomber plant, Kansas City. "A wing brace for a B-25 bomber being prepared for the assembly line at North American Aviation. With plenty of speed, a 1,700-mile cruising range and a ceiling of 25,000 feet, the B-25 has performed as a medium bomber and as an escort plane. General Doolittle has called the ship the best military plane in existence." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer, Office of War Information. View full size.

Circa 1920. "Houck Christmas tree." Everyone gather round for eggnog and carols! National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1921. "Whistle Bottling Works. Woolworth window." An elaborate dime-store window display for Whistle orange soda, "the food drink." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

"Luna Park, Pittsburg, 1905." One of several amusement parks of the era that went by that name, the most famous being at Coney Island. At right: The park's "Scenictorium." Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. View full size.

David Coxey 2d, the grandson of labor leader Jacob "General" Coxey, who led his "army of the unemployed" on a protest march to Washington in 1914. "Coxey's Army" was, in turn, led by young David and his intrepid mount after an incident in which the mule pulling the General's phaeton refused to cross a puddle until the pony went first. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

1915. "Eitel Friedrich, German ship taken over by U.S." The commerce raider Eitel Friedrich, a former passenger liner converted into an auxiliary cruiser for the German navy early in World War I, put into port at Newport News, Virginia, for repairs in March 1915 after sinking a number of British ships (and one U.S. merchant vessel) and taking on more than 300 British and French prisoners. After almost a month the captain decided to intern, and the vessel was towed to the Philadelphia Navy Yard, where she remained under the German flag until being seized by the U.S. government in April 1917. (Harris & Ewing.) View full size.

New York, July 1948. "Young boy tossing a ball on a city street." Photograph by Cornell Capa, Life image archive. View full size.

I thought I'd get on the Frank Lloyd Wright bandwagon with this Kodachrome I took in December 1962 of the only federal government building Wright designed. It's the Post Office at the Marin County Civic Center, itself one of Wright's last projects. That's my brother adding a human interest angle. The neat half globe fell victim to vandalism long ago and was never replaced. I apologize for the lack of a Pontiac Bonneville parked provocatively in the foreground. View full size.

1910. "New York Public Library. A reading room." The NYPL on Fifth Avenue would open the following year. 8x10 glass negative, G.G. Bain. View full size.

December 1924. "Santa's toys." Toy World at Wanamaker's in New York. Be nice, boys and girls, and you might get a Packard! Be naughty and you might get arrested! 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

New York, December 1924. "Unloading Railway Express car." When the sleigh's in the shop, Santa might have to hijack a truck. 5x7 glass negative. View full size.

British Mandate Palestine, 1938. "New general post office building in Jerusalem, N.W. corner on Jaffa Road, opened June 17, 1938, by His Excellency." 5x7 dry-plate glass negative, Matson Photo Service. View full size.