MAY CONTAIN NUTS
HOME
Home

Search Shorpy

SEARCH TIP: Click the tags above a photo to find more of same:
Mandatory field.

Search results -- 30 results per page

Lost Horizon: 1905
... and intimacy [sp?] being right among the children. Kids Will Be Kids No matter the time period. That would've been me On the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/14/2011 - 4:53pm -

New York circa 1905. "Surf bathing at Coney Island. Children swinging on pier rope." 8½ x 6½ glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Swim SuitsI wonder why these children are so dressed up at the beach. I love this picture. You are really witnessing a slice of life here. TraditionI just goes to prove that it doesn't matter what period or era: show a kid a rope like that and they've gotta take a swing on it. That's a wonderful picture, great angle for the shot and intimacy [sp?] being right among the children. Kids Will Be KidsNo matter the time period. That would've been meOn the right, high above the water, hanging on for dear life! As Mae West once said, "A girl who knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up!" Ah, Elaine's inspirationNothing is more urban than New York's Coney Island, so it is no surprise where Elaine Benes got the idea for the name of her "Urban Sombrero" as featured in the 1997 J. Peterman catalog. Make your own shade, little wader, make your own shade. Wait a sec. That rope on the right. Are we watching children being whisked up and away by some unseen power, some evil thing that is - oh, I don't know - saucer-shaped? Or perhaps they are just now arriving, pod by pod. (The Gallery, Coney Island, DPC, Kids, Swimming)
Bathing Beauty Pirates: 1924
... 1924. Photograph by M.F. Weaver. View full size Kids I wonder who the two kids in the middle are. One of them appears to be a ten or eleven year old ... 
 
Posted by Ken - 12/10/2007 - 4:35pm -

Jewell Pathe's Bathing Beauty Pirates capture Vitagraph Ships for "Captain Blood" in Balboa Beach, California, June 15, 1924. Photograph by M.F. Weaver. View full size KidsI wonder who the two kids in the middle are. One of them appears to be a ten or eleven year old girl, and the other a four or five year old boy. KidsKids often served as cute "mascots" for these beauty contests. (Pretty Girls)
Cabbage Patch Kids: 1943
... of War Information. View full size. Cabbage Patch Kids: 1943 The girl on the right looks exactly like actress Helen Hunt. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/12/2016 - 1:09pm -

June 1943. Oswego, New York. "Children recruited for farm work during the summer, waiting to start for work outside the U.S. Employment Service." Photo by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size. Cabbage Patch Kids: 1943The girl on the right looks exactly like actress Helen Hunt. (The Gallery, Agriculture, Marjory Collins)
The Old Stone House: 1865
... fun? Neither would you... ...given the fact that the kids are now living in an occupied city. Notice how the kids are also wearing what appear to be cut-down Union Army sack coats, and two ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/10/2013 - 6:44pm -

      The Ege family dwelling, which had tangential connections to General Lafayette, George Washington and Edgar Allan Poe. April 1865. Richmond, Virginia. "The Old Stone House -- so-called 'Washington's headquarters,' 1916 East Main Street." Wet plate glass negative. View full size. And 148 years later,the building still stands as The Poe Museum. View Larger Map Seven Boys, One WomanI think the boy in the tree is having the most fun. He's got spunk. Otherwise this does seem like a rather dour group. Not having fun? Neither would you......given the fact that the kids are now living in an occupied city. Notice how the kids are also wearing what appear to be cut-down Union Army sack coats, and two of them are wearing Confederate grey kepis. Kind of reminds me of similar photos taken 80 years later of occupied cities in Germany, where a lot of the kids were clad in cast-off military garb. Dour GroupWell, their side just lost the War and there's a very high probability that they each lost at least one brother and maybe a dad in the process. Note the military cut of their jackets. They look like miniature versions of paroled soldiers. One or two may have actually been in one of the city's home guard companies. +159Below is the same view from January of 2024. (The Gallery, Civil War, Kids, Richmond)
Teddy Bear Collection: 1953
... (simulated) adult life. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Kids, tterrapix) ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 03/28/2024 - 6:02pm -

Summer 1953. Here I am, just turned 7 and lacking the full complement of front teeth, with my teddy bears in our back yard in Larkspur, California. The big red one is Rufus, who I won at a church festival, at one of those booths with a spinning wheel and a row of numbers along the counter. Someone gave me a dime to plunk down on one and the wheel stopped on mine. They pointed to all the prizes on the shelf and asked me what I wanted. My eyes bugged out and I pointed and yelled "I want HIM!!!" There's also a Frosty the Snowman and Smokey the Bear. From a 2-1/4 square Kodacolor negative. FrostyWhy does Frosty look like he is wearing falsies? Frosty replyThose are his red mittens. re: FrostyAA - Those would be pasties, rather than falsies. A not inconsequential distinction. tterrace - wonderful pictures, that Victory at Sea cover hit me like Proust's madeleine - a lost world comes flooding back into consciousness. And don't get me started on Looney Tunes! (too late) My mother would indeed be horrified if she knew how big a part the boys at Termite Terrace played in my worldview. Those cartoons have remained a touchstone throughout my (simulated) adult life. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Kids, tterrapix)
The $64 Washer: 1941
... the whites or lights first and "suds save" to wash the kids' clothes after that. It certainly did save water, especially if you had a ... up with a lot of noise from the succeeding groups of grand kids showing up week after week for their time at the cottage. It was a ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/02/2024 - 3:08pm -

        Its big 8-sheet porcelain tub is insulated to keep water warm! Streamlined 8-position wringer with soft balloon rolls has chromium pressure controls; push-pull safety release; roll-stop safety dry feed rest and automatic water-return board. October 1941. "Kenmore washer for sale. Sears Roebuck store at Syracuse, New York." Medium format negative by John Collier. View full size. Mom Was DelightedI remember my mother getting one like that circa 1950; primitive it may have been, but it beat the heck out of the tub and washboard it replaced. Incidentally the price translates to $650 in current dollars. Not cheap, especially considering the lack of disposable income people had back then. They've Gotten CheaperAlthough you can't buy that exact model these days, I think, a comparable washer, with electronics, would cost $1,031.47 in 2016 dollars. $64 was a ton of money pre-WWII. I remember my grandmother had one a bit earlier than that one. She used to roll it onto her front porch to wash clothes and drain the water onto her yard. I remember helping her when I was 3-4 years old and the wringer sucked my arm right into it. Sure glad she was close by and knew to hit the emergency release 'cause I remembered that pinch for a lot of years. That was also when mom's (or grandmothers) used soap instead of detergent. It made great bubbles and smelled oh so nice! Not Exactly CheapBut I'm sure that every part was Made in the U.S. A. Familiar contraption!That looks a lot like the one that was in the basement of the house I shared in grad school at Duke in the early 80s. We were so broke, as students, we used that old thing and its wringer instead of going to a laundromat. If you have never gotten grabbed by an electric wringer, you can't fully appreciate that old saying about getting your teat caught in a wringer. YEOW! Mom-in-Law Was Delighted, TooMy mother-in-law, who grew up as a Pennsylvania farm girl, used one of these until she moved out of her suburban Philadelphia house in 2002, aged 85. She'd run the clothes through the wringer and then put 'em in her fairly new automatic dryer. The grandkids were enthralled! A Dream WasherWringer washers seem primitive now but they made life so much easier for women. I am old enough to remember my mother using one. In the photo above, you can see female customers in the background. They are all dressed up in hats, "good" coats, stockings and heels. Perhaps this Sears store was in downtown Syracuse. A trip downtown warranted getting dressed up. I remember those machinesAlong with the two galvanized washtubs for rinsing the clothes. My job to fill them with water and the washer. Punch the hole in the bottle of bluing for the white clothes. Wipe the outside clotheslines off and if it was winter time shovel the snow out from under the lines. Clothes would freeze solid then we'd bring them back in and hang them up in the basement. Coal furnace would dry them in half and hour. Only on Mondays. Wash day. Skip the Linepennsylvaniaproud said "if it was winter time shovel the snow out from under the [clothes]lines. Clothes would freeze solid then we'd bring them back in and hang them up in the basement. Coal furnace would dry them in half and hour." Why not just hang them in the basement to dry in the first place (in winter)? Not getting why do the extra steps of outdoor clothesline. Demonstration Washing MachineOn the extreme right, there is a washer with glass sides. These were used in department and appliance stores to demonstrate the washing action of the agitator. You could easily see how the clothes circulated in the water. When I left home in 1967 and moved into an old Vancouver, B.C. apartment building, the laundry featured three wringer washers with dual concrete laundry tubs for rinsing, a gas-fired ironing machine, and clotheslines in the spacious roof-top laundry room. Elderly ladies taught me how to use the machines - I was 19 at the time. In the United States, automatics outsold wringers as early as 1951, but in Canada that did not happen until 1968. One of the main reasons was that an automatic was three times more expensive than a wringer. I still have a 1944 Beatty wringer that I use occasionally. Here is a video on how to do your laundry with a wringer washer. Looking at photos like thisWell... Europe was not only at war, but... twenty years late? This design, for me it's just like 1960 or something like that. And some change...I'm sorry, but it's that 95 cents that broke the deal for me. Remember the "Suds Saver" Feature?You would stopper one side of your dual basement sink (which was probably made of concrete) and the washer would drain the sudsy wash water into that side. Then with the next load, the washer would suck that wash water back in and reuse it. My mother would wash the whites or lights first and "suds save" to wash the kids' clothes after that. It certainly did save water, especially if you had a big family and washed lots of loads. Old-style washers with wringerWhen my wife and I bought a 1920s Tampa bungalow, it had a wringer Maytag, originally fitted with a gas engine, in the garage building out back. Patty decided to use it one day, just for laughs, but she was astonished at how clean the clothes were. Soon, that old Maytag was what she used all the time. If I remember correctly, Patty collected the water after washing and used that on her flowerbeds, and the soap helped control insects. Regarding that wringer, yep; I caught my hand in it one time and that was all it took to teach me to stay clear of it after that. But the old wringer washers worked and drying on a clothesline also had advantages. At the cottageMy dad added a room to the back of my grandparents cottage the year after he added an electric pump for running water. He installed a flush toilet, and, a wringer washer just like the one in the picture appeared soon after. It was over in the corner, and I do not remember seeing it in use, but know that my grandmother would have used it to wash all the towels and such us ragamuffins got sand-encrusted at the beach. She sure put up with a lot of noise from the succeeding groups of grand kids showing up week after week for their time at the cottage. It was a never-ending battle to keep sand out of the front room, and encouragments to 'Wipe Your Feet Outside'or 'Get the sand OFF' were made often and AUDIBLY. It didn't help. There seemed to always be a layer of sand in the bottom of the washer tub. Wonder if it wore out the gizzards. Grandma's Washer of ChoiceAs a child growing up in the 60's, I remember well my grandmother owning two of these. She could afford a more modern style washer, but the wringer ones are what she preferred. I guess probably because that is what she was used to using. Sitting on her back porch, watching her feed those clothes through the wringers, looked like so much fun! As much as I'd beg her to let me do it she'd never let me for fear of getting my hand caught!! (Technology, The Gallery, John Collier, Stores & Markets, Syracuse)
Reading Room: 1942
... too bad, because I wonder who the parents are. While the kids are in somber solids, Mom is wearing polka dots and Dad is dressed in a ... the fun ones. [Parents: Walter M. and Mary H. Scott; Kids: Mary Louise Scott and Walter Jr. - Dave] Thanks, Dave. Even though ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/28/2024 - 8:00pm -

November 1942. "Lititz, Pennsylvania. Small town in wartime. Mrs. Julian Bachman at home with her family. She's twenty-three, has been married one year, and works at the Animal Trap Company from 7 to 4. Her husband is in Officer Candidate School of the U.S. Army Air Corps in Kentucky, so she lives with her parents. Her brother is sixteen and in high school." Acetate negative by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size. War reading materialIt appears that Mother might be playing a pump organ (if not a Walkman with tiny headphones) and I'd bet Brother is reading some classic Science Fiction magazine and speeding through space to rescue some damsel from aliens. No hope for Ms Bachman and Pops. She's reading about life as a military wife, apparently. It's a small townDefinitely qualifies as a wild night in Lititz. Bored DogProbably can't play the piano and already finished his latest issue of Squirrel Chaser Quarterly. Dad controls the radio... while Mom sits in the other chair when they listen to their programming in the evenings. Newspapers everywhere -- perhaps the morning and evening editions -- along with those huge magazines of when Life et al were large format. There's the bottom edge of a Life magazine just sneaking out from newspapers and book on the top of the stack on the table in front of Mrs. Bachman who is reading one also: "Life on Midway Island," page 118 of the November 23, 1942 issue of Life magazine. And there is probably Son-in-Law Julian Bachman's picture in uniform on the piano top. One can ponder if Mrs. Bachman's younger brother would enlist in the military by 1944 when he would have turned 18. Bombs for Berlin, 1942Supplement to the November 19 Philadelphia Inquirer. Lititz PretzelsThe newspaper on the top of the stack nearest the camera is The Pretzelette, published by the Lititz High School. The high school’s teams were nicknamed the Pretzels. In 1956 the merger of Lititz, Rothsville and Brunnerville schools formed the Warwick Union School District and the Lititz Pretzels ceased to exist, replaced by the Warwick Warriors and a new school building in Lititz, from which I graduated in 1972. [I wondered what the heck that was! - Dave] Local NewsIs that the Weekly Pretzelvanian? The problem with this pictureis we don't know who they are. Julian Bachman is the husband, gone to Officer Candidate School. We know his bride is 23 and married for one year, and her younger brother is 16. He is, no doubt, a Lititz High School Pretzel. But no one in the photograph has been named. And that's too bad, because I wonder who the parents are. While the kids are in somber solids, Mom is wearing polka dots and Dad is dressed in a striped shirt and very noticeable striped socks. They might be the fun ones. [Parents: Walter M. and Mary H. Scott; Kids: Mary Louise Scott and Walter Jr. - Dave] Thanks, Dave. Even though Walter Sr. and Mary were the same age, he outlived Mary by 12 years, dying in 1972. I can't find Mary Louise for certain. Walter Jr. joined the Navy and fought in the Pacific during WWII. He returned home, married, worked for the Woodstream Corp. in Lititz, and lived to be 87. His 2012 obituary references Mary Louise's last name still being Bachman. She had already died. ♫ Tiptoe Through the Tulips ♫The music rack on Mrs. Bachman's grand piano is not raised, so she may have been accomplished enough to play from memory, or was merely posed at the piano. Also, there is a cord going up her neck and over the top of her head that I wonder about - some sort of hearing device maybe? Perhaps she damaged her hearing by playing in a loud band in her younger years (Haha! Not likely). [She wears a hearing aid. - Dave] Living Room todayThis is likely to be the living room of 51 E Center Street, in modern times: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/51-E-Center-St-Lititz-PA-17543/975176...? The modern couch appears to be in the same location as its 1942 counterpart. There is apparently a door between the piano and the end table next to the couch, which is a bit of a tight squeeze. (The Gallery, Dogs, Marjory Collins, WW2)
We Were Young Once: 1910
... models--mature, handsome faces, very poised. Don't see kids like this any more. Detachable Collar - One Size Fits All I bet ... have any ideas about what they would have been? All kids are remarkable! "Remarkable Faces," is that a sarcastic comment? As ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/27/2012 - 5:05pm -

Washington, D.C., ca. 1910. "Eaton School." H&E glass negative. View full size. Remarkable FacesThis looks like a collection of child models--mature, handsome faces, very poised. Don't see kids like this any more. Detachable Collar - One Size Fits AllI bet that kid in the back row wishes he had a soft collar like the rest of the lads do. Eaton ElementaryJohn Eaton Elementary located in historic Cleveland Park in Northwest Washington, D.C. opened in 1911 serving students from the surrounding neighborhood. Currently, about 419 students attend the school in grades Pre-K through 6th. Fifth grade will be the highest level of instruction starting in the 2009-10 school year. http://www.eatondc.org/eatonabout.html Little SneaksThe boy on the far left looks like he's wearing some kind of early Converse shoes. Lapel pinsThree of the boys appear to have the same lapel pins. I've seen similarly shaped ones on adults in pictures from this time period. The star-shaped one is easier to research. Anyone have any ideas about what they would have been? All kids are remarkable!"Remarkable Faces," is that a sarcastic comment? As someone who works with kids, I have to disagree, I do see kids with mature, handsome faces all the time! The child in the back row on our right side of the photo is definitely not my idea of mature. This is a theme I seem to spot regularly in Shorpy comments. Certainly, as media imagery of human faces is now ubiquitous and we're taught to pose for cameras at younger ages, the way people are captured in photos has changed, but that's not necessarily evidence of the ways that people have changed. There were all sorts of kids with all kinds of different motives then, just as there are now. The Norfolk jacketI believe that's the style that the boys are wearing. 'Tis a dashing look. The chap second from the left is wearing a very fine example. Gene Kelly sported a Norfolk jacket whilst splashing through rain puddles in Singin' in the Rain. Sadly, we don't see them much these days. I often wondered..... where Don Martin, of Mad magazine fame, got his inspiration for the shoes he would always draw on his characters. The ones those two girls are wearing answered that question. Style or UniformThe boys all have similar though not identical suits while the girls have only their shoes in common. Wonder why. BowlWhat a happy, handsome group of kids. All their hair styles would be quite in vogue today except for the young fellow on the left who must have had one of those, "put a bowl on your head and shave around it," haircut. I have some pictures of me about 6 years old with that same cut. My grandfather would cut my hair to save my dad two bits. Ya got trouble!Mothers of River City, heed the warning before it's too late, watch for the telltale signs of corruption! The moment your son leaves the house, does he rebuckle his knickerbockers below the knee? (Thanks, Meredith Willson) Don MartinDon Martin drew feet that are eerily like my husband's archless 15EEEEs. Who has the conch?There's something in the eyes that makes me think of Lord of the Flies. My heart beat a skipThe third boy from the left, who is obviously going through a growth spurt, and handsome to boot. Sigh. Look -- no fat kids!I was impressed by how physically fit they seem, so I did a little number digging. In 1910, the childhood obesity rate for children of this age in the US was about 5 percent. Today the rate is nearly 20 percent, so in a group photo of 11 kids, you would expect maybe two of them would be fat. Right over left, left over right...The girls' boots must have 16 or 18 pairs of eyelets. My knee-high motorcycle boots have 20 pairs, and invariably I end up with one end of the laces longer than the other, or they're too tight in one spot and too loose in another. It can take a good five minutes to lace them up. If I had to wear boots like that every day I'd never get to work on time. (The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Portraits)
Shave and a Shoeshine: 1942
... in the Illinois town of the same name. (The Gallery, Kids, Marjory Collins, Small Towns, WW2) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/27/2024 - 11:00am -

November 1942. "Lititz, Pennsylvania. Wartime activities of a small town. Mr. Pennepacker, one of seven barbers in town, has sixty less haircuts a month since the boys left town." Acetate negative by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size. der FührerI'm pretty sure that the fellow reflected in the mirror, awaiting his turn under Mr. Pennepacker's razor, is going to say, make me look less like Adolf Hitler. Barbershop small talk"Yeah, I need a haircut and a shave. Tomorrow I'm taking the misses into Philly to see some new play. It's called Sweeney Todd. She said it's about a barber, what a coincidence. What could a whole play about a barber be about? Who closed the blinds?" Give Him a Nice Young Man's Haircut!This shot sure brings back memories of going to the barber as a young boy. They always had those uniforms that made them look like doctors. HahahaI thought the same thing! Floyd, is that you?The man in the mirror looks like Floyd the Barber (for those of you old enough to remember "The Andy Griffith Show"). This image makes me almost smell the barber shop of my youth. The antiseptic, aftershave, and obligatory piece of Bazooka chewing gum I'd get as a kid, all combined for an unmistakable smell. Iron CrossI wonder if Mr. Pennepacker covered up the drawer with the iron cross symbology? Another Shorpy MysteryI recognize the Iron Cross on the lower cabinet drawer, but wonder what could be sticking out of Herr Pennepacker’s shirt by his neck? [It's called ... an ear? - Dave] Dave - usually sarcastic, but ALWAYS right Barber for All AgesStored in the recess below the phone is a seat that will rest on the barber chair arms to boost the height of a small child when they come in for a haircut. I wonder if the shoeshine boy has polish under his seat to keep the barber's light colored shoes looking good? Too perfect and beautifulIf some art director for a movie had to come up with a barber shop for a scene set in 1942 and produced this one, you could be excused for saying it’s far too perfect and beautiful. The wall tiles (dark below, white above), the gorgeous light sconces, the chair itself, the two matching glass panels on the cupboards flanking the barber, those two identical bottles underneath the cupboard on the right – all so perfect and beautiful. Extra marks to the worn whisk broom which I magically feel on the back of my neck. But I have to ask: what is that device standing on an angle under the phone? If I had to guess, I’d say a booster seat for a child. Barber's ChairAs a kid I was fascinated with how many different positions the barber's chair could be adjusted. The foot plate had ornate scroll lettering of the manufacturer. At a very early age the barber used at special platform to elevate a boy to a higher level -- one is visible sitting on the floor below the non-dial telephone. The platform had brackets to attach to the handles of the chair. It was rite of passage when you were old enough to sit in the chair without the platform. Don’t cryMy barber of 40 years wears a blue shirt because children associate the white shirt with a doctor’s office which usually involves inoculations. At Least One ...... and probably more customer losses to come. Mr. Pennepacker lost another customer in March 1943 when my father was drafted and left for the Army. The chair is a Kokenand manufactured in the Illinois town of the same name. (The Gallery, Kids, Marjory Collins, Small Towns, WW2)
Vacation Wagon: 1964
... having DVD's and high tech electronic gadgets forced the kids to look out the window and they gained incredible geographic knowledge ... air conditioner, 4½ hours to get through Chicago and the kids loved it. Took these trips out west to the 1970s. We still go west to see ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/31/2022 - 1:09am -

        Our annual salute to the start of vacation road-trip season, first posted here 15 years ago. Everyone buckled in? Let's go! "Great Falls, Montana. Return after 3 weeks Vacation. June 27, 1964." This Kodachrome of a 1960 Chevrolet Parkwood station wagon is from a box of slides found on eBay. View full size. family trips in those carsI also spent some hot days in a car like that on the way to the grandparents. My mother flattened the second seat, put a mattress on the floor and loaded three of us and the stuff in on top of it, us and the stuff equally loose and not tied down. We whined and fought and slept our way to Cape Cod from southern NJ. My father always "had to work" (they were her parents), so she did the drive alone, I think maybe 12 or 16 hours? Seemed like forever. NostalgicThese people still had a bright future ahead of them, full of great hopes for the days to come. They hadn't gone to the Moon yet, and to them, by 2007 we'd have personal helicopters and robots would run everything. The possibility of the President being indicted for a crime was unthinkable. My job as a web designer hadn't even been invented yet. The lawn looks like it's literally astroturf. Were the colors really like that, or is it an effect of the kodachrome? Holy cow! We had a 59 chevyHoly cow! We had a 59 chevy stationwagon back in the day. Does this bring back memories. We would drive to Florida from Virginia a two day trip usually in the heat of the summer to visit grandparents. Five children two parents no ac. Damn! [This is a 1960 Chevrolet. - Dave] DeflectorsDoes anybody know/remember what the deflectors left and right of the rear window were for? These may have been an aftermarket item. It is amazing how well the colors in this slide are preserved after almost 50 years. It looks like Kodachrome all right, including the telltale blue cast in the shadows The Astroturf look......to my eye, seems to come from the little flowers (or toadstools?) that are in the lawn. At the smaller image size, they look like specular reflections, making it seem like the grass is shiny. [The white flowers are clover. - Dave] 1964As I remember it, this was less than a year after the assassination of JFK, there were race riots in the south and we (I was 14) were all starting to question attitudes towards women, blacks, hispanics, homosexuals and the culture we had grown up with. One of the more minor cultural things was the importance of your front lawn. 50 years?I was born in 1964, and trust me, it hasn't been 50 years since then, yet.... ;) Re:DeflectorsThe deflectors on either side of the rear window were intended to blow air across the rear window to prevent snow from accumulating. A similar deflector is often fitted along the roof on station wagons from the 60s on. I think they were usually a factory or dealer option in later years, but I really don't know specifically about this model or when they might have first been used. OK, 40 years.Sorry, I was too vexed on the year of manufacture of the car. I remember that someone in our street had the sedan version of this Chevy. Like any 8 year old, I was fascinated by the winged tail and the panorama windshield. You didn't see many of these in Europe around 1960; everbody, including my father, was driving Volkswagen Beetles. (He later had a new Ford Mustang 1964 1/2 , with a 289 ci V8 and a four speed box, rally pack and (optional) front discs, which I found very impressive at the time. A real gas guzzler by European standards. Family TrucksterThis is probably what Clark Griswold's dad took the family on vacation in. It's a 1960 Chevy, and I'm guessing it's a Kingswood model. The Brookwood was the more stripped down model and I think the "full dresser" was called a Nomad. This one isn't completely chromed-out and it has the small, dog-dish hubcaps so I'm thinking it's the middle of the line model. I think the rear air deflectors also helped keep exhaust gas from entering the rear passenger compartment when the vehicle was moving with the tailgate window was lowered. Though it doesn't look like there's room for anybody in the third row of seats for this trip. With the window up they also helped keep the rear glass clear of snow and dust. These are Parents of the Year......in my book. Can you imagine going across country now without all of the luxuries and Wendy's and portable DVD players and Nintendo and cell phones and credit cards? These parents did it all the HARD way...and I'll bet they made a lot of memories that summer! My jaw droppedOnce again the red stationwagon family blows me away. The color composition here is perfect. Chevy ParkwoodThis is a 1960 Chevrolet Parkwood. Parkwoods and Kingswoods both use Bel Air trim (mid-level). The Kingswood, a nine-passenger wagon, has the third-row rear-facing seat, and two steps on the rear bumper (one on each end just outside of where the tailgate would come down). Less obvious is that all Kingswoods have power tailgate windows, an option on the other Chevrolet wagons. I still drive a '59 ChevyI recommend owning one. In 2000 We took the ultimate road trip with mine from near the Canadian border in Washington State through the desert to Las Vegas and back up through California and Oregon. There really is nothing like seeing the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet. Cruising the Strip in Vegas was a blast. We might as well have been driving a space ship with the reactions we got. Sadly, these Chevrolets were mostly scrapped and very few survive. 60 ChevySadly, the third row seat had not been invented as of yet and the deflectors were used to deflect air into the rear of the stationwagon at slower speeds. I may not be an expert but I'm old enough to have ridden and slept in the back section of a folded down stationwagon. We didn't know about SUV's yet. Chevy WagonChevy's Parkwood and Kingswood wagons could both be had with a third-row seat. And back then, for the record - wagons WERE the "SUVs" of the day! [According to the 1960 Chevrolet sales brochure, only the Kingswood was available with third-row seating. The International Travelall and Chevy Suburban Carryall were two of the SUVs of the day. - Dave] The luggage rackis something you don't see anymore. It hung on the wall of the garage when not in use. Once my dad, who was in a big hurry, didn't secure the tarp on top properly... We played car games, like Alphabet, Road Bingo, and License Plates, read books, colored,sang songs and squabbled. You took your chances with local restaurants. We hadn't got used to entertainment on demand, so we didn't miss it. And to Dave Faris: It's the film. I once assured my daughter that colors when I was a kid were the same as today. "The Fifties," she said, in her narrator's voice, "were an oddly-hued decade." Slide ConversionHow does one convert slides to digital photos? Any website links or advice? [You'd use a film scanner. I used a Nikon 4000 ED for this one. - Dave] Family TrucksterWe had a green Ford station wagon, not nearly as nice as this, and with our family of six, it was a masochistic experience to take family vacations. Every summer we said that's it, we will never do this again, until the following summer when we did it again. The best part was arriving home again, but I will say that NOT having DVD's and high tech electronic gadgets forced the kids to look out the window and they gained incredible geographic knowledge from seeing the U.S. I could truthfully call these annual trips "purgatory on wheels." Road TripMost all of my long-distance car trips were connected with moving as my father was in the USAF. In August 1954, after being in the UK 2½ years, we got in our in our '53 Chevy coupe and went from New York City to the SF Bay Area, mostly along US 40. Entertainment consisted of looking at the scenery and checking off the towns on the free roadmaps that the service stations provided in each state. Iy being the pre-Interstate era, one did go thru many towns back then! (Excepting on the PA Turnpike) Burma-Shave signs relieved the boredom in the rural areas. We had a car radio (AM only, of course), but for some reason I can only recall it being used while crossing the salt flats west of Salt Lake City. Westward HoIn 1951 our family, my wife, son and daughter, living in Detroit, started taking trips to Cheney, Washington, to visit my WW2 buddy. All on old state highways, no air conditioner, 4½ hours to get through Chicago and the kids loved it. Took these trips out west to the 1970s. We still go west to see my buddy and my daughter in Seattle and we enjoy crossing Nebraska on old U.S. 30. It is a treat to be off of I-80. Nostalgia Ain't What it Used to BeDon't look at this picture and pine for the old days. Change the car to a green Olds Vista Cruiser and that's us in 1969. Back then, dads bought a new station wagon to kick off the summer vacation. Dads don't buy an SUV today for that reason. Without repeating some of the horrors already mentioned below, there was the additional joy of Mom sending back a Coca Cola bottle for one of her sons to use in lieu of a loo. If the girls had to go, we had to pull over. Not so with the boys. Watching mom backhand-fling a Coke bottle out her window, filled with fluid far different that what was originally intended, and seeing it bounce and spill along the shoulder as we whizzed along at 75 mph (pun intended), that's about the fondest vacation memory at least from the car perspective. Today with the daughter hooked up to a video iPod and the sons enjoying their PSP, it's a pleasure to drive for distances. Back then, we didn't play License Plates. We played Punch Buggy and Slug Bug, etc. Fistfight games. Let's go!I loved car trips, and I never had DVD players and Nintendo. I watched the scenery and kept a travel diary. those were some of the greatest times of my life. Road TrripWe had to make do with pillows & blankets. A mattress would have made it actually comfortable. I don't know if Dad didn't have the imagination for that, or just not the money. I suspect the latter. We'd sing sometimes. It was 12 hours from north Georgia near the North Carolina line to south Georgia, near the Florida line, where my grandmother lived. I see the moon; the moon sees me. The moon sees the one that I want to see ... Thanks for the memoriesMy folks had the four-door sedan version of this car, in sky blue & white. My mom used to have a station wagon, don't remember what kind, but it was memorable for its pushbutton transmission on the dash instead of a gearshift! However my favorite "finned" car was our family's Buick Invicta. Now that was a car! Third Row SeatsFords had third-row seats in 1955. I'm pretty sure Chevy had them by 1958 at least. Chevy didn't offer woodgrain sides until '65. Sunday ridesWe had that same car, only in light blue. No seat belts or infant seats for us! We'd put my baby sister in one of those deathtrap baby seats that hooked over the front seat and off we went! What a picture!This picture takes me back almost 40 years to the road trips our family did during summer holidays when I was a little boy. It feels like I myself am stretching my legs after coming home. The colours, the moment -- one of my favorite pictures in Shorpy. My Favorite Car was a 1960 Chevrolet Impala 2-dr hardtop. Bluish gray with white segment on the side, red and white interior. The first car my wife and I bought. Paid $1750 for it used in 1962. We made some wonderful trips in that car. Re: Family TrucksterJust saw this item on TV yesterday about a real family named Griswold that had their station wagon modded to look like the Family Truckster from National Lampoon's Vacation movie for their trip to Disney World. http://tinyurl.com/plo5kub See the USA in Your ChevroletFor our family, it was a 1962 Buick Invicta wagon. Huge car designed for doing massive mileage on the interstates and that's what we did -- six or seven hundred miles a day from Indiana to the Rockies for our annual vacation. Procedure for Accessing the Cargo AreaWe had one of these when I was a kid as well. Ours was a silver gray color. See the chrome disk on the trunk door? Upon arriving at destination, here's what you had to do: 1) Put trunk key in center slot (separate keys for ignition and trunk back then) 2) Open flap (as seen in photo) 3) Rotate flap several times till rear window is fully down 4) Reach in and grab handle to drop tailgate Simple, huh? Looking at old red carsmakes my elbows hurt! Seemed like some of those old single stage paints, reds in particular, had to be waxed every two weeks to keep them looking decent. The widespread adoption of clearcoat finishes in the late 80's to mid 90's freed modern kids from the dreaded frequent waxing chore, thereby giving them the leisure time to start the video gaming revolution... As Long AsThis isn't really the "End of the Road"! That's a scary title for all the Shorpy Faithful. 3 Adults + 7 Children =1000 mile round trip to see grandma. We kids didn't mind a bit. Seat belts?I don't think you heard "Everybody all buckled up?" all that much in '64. I'm not sure of the exact dates, but if you had seatbelts back then, you bought them at a discount store or an auto parts store like Western Auto or J. C. Whitney, and they were lap belts only. Three point seat belts didn't come along for several more years, if I recall correctly, and it wasn't until the government mandated new cars with ignition interlocks in the 1970's that "real men" started to actually use them. Back then, we used to spend our vacations camping, so the car was packed to the gills, including the center of the back seat. My sister and I each got little cubbyholes next to the doors, with just room enough to sit for the trip to northern Wisconsin. My dad drove a two tone green '55 Oldsmobile Delta 88. I saw a picture of that car a few months ago, and as soon as I did, I started remembering a surprising amount of detail about the car's details. It was handed down to me when I went off to college in '64. Seat beltsbobdog19006 is correct in that seat belts were not standard equipment in 1960. However, they had been available as a dealer-installed option since the 50s. By 1966, they were standard in all Chevys, and by 1968, they were federally mandated. I spent many a happy hour on family roadtrips in our '68 Ford wagon, nestled in the narrow gap between the second row and the rear-facing third-row seat, no seat belt, of course. Neither did my siblings in the third row. Service StickersI remember those stickers that service stations or car dealers put on the inside edge of the driver's door when you got your car serviced. This Chevrolet has two. Our road trip rigWe had a '76 Chevy Beauville van, a ho-hum light brown rather than red, which made up for the lack of chrome spears with its cavernous interior: two bucket seats in front for Mom and Dad, two bench seats, and a homemade plywood bed. Strangely, all that space wasn't enough to prevent sibling quarrels. The best story of this van was the return trip of its maiden voyage, when my uncle, who owned a small niche-market manufacturing firm, talked my dad into towing a piece of equipment from South Texas to a parking lot near Chicago, where we would deliver it to his customer from Wisconsin. We quickly got used to being asked at every single hotel, gas station, and rest stop, exactly what was the three-wheeled contraption with the hydraulically-actuated vertical roller-chain conveyor with teeth. The looks on everyone's faces when my dad told them it was a grave-digging machine: Priceless! Curtains?Every August for years we travelled from Birmingham to Cincinnati for a week of visiting my parents' relatives. Before our last such trip in '69, we went through a black-and-white '57 Plymouth Savoy, a metallic-beige '63 Ford Country Sedan wagon (the one without wood on the sides) and a '67 Olds VistaCruiser. I'd love to have that VistaCruiser back today. Ours was burgundy red and my dad put red stripe Tiger Paw tires on it. Imagine a 442 station wagon. As for Shorpy's '60 Chevy wagon, I only just noticed the homemade or aftermarket side curtains, with vertical stripes of brown, gold and red to compliment the bright red car. Thanks, Dave, for showing us this photo again... and including all the original comments, too. Great to relive all the great summer vacation stories with everyone! Re: deflectorsIn the days before the rear window wiper on a station wagon, some folks put these on and the deflected air current would help to clean off that window to a degree. Not having either, within a mile that rear hatch would be almost impossible to see through. Been there, done that and got the tee-shirt. This does bring back memoriesWe had a similar station wagon, but it was salmon (or was it mauve, or ecru?) colored with a white top (I think). It had a 460 a/c (four windows down while traveling sixty miles per hour, some times 560 with the rear tailgate window down). I remember taking a trip from Mississippi to Six Flags over Texas on U.S. Highway 82 (two lane most of the way) in Summer, 1964. The back seats were folded down, and the four of us kids had pillows, blankets, books, and board games to pass the time. It was replaced soon after with a 1965 Ford Country Squire Wagon with a/c, and fake wood paneling on the side. Instead of a rear facing bench seat, it had two small seats on either side that faced each each other. Memories of summer tripsWe also lived in Montana back then, and our family truckster in the 1960s was a 1963 Rambler Classic station wagon. (Yes, I suffered greatly for it among my friends.) That's what I learned to drive, and we ranged all over the western US and Canada in it. Before that, however, we traveled in a 1949 Studebaker Land Cruiser 4-door sedan, which my dad (both inventive and frugal) had outfitted with a set of three back seats that, when covered with the mattress from our roll-away bed, filled the back seat and trunk area with a very passable sleeping unit. That's where I spent most of my time on our travels. At other times, I would climb over the front seatback into the front bench seat between my parents. That's where I was on August 5, 1962, when we were preparing to leave Crescent City, CA, and heard on the radio that Marilyn Monroe had died. Deflector's actual purposeWas to break the "vacuum" the "wall" that was the rear of that wagon created which would suck exhaust into the car if that rear window was open even a little bit. The fresh air, the snowless/cleaner rear window were merely bonuses... Buckle up?A 1960 Chevy wagon probably didn't have seat belts unless the owner installed them. The kids in the back were pretty much free range as long as they didn't make too much noise. Lots of people piled the stuff on the roof and put a mattress in the back for the kids. It was a great way to go and most of us survived. [Seat belts were optional on all 1960 Chevrolets. - Dave] Car playgroundMy folks had a Ford wagon of that era. No seatbelts. Folks put a mattress in the back. Became our playground on long trips. We had no desire to "sit" in a seat. Miss station wagonsI miss station wagons. I prefer them to the SUVs that replaced them. I also miss the bold bright colors that cars use to come in. No SquattingLooking at all the stuff already loaded, I'm surprised the back of this wagon isn't dragging on the ground. In fact it's sitting pretty level. I wonder if dad had overload springs installed? We've had one built for you.To BillyB: Station wagon suspensions were designed with the idea that they would have to haul some combination of eight people and their luggage, so they did OK when loaded down. They *were* softer than contemporary pickup trucks, so the back end of the station wagon wouldn't bounce all over if there were only one or two people in it. Especially at the time of this photo, gas was 25 cents a gallon and would be that price forever, so the factory didn't mind spending a little extra weight on a beefier suspension. Also, most of the really heavy luggage went on the roof rack, which was fairly close to being in the middle of the wheelbase. The back-back, behind the rear seat, tended to contain lighter things, like blankets, pillows, the picnic basket, and - as the trip progressed - bags of souvenirs. If Dad wanted to use the inside rear-view mirror, you couldn't stack stuff much higher than the seats, anyway. Source: I rode in the back of a '79 Oldsmobile wagon every summer from '79 to '87. I think the longest trip we took in it was from Kansas City to Washington, DC and back. WagonsWe had a 1956 Ford wagon, then '61 Mercury wagon, finally a (I think) 1964 Ford wagon. I remember one year with the Mercury, my mom ran low on gas. We were up in the mountains in a resort town. To get to the gas station, she had to reverse up hills, turn around for the downhills, turn around again for going up the next hill. What a ride. Another time, 1965, we were in a typhoon in the current wagon. There were eleven of us in it. Another wild ride driving on a road along the bay. Waves washing over us, my mom hugging the middle of the road (there was an island we could not get across). Wagons were great. The 283 V-8with its 170 gross horsepower is not going to have much highway passing reserve with all that weight. Cross-flags over the V on the tailgate would have indicated one of several 348's which would have given more than enough reserve. That car is 58 years old but properly equipped could have kept pace with most cars on the road today in equal comfort. A 58 year old car in 1960 by comparison was barely even recognizable as such it was so rudimentary by comparison to the 1960 version in its looks and capabilities. The same comparisons held true in all other realms of life comparing 1960 to 1902--homes, conveniences, dress, you name it. Virtually any of those later areas are not that significantly different from their 1960 versions. Those deflectors... were supposed to keep dust off the back window Nikon CoolscanI am having a problem with mine. Can you recommend a place that can repair them. [There aren't any. Try buying them used on eBay. - Dave] 283 V8Although I agree that a 348 engine would have been a better choice for this station wagon. The 170hp 283 was the base V8 engine with just a single two barrel carburetor. The next option up was also a 283 but with a four barrel which the above wagon may have had, which would have given it a little more passing power. Koolscan softwareDave. What software program do you use with your 4000? As it seems the program that came with it is only works for Microsoft VISTA. [I use the NikonScan software that came with the scanner, on a Windows 10 workstation. To install the software on a modern operating system, you have to disable Driver Signature Enforcement. And it's Coolscan, with a C. - Dave] (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Kodachromes 1, Travel & Vacation)
Happy Birthday to Me: 1955
... cat. (The "Sister" setting, btw, is 500.) Hey Kids! I have a great idea! Funny paper party hats! And by that I mean party ... when it came out in 1953? - Dave] Because We're Kids I missed out on "Dr. T" when it came out; indeed, I never even heard of ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 06/24/2009 - 5:07pm -

August 15, 1955. My ninth birthday. In answer to my request, we had turkey with all the trimmings. I'm pretending to carve. The camera this was taken with was probably a birthday present, thereby starting me on my road to photographic immortality. Poetic justice that the shot's out of focus. Gobble gobble. Apotheosis Jr.Who is now the top Google hit for "Apotheosis of Seventies Hotness"? Mr. tterrace himself! Clapclapclap. Hang in There KidIn a mere 20 years you will be the apotheosis of Seventies Hotness! Happy Happy Birthday Birthday TT!Since this picture (and many of your others) remind me so much of the kid from the movie The Sandlot, you know - the one with the glasses - I hope you get a "magic moment" smooch from the hot lifeguardette at the pool! We could personalize 'em!Match everybody up to the 'toon we think they look like! Yeah! That's the ticket! Happy B-Day!I love that your mom made you a full-on T-giving dinner AND a cake on your b-day. Now that's love! Happy birthday, thanks for sharing your wonderful photos! Happy Birthday to YooooHey gang -- it's tterrace's birthday! Or yesterday was tterrace's birthday! Everyone wish him a happy ninth. You can pile your gifts on the dining room table. I got TT a Hubley Atomic Disintegrator. Promise you won't try it out on the cat. (The "Sister" setting, btw, is 500.) Hey Kids!I have a great idea! Funny paper party hats! And by that I mean party hats made from the funny papers! (Why are you all looking at me that way? It'll be superfun. Really!) Good trees bear good fruitHappy Birthday and many, many more tterrace. It is apparent that you were raised by a very nurturing and responsible mom and dad, as it is no small task to prep a full-scale turkey dinner with all the trimmings and a homemade birthday cake as well. Your parents love has created a wonderful human being with talent, decency, a good sense of humor, a hard worker and a person who is happy to SHARE with everybody, strangers included. Thank you for the pleasure of giving all of us glimpses of our old memories in photographs, thanks for all you do and for being YOU. Have a joy-filled and fulfilling year and be proud of yourself and your fine family. We appreciate you. Better Late Than NeverI always seem to miss the birthdays, but this present is worth the wait. Here ya go TT, after all, what's Hubley Atomic Disintegrator without your trusty Spacenik Space Helmet for protection? Wiggly antennae included! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!! Happy B-Day to TT!The official Terwilliker School 5,000-finger salute to tterrace! ["The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T" is a great movie! Did TT see "T" when it came out in 1953? - Dave] Because We're KidsI missed out on "Dr. T" when it came out; indeed, I never even heard of it until it started showing up on TV in the 80s, when I taped it. Then I got the laserdisc. That's all I have now since I'm too cheap to pop for the new super-duper DVD transfer because it's in a Stanley Kramer collection with other films I don't want. (Hmm.. should have asked for that for my birthday.) Back in the day, my brother was taking me to things like "Rear Window." About the cranberry sauce: note that it's the jelly version, as per my specifications. The other kind, y'know, the one that's all lumpy - well, it's got bits and junk in it. The bowl on the right has olives, the black kind, not the yucky green ones. I asked for those, too. [The DVD is on Amazon for $11.99. I have it and the transfer is first-rate. Re the Kramer Collection -- I don't have it but "The Member of the Wedding" was a really great movie. And short story. - Dave] Gee whillikers!!!This was the best birthday a kid ever had! Thanks, everybody! I used the Atomic Disintegrator on my sister's boyfriend, and it worked! I never saw him again! My sister says it was because of the way I kept kicking him in the shins, but she can't fool me. Help with the MenuIs that cranberry sauce in the dish in the foreground? Awesome. "She's-a-her birthday, too!"Dave, looking at your photos makes me wish I had lived your life! This is a great photo. And those drapes!~ [Dave did not post this photo. That's not me. Thank tterrace. - Dave] Poster BoysOh, I still don't really know how this site works. I thought you posted all the photos and they were all of you. Sorry. [Look up where it says "submitted by" above the pictures. That's how you can tell. - Dave] Your mom REALLY loved you!Why? Because she cooked a turkey in AUGUST! Remember the summer heat in pre-a/c days? I want to know if you got a Davy Crockett coonskin cap. Maybe something from Howdy Doody? Roy Rogers? How about lots of space toys. WHAT did you get??? (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Kids, tterrapix)
Trinity Bootblacks: 1924
... Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Close Cropped Kids I know that when you join the army or the marines, regulation hair is ... than a style matter, I'm a thinkin' Close Cropped Kids When my son was growing up in the 70's-80's, he liked his hair cut this ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/08/2011 - 6:54pm -

July 25, 1924. "Some of the young bootblacks working around Trinity Church, New York City." View full size. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Close Cropped KidsI know that when you join the army or the marines, regulation hair is either bald, butch, or a crewcut, but I was not aware that this was evidently also mandatory for shoeshine boys. The title of this would indicate that they are somehow affiliated with the church, whereas the caption implies that they all merely work in its vicinity. Which is it? HaircutsKeeping hair cut short at that time probably kept the head lice problem at a minimum. At least, if an infestation were to occur on a boy, it could be seen faster and treated with the 1920s era medicines. Hair length more a health matter than a style matter, I'm a thinkin' Close Cropped KidsWhen my son was growing up in the 70's-80's, he liked his hair cut this way. My dad always wore a crewcut, he preferred it to longer hair. I think I have a picture of my grandfather taken when he was a teenager around 1913 with a haircut like this. I just think it is an easy way to maintain a boy's hair. They seem to like it because they don't have to do anything to it but wash it. Kinda like a lot of men shaving their heads now. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, NYC)
The Hereafter: 1906
... like a nice steamer, willing to tote a dozen or so happy kids around the park. And the name "Hereafter" reminds me of the old plug about ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/24/2024 - 5:39pm -

Norfolk, Virginia, circa 1906. "Pine Beach -- amusements and boardwalk." 5x7 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Grewsome ObjectsTHE DAILY PRESS, Newport News, Va., June 21, 1906 "HEREAFTER" AT PINE BEACH Local Amusement Company Offers Weird St. Louis Attraction "Hereafter," a spectacular show which created a sensation on the Pike at the St. Louis exposition, has been put in at Pine Beach by the Newport News Amusement Corporation at a cost of $10,000 and will be ready for public exhibition tomorrow afternoon and night. The contract for constructing this expensive amusement enterprise was awarded to Austin, Bradwell and McClennan of New York, the firm which put in the St. Louis show. Mr. McClennan was manager of Luna Park at Coney Island for two seasons, and has created such shows as "The Johnstown Flood" and "Over and Under the Sea." "Hereafter" is under the general management of Messrs. Clinedinst and Ballard, of this city. The show is a very weird one but it has never failed to attract immense crowds wherever exhibited. Entering the first chamber of the great building erected for this show, the spectators are ushered into the chamber of horrors, the walls of which are lined with coffins and decorated with grinning skulls and other grewsome objects. This is an exact reproduction of the famous Cabaret de la Mort, or the Cabinet [sic] of Death, in Paris. The lecturer invites some person in the crowd to enter one of the upright coffins and he is immediately transformed into a skeleton. His spirit invites the spectators to accompany him to the under world and together they descend a bottomless pit, finally crossing the river Styx and finishing in Hades. The electrical effects used are most vivid and greatly add to the impressiveness of the scene. Entertainment through the decadesIt's nice to see Oliver Hardy and Mary Martin making use of someone's time machine. But as for the Hereafter, it is easy for us to snicker at such a kitschy exhibit for the rubes, but our contemporary comic book movies and "reality" tv are just as stylized and phony. In fifty years this will be really obvious. Less amusing now.Pine Beach was located at Sewell’s Point in Norfolk. Pine Beach Hotel - The Hampton Roads Naval Museum Blog A Hellish Experience?I have to wonder if that expensive $10,000 investment was profitable as time went on. I'LL GET IT Apparently, the merry-go-round swing thing in the center of photo is stuck because someone is scaling up the side to locate the problem with a 1906 version of WD-40 aka lubricating oil. WhirligigThe merry-go-round swing thing in the center of photo. I'd be hereafter... a ride on the little train just the other side of the messy log patch. Looks like a nice steamer, willing to tote a dozen or so happy kids around the park. And the name "Hereafter" reminds me of the old plug about what guys say to their date right after parking in the woods. Somebody help meWhat is that thing which the woman in white is looking/laughing at? I refer to what appears to be an elephant trunk -- not attached to an elephant -- suspended between the two benches. BTW I am stone cold sober. [Is it a trunk? More likely a limb! It looks to me like part of a tree. - Dave] (The Gallery, DPC, Norfolk)
Fun Between Times: 1909
... and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Kids working The old days depended on alot of child labor. I think it ... things that are very different from today. Working Kids You never come back. I say good-by when I see you going in the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/27/2008 - 9:43pm -

January 1909. Macon, Georgia. "Doffer boys have lots of fun between times. (But get habits of irregular work.) This is the middle of the morning. Willingham Cotton Mills." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Kids working The old days depended on alot of child labor. I think it taught them the value of a hard earned dollar early in life. And the clothes in all these pictures don't seem to be about making any fashion statements. Two things that are very different from today. Working KidsYou never come back. I say good-by when I see you going in the doors, The hopeless open doors that call and wait And take you then for -- how many cents a day? How many cents for the sleepy eyes and fingers? I say good-by because I know they tap your wrists, In the dark, in the silence, day by day, And all the blood of you drop by drop, And you are old before you are young. You never come back. -- Carl Sandburg, "The Chicago Poems" Fun between timesI think the seven boys in the picture came away with seven different lessons. I wonder how many had all ten fingers. Child labor was a horrible practice. I was a doffer on a 3-11 shift while in college in the sixties. I swapped jobs to be a doffer when I learned that the guy I replaced as a machine tender had lost his arm. It was hard work and I was full grown. Some aspects of the old days were great but a lot of the jobs were not. - Waumbec Mills, Manchester N.H. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)
A Walk in the Park: 1900
... and unconcerned about Grandma's stern demeanor. Kids those days Back then, you looked where you were running. Benches ... or verbal) from the battleaxe across the walkway. Re: Kids those days I could see myself running through that park; getting myself ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/20/2012 - 3:37pm -

Chicago circa 1900. "A walk in Lincoln Park." We spy a hazard for any tots inclined to run behind park benches. 8x10 glass negative. View full size. Busy Knitter She's knitting! The younger woman in the foreground at left -- those hands are busy working on a sock or a baby bonnet. Something small. After enlarging the photo and poking around a bit, I almost forgot about her. Then I returned to Our Fair Knitter, looking for the yarn. There it is, trailing down to the ground. Hmm. Getting a bit soiled? From her relaxed and yet focused posture, she's an experienced knitter and unconcerned about Grandma's stern demeanor. Kids those daysBack then, you looked where you were running. Benches and branchesDoes the bench hold up the tree or does the tree keep the bench from being moved? Neither one sounds plausible. WhoaA hazard indeed. I wonder if that was considered simpler then putting bolts through the legs into the pathway. A set of circa 1900 wire cutters and you own a new bench. I Spy TooOkay, I see the hazard for tots lurking behind each bench. What I don't see is the point of tethering each bench to a tree. Was there a clandestine market for stolen park benches in 1900? Dive! Dive!Aoooogah ... Ahooogha. Battleaxe sighted on port side! Bench tethersClearly an attempt to thwart the evil bench thieves. Home AloneLooks like the only one enjoying that mister is Macaulay Culkin's scary-but-nice neighbor. No missing treesFastening the trees to the park benches is clearly an effort to keep people from walking away with the shade trees. And it appears to have worked. Good thing there's a policeman nearbySo, do you think the cables are there to prevent bench theft or to ensure that there is only one bench every 20 feet and everything stays neat and orderly? Local rule -Women sat on one side of the path and men on the other and the policeman to keep them all in order or is he watching for the pesky bench thieves? Only a hazard the first timeOnce you've been clotheslined, you never forget it. I Spywith my little eye (between the closest ladies & tree on the left, in the distance) either a stroller or cart half-hidden by a tree; and beyond that, a hammock? ObservationsI love those makeshift planters in between each tree. Wish I could see it in color. Yes, the elder woman on the left does bear a strong resemblance to Large Marge from Pee Wee's Big Adventure! There is a slight optical illusion, at least to my feeble mind. Look at the 3rd bench down on the left. At first glance, I thought the little girl was standing on it. But I see now she's way back behind the 4th. Guys didn't have a chanceWhat an amazing photograph -- so much here. Interesting that each young girl has a chaperone (mom perhaps) sitting beside her, and a policeman as well (what an amazing uniform). Love the previously mentioned wires running to the trees. And the sprinkler, obviously buried pipes. The art of subtletyGee, do you thinl anyone noticed the guy taking pictures? Is there a law against it? More importantly, who will attack first, the officer or the lady? Nobody looks happy to be posing. A Bridge Too FarLooks like this bridge at the far end of concourse. Pre WiFiClearly what we have here is Lincoln Park before wifi. The cables are obviously tapping in to the local network and allowing for connection via the benches. You can see by the blur that the young lady on the left must be updating her Facebook account - you can even see her data cable, which must plug in to the bench, by her leg. Keep Off the GrassPerhaps the cables were intended to prevent people from walking on the grass if the path was crowded? Tethering Clearly It appears that the benches are tethered to prevent moving them. Four men might easily move a bench to visit or whatever, then the City workers would be stuck moving them back in the morning. Bench SecurityPerhaps, to keep the benches there, and allow freedom of movement to where the shade resides. I would love to step right into this scene. Park DangersHazard? If I were a tot, the risk of decapitation from obstacles might well seem less of a hazard than the lantern-jawed matriarch guarding the left and the cop with tickets already in hand guarding the right of the path. It is pretty clear than romping and frolicking are not on the approved activities list in that park! That Policeman... will give you a conk on your noggin with his billy club if you even think of disrespecting his attire with a chuckle. PlantersWhat first appears to be smaller trees or bushes actually seems to be some sort of planter. I'd love to see that in color! Looks almost like the main part of the planter is a piece of tree trunk? odd. The sprinkler does not appear to be bothering the officer or man on the right. The hat on the leftI think it's growing! Windy citySince Chicago is the windy city, is it possible that the cables are there to keep the benches from blowing away from a strong gust. With the cable it was easy maybe to remove the benches in the wintertime during heavy snows. Joe from LI, NY Bench ties. I doubt people back then even thought about stealing these benches. First, they are heavy, and second, you just didn't do those kind of things back then. You were actually shamed and ridiculed for being thief. It wasn't just a career choice like today. My guess is the wires are there to keep the benches in order. Lastly, something tells me the photographer isn't much appreciated by the crowd at hand, And it looks like officer O'Brian is about to see what's going on here. [A check of most any big-city newspaper circa 1900 will confirm that there was plenty of thievery around the turn of the century. - Dave] Windy CityChicago being called the windy city had nothing to do with the weather but rather the blow hard politicians and their bragging about how great the city was. Funny how little that has changed. To Protect and ServeI think the cop is protecting the bearded old guy from further assaults (physical or verbal) from the battleaxe across the walkway. Re: Kids those daysI could see myself running through that park; getting myself caught on one of those wires, and falling down. Here's the learning process I would have gone through, after my experience: 1. Fall down and start crying. 2. Mother picks me up and dusts me off. 3. Mother then promptly slaps the back of my head, and also my butt, and says "Next time, watch where you're going." And thus we would have reached the conclusion of the learning process. Identified!That's obviously Alfred Nobel on the bench. And the cop is keeping an eye on him to make sure he doesn't blow something up. A Walk in the Park: 2011The spot was easy to find, because, as lesle points points out here in comments, the South Pond bridge is visible at the vanishing point. Chicago, August 28, 2011 Pickpockets and Purse SnatchersIn Chicago and everywhere at this time, pickpockets were rampant at any public gathering. Jane Addams, a famous and wealthy woman who worked with the poor at the time, had her purse snatched at the opening ceremonies for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893! The cop is there to see that they aren't working the park on a fine day when many people are out and about. (The Gallery, Chicago, DPC)
Super Giant: 1964
... them ages from the high 60s to the mid 80s. The older kids would still only be in their fifties. Anyone from Rockville know these ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/22/2008 - 6:35am -

1964. The Super Giant supermarket in Rockville, Maryland. Color transparency by John Dominis, Life magazine photo archive. View full size. Twins?Look at the two ladies above checkout #7 and #8. They could be twins .. at least sisters. I love this photo ... there is so much to see! Funny how the Clorox label has not changed. That's good branding! Plaid ElephantDidn't that fellow come from the Island of Misfit Toys? Nice to see him or her gainfully employed. Credit cards?Are them Credit Card Imprinters on the registers? I didn't think grocery stores took credit cards until the late 80's. [The imprinters would be for charge cards, which for gas stations, grocery stores and other retailers go back at least to the 1950s and the era of the Charga-Plate. Charge accounts go back even farther, to the early days of retailing. Below: Artwork from a 1966 newspaper ad. What goes back to the late 80s is using bank-issued credit cards as an everyday substitute for cash, as opposed to merchant charge accounts, which generally had to be paid in full at the end of the month. - Dave] How little has changedIt's funny how things haven't changed. some of the equipment looks antiquated, but the whole checkout process is still the same. Little detailsLook closely at the rack at the checkout. One thing that stands out for me is razor blades. Lots and lots of razor blades. Now you're lucky if you even find them buried in among the 3-, 5-, 19-blade razors. (Don't even look for a safety razor today. I've tried 10 different stores here, no luck.) Next, just above the Lane 5 sign is a Brach's candy bin. Looks like the good folks at Time-Life have photoshopped the LIFE logo onto the bin. Anyone back me up on this? [That's not "photoshopped." It says "As advertised in LIFE." Often seen on product displays back in the Olden Days. - Dave] GeeSure were a lot of Caucasians back in 1964. Paper or plastic?It was at a Giant supermarket in suburban Washington in 1983 that I was first asked by the cashier "paper or plastic?" At first I was confused, thinking that she was asking me whether I wanted to pay with paper money or a credit card.... Keep GoingOh my great good God. I've never wanted a picture to "keep going" more than this one! I wish they had invented 360 degree viewing back then. AMAZING!! The good old daysI worked in a grocery store similar to this. Same cash registers. Brings back a lot of memories. Life Sure Got CasualComparing the turn-of-the-century pictures with this one shows the remarkable change in American public attire. The fellow writing the check in the right foreground might have been arrested for public indecency in earlier Shorpy Land. Didn't see too many men in short pants in 1905 stores. Deja VuI'm amazed at the number of products which are still instantly recognizable today. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for those prices! Check out the checkoutI can only imagine how long it took to get through the checkout line in the days before bar code scanners. It looks like the cashiers had to consult that notepad they all have propped up against their registers. Random musingsThose elephants are, like, crazy! People were thinner back then. The Clorox label hasn't changed a bit. Curious that the checkout ladies visible are all men. It's too bad we can't see the tabloid racks at the checkout stands. I just know there's a juicy headline on the Enquirer. Wow!I work about two miles from Rockville. Does anyone know the address of this store? Is it still there. This site is unbelievable... The ViewWhat strikes me about this is no one in view is morbidly obese. Look at the kid...... eyeballing that open Brach's candy display. Those are almost unchanged from than till now. I wonder if he copped a "sample"? CheckersThe checkers, the ones shown at least, are all male. This was once a well paid and somewhat skilled job if only for the sharp memory and hand-eye coordination. The gaudy merchandising hasn't changed much in 44 years but the checkout experience? Well, what do you all think , better or worse? Convenient beer & wineAt least in the late 70s, Marylanders learned to spot Super Giants, because through some complicated shift of definition (like SUVs = trucks), these stores were not subject to the prohibition that grocery stores and convenience stores can't sell alcohol. Today Giant Food remains but Super Giants are gone, and it's no longer possible to buy wine with your packaged ground beef. Pre-UPCOne of the more striking things here is the checkout registers where the clerk actually had to read a stamped-on price and key it in manually (after consulting a list of what might have been on discounted sale that day). Within ten years many registers would have their displays as bright glowing fluorescent digits (later LED/LCD) vs these mechanical pop-up number tags. UPC scanning lasers wouldn't be common for another 10 years or so. Look at all the Men!I am not accustomed to seeing so much testosterone in a grocery store! Everything looks supersized, even the hairdos. It's kinda funny how high they stacked the displays, you'd need a ladder to get at some of it. LinesThe lines are still as long after the "wonderful" invention of Bar Codes, Scanners and Chip & PIN credit/debit cards. One step forward, two steps back. So much to see!Dave, would you mind enlarging this to about six feet high? I can't make out all the details! What is Loon?On one of the ends.... [The sign says LOOK. - Dave] Supermarket "Where's Waldo?"Not one of these people have bottled water in their cart and there's no gum or candy visible on the registers... Now, find the: box of Life cereal, the Cracker Jacks, the Domino sugar, the Raisin Bran, the grape jelly, the grape juice, the box of Cheer detergent, and the anxious store manager. Brach's CandiesThe display of the bulk candy bin appears to read "Advertised in Life." I wonder how many Life readers caught the subtle product placement. A refreshing lack of "expression"Nary a tattoo nor a facial piercing in sight. Where's Waldo?I think he's in Aisle 6. Very interesting photo! Brach's CandiesScary how 21 years later, I could have been the kid looking into the Brach's Bulk Candies bin... I totally forgot about those bins until this picture. People were slimmer back thenOther than the antiquated cash registers and the male cashiers, what has changed the most is that we are more obese now. I love this pictureSo rich. So much to keep the eye busy. Almost like a Where's Waldo cartoon. From the Plaid Elephants advertising "Top Value" something-or other, all the way down to the Quaker logo on a box of Rice Chex. And who's that woman in line in front of the chip rack? She has a BIG BUTT! (If anyone tells me that's my mother, then she's YOUR mother.) Charge-a-platesThey go back to at least the 40's -- I remember them well. It was metal and specially notched for each of the stores which accepted them and where you had a charge account. Current plastic models, good for almost anything, are great but far less secure. Modern LifeThe Life cereal box behind the Rice Chex is virtually unchanged! Not so inexpensiveMedian income of all families in 1964 was about $6600. For female full-time workers, the median income was $3700. Median income of nonwhite males was $2800. http://www2.census.gov/prod2/popscan/p60-047.pdf I'll bet they didn't think these prices were all that cheap. I do wonder what day of the week this photo was taken - I'll bet it was a Saturday. Get your slob on!I imagine that this was taken on a very hot day. No matter what the weather, though, imagine this same scene in 1934 or 1904 - you wouldn't see people out in public wearing undershirts and shorts. I wonder if there's a particular moment in time or series of events when it became OK to look "slobby" in public? No sagging pants or backwards baseball caps, anyway. I second the vote For blown up sections of this photograph, a lot of shelves I would like to explore. [Click "view full size." That's as blown up as it gets. - Dave] Checking outWhen I worked in grocery in the mid 1970's, with only slightly newer registers, the checkout time would be about the same as now. Good checkers could check and bag at about the same rate as now - the difference being that the checker had to pay attention and couldn't have conversations with their coworkers while checking. The notepads have the produce prices on them. Typically, you would remember those after the first few checkouts of the same produce item per day and not need to refer back very often. Remember that the range of produce available was less than today, both because of improved distribution and widening of tastes. The preferred checking technique is to pull the item off with the left hand, check the price, and enter the price into the register with the right hand. The register we had had plastic covers to cover the keys for anything past $9.99, since items of that price were pretty rare, since grocery stores sold groceries and not other items. In general, we had fewer stoppages for price checks than a modern system will because of missing items in their database. The grocery stocked fewer items back then. The flip side is that inventory management was a pain - we would manually order based on what was on the shelves and did a periodic total inventory to find the correct wastage values from spoilage and shoplifting. I much prefer the wider range of food and produce available today. And just think...This could be one of the few larger group Shorpy pictures where most of the folks are still alive. The cute girl in the cart would be my sister's age; the adults are mostly in the mid-late 20s to early 40s range, giving them ages from the high 60s to the mid 80s. The older kids would still only be in their fifties. Anyone from Rockville know these folks? Fantastic Photo!Even though it's far "younger" that most of the great photos that Shorpy features, it's one of the most fascinating you've ever put up here. I can't take my eyes off it. Do we know the address?My partner and I -- en route to Bob's Noodle House -- have wondered about the origins of a now-empty grocery store in Rockville, near "downtown." Perhaps this Super Giant? Certainly of this era. You can just make it out in the middle of this view -- between the bus shelter and the tree -- through the parking lots. [The Super Giant was at 12051 Rockville Pike and Randolph Road, where Montrose Crossing is today. See the next comment up. - Dave] View Larger Map Rockville Super GiantThe 25,000-square-foot Super Giant that's the subject of this post opened November 12, 1962, at 12051 Rockville Pike at Randolph Road, anchoring a 205,000-square-foot discount shopping center with 3,000-car parking lot (and a "Jolly Trolley" to get you from car to store). Today it's a "lifestyle center" called Montrose Crossing. Below: A long time ago, in a shopping center far, far away ... Wow. Just wow.I, too, worked in a grocery store in the late-70s when I was in high school. As earlier commented, apparently not a whole lot changed from when this picture was taken to then (well, except the hairstyles and clothes -- which changed a *lot*). I remember the registers well -- the columns of keys were dedicated to 10's, 1's, 10 cents, 1 cent. The large palm-contoured key to the right would "enter" in the decimal digits. Lots of noise and moving parts. A good cashier could move the goods along the conveyor belt as quickly as the scanners of today. The rapid spinning of numbers on the register display was mesmerizing. The one big holdup was the dreaded "price check" if a stocker had to be summoned -- but more often the checker already had the price memorized (good thing too, since price label "swapping" was a problem). I stocked shelves using the incredibly complicated but efficient label gun used to print and affix the prices to the products. As a stocker you had a large holster that held this amazing device. The more I think about it, things have not changed that much. We still have lines, conveyor belts, "separators," shopping carts, impulse displays, checkers, baggers, stockers, butchers, and produce guys (the latter two being union jobs). At least until the self checkout and then later RFID based systems (you just walk out of the store with the goods and the store will automatically figure this out and bill your card). Top Value StampsMy mother collected those, they were also used at Kroger's in the Middle South. What surprises me is that there are no cigarette racks at the checkouts. When I was a kid, every grocery store had the cigarette packs in racks right at the checkouts, with a sign screaming "Buy A Pack Today!" Maybe it was a Maryland thing. I also remember drugstores and groceries where cigarettes were sold only in the pharmacies. Go figure. More of these pleaseI add my request for more photos like this of just ordinary life from the '50s & '60s. Sure brings back memories of simpler and I think happier times. When I was a kid I used to imagine how marvelous life would be fifty years hence in the 21st century. Well I'm there now -- and I'd like to go back to the 1950s please. [And you can, thanks to the magic of the Inter-nets! I wonder when we'll have those TVs you can hang on the wall like a painting. And Picture-Phones. Can't wait. - Dave] Mama can I have a penny?You know what would be right next to the electric doors (and that big rubber mat you had to step on to make them open) -- a row of gumball machines! Whatever happened to those? I loved just looking at them. Those glass globes, all those colorful gumballs. Sigh. RealityThats a highly posed photo. Everyone in the photo would have had to sign a model release for this to be published in Life. It is "possible" that the people where chosen for their looks. [I've worked in publishing for over 20 years. You wouldn't need a release for any picture taken in a public place, and certainly not for a crowd or group shot. Actually you don't need releases at all. Some publishers may have looked at them as insurance against lawsuits for invasion of privacy. Probably most didn't bother. As for "posed," I doubt it. - Dave] Blue StampsWhile I miss the concept of Blue Stamps or trading stamps, I get points from my store and they send me a check each quarter to use in the store. I have one premium my parents redeemed from a trading stamp program - a really hideous waterfront print which they had in their home until they divorced. I claimed it from my father and it's hung in the laundry room of every house I've ever lived in since I moved on my own. I remember the old way grocery stores were laid out, and I was always fascinated by the registers. Link: Whatever Happened to Green Stamps? [Down where I come from we had S&H Green Stamps -- Sperry and Hutchinson. And "redemption centers" chock-full of cheesy merchandise. Or you could get cash. When I was in college I chose cash. My fingers would be all green (and minty) from sticking wet stamps in the redemption books. - Dave] Lived next to one just like it in VirginiaThis is just like the Super Giant on South Glebe Road in Arlington, close by where my family was living in 1964. It's where my mother shopped and I loved to accompany her and browse around. You could buy anything from a live lobster to a coat, and just like the Rockville store, it was 20 minutes from downtown Washington. Deja vuMy supermarket experience goes back about 10 years before this one . . . but what a photo! We had women cashiers, and man, were they fast. I was a stock clerk and bagger, and had to move fast to get the groceries in those brown paper bags (no plastic). I also had to wear a white shirt and bow tie. Naturally, we took the groceries to the car for customers and put them in the car or trunk, wherever asked. That was known as customer service. We, too, gave S & H green stamps, although Top Value stamps were available a number of places. Price checkerMy father was a lifelong grocery man, making a cycle from clerk to manager to owner and finally back to clerking in the 1950s until he retired in 1966. He took pride in doing his job well, whatever it was. Each night, sitting in his green leather chair, he'd read our two newspapers, one local and one city, end to end. One night I noticed that he'd paused for quite some time at the full-page weekly ad for the market he worked at and I asked him why. He was memorizing the prices of the specials starting the next day. Brach's candy displayThe shot of the boy near the candy display reminds me of a time back in the very early 1960s where I did help myself to a piece or two. I looked up, saw an employee looking at me and boy, I was scared to death he would tell my parents. Also, with the evolution in scanning and so forth, it brought to an end, more or less, of checking the receipt tape against the stamped prices for mistakes the checker made. Checking ReceiptsI worked in a store just like this while in high school in the early '70s. The main difference I've noticed is that Sunday is a major shopping day now. Our store was open on Sunday, because the crosstown rival was open. We (and they) didn't do enough business to pay for the lights being on. Two people ran the store on Sundays - a checker and a stocker/bagboy. And we didn't have much to do. All we ever saw was people picking up a single item or picnic supplies. How times have changed. Now we check the receipt for mistakes made in shelf pricing. Did I get charged the sale price or not? [So after your groceries are rung up, you go back down the aisles checking the receipt against the shelf prices? Or you make note of the shelf prices while you're shopping? That's what I call diligent. - Dave] Stamp dispensersWhen I was a kid back in the late sixties, there were stamp dispenser next to each cash register, with a dial a lot like a telephone dial that would spew stamps as the cashier turned it. I'm surprised they don't have a similar thing in this store. [The grocery store we went to had an electric thingy that spit them out. Which looked a lot like the brown boxes shown in the photo. - Dave] Checking ReceiptsWe don't check every price - just the sale prices which are listed in the weekly ad, available at the front of the store. Sometimes the ad price doesn't get properly entered into the computer, so I pay attention, especially if it's a significant savings. Relative CostsMy mother kept note of her grocery bills for 40 years -- and in 1962 complained that it cost $12 a week to feed a family of four. Considering that my dad's salary was $75 a week, that was indeed a lot of money. We used to save Green Stamps, Plaid Stamps, and cigar bands for giveaways in the store. [That's a good point. I had to chuckle when I noticed that the most these registers could ring up is $99.99. - Dave] Amazing how pictures take you backThis is what grocery stores looked like when I was a wee lass in the '70's. This could have been our local A&P, except the freezer cases would have been brown instead of white. And I bet if you checked the ingredients on the packages those thin people are buying, you wouldn't see corn syrup as a top-ten ingredient of non-dessert items. A & PSee the short story by John Updike for the perfect literary pairing to this photo. Well, in my opinion anyways; it's the first thing that came to mind upon seeing it. I Remember Those Elephants!My great-grandma lived in Rockville at that time and I remember those elephants!! What a floodgate of memories just opened up! Thanks again, Dave! [Now we know why memory and elephants go together. - Dave] Making ChangeAs those cash registers (most likely) didn't display the change due, the cashiers actually had to know how to make change. [Cash registers waaay back in 1964 (and before) did indeed show change due. And sometimes were even connected to a change-maker that spit your coins into a little tray. - Dave] Brown paper packages tied up with stringThis is such an amazing photo -- I love it! As someone who was still 12 years away from being born when this photo was taken, I'm not familiar with the old customs. What kind of items would have been wrapped up in brown paper like the woman in line at register 7 has? It looks like a big box, so that ruled out meats or feminine products in my mind ...any ideas? [It's probably her laundry. - Dave] White MarketsIn Knoxville we had groceries called White Stores that looked like most any other grocery of the late 70's, early 80's: Dimly lit with greenish fluorescent tubes, bare-bones interior decoration, and indeed a Brach's candy bin. My mom used Green Stamps for years. It took eons to fill a book. At the White Stores you could "buy" various pieces of merchandise. She got a floor lamp one year and a set of Corning Ware the next. It seems like over the last 5-10 years, they've made grocery stores all upscale looking. Almost makes you feel like you're getting ripped off. Warehouse LookSay goodbye to this timeless shot and hello to the warehouse stylings of the local Costco. Grocery stores have been jazzing up their interiors hoping to attract and keep customers. It's not working. When I go to one, they are far less busy than even in the recent past. They have cut the payrolls down significantly here in San Diego due to losing profit to the warehouses. Consequently, the help is far less competent, far younger, far less helpful, and far below the wage scales of the wonderful veterans they cannot really replace. We need some grocery stores for certain smallish items that the warehouse giants will never carry. But they will dwindle down to a very precious few, and do it soon. Of course, this grandiose Super Giant displaced their mom-and-pop competitors. Same tune, different singers. Multi-tasking fingers>> the columns of keys were dedicated to 10's, 1's, 10 cents, 1 cent. And a really good clerk would be pressing at least two keys at a time, which modern keypads can't do. Pure gold.What could lure me from my busy, lurk-only status? Only this amazing photo! Wow. Just wow. And not a cell phone in sight... Pre-Obesity EpidemicAnd look. No great big fat people. Sure, there a couple of middle-agers spreading out here & there, but you know the ones I mean. Smaller aisles and carts!Because people are much bigger these days, everything else is too! I remember shopping with my mom and for the big holidays and having to use more than one cart. Super GiantThe Super Giant was in the shopping center that now has a Sports Authority, Old Navy and a much smaller Giant. Super Giant was similar to what you would find at WalMart now -- part department store, part grocery store. I grew up in Rockville and we used to shop there all the time, until they closed that is. Guess the world wasn't ready for that combination. I could be in that picture, but I'd be too young to walk. GurskyesqueThis reminds me of Andreas Gursky's photo "99 Cent" -- it could almost have been taken in the same place. Fiberglass tubs on conveyor belts.Great picture & website. I remember them bagging your groceries, putting them in fiberglass tubs, and giving you a placard with a 3 digit number on it. The tub would go on a conveyor belt to the outside of the store, you'd drive up, and they'd take your placard and load your groceries. Wonder if there are any pictures of those... Proto-WalmartThis store was huge and it was quite unique in the same model as today's Walmart with groceries, clothing, etc. It is odd that the concept did not survive in that era considering the success of Walmart today. Personally, as a kid, I didn't like it when my mom got clothes for me from there. They were the off-brands. I also remember the GEM membership store which was in the current Mid-Pike Plaza on the opposing SW corner, which was a precursor to Price Club except that it didn't have groceries. I Remember It WellI grew up in Rockville, MD and was in this store many times. It was a full "one stop" department store with a grocery store attached. I loved going there with my mother because while she was grocery shopping I could make my way to the toy department. Kid nirvana! I might have been there!Oh do I remember that! My family lived in Rockville until 1965, and my mother usually took me along. After moving, we'd go to the Rockville Super Giant only if we needed to stop at the department store side. The beige boxes that you see at Checkouts 6 and 7 were the Top Value Stamp dispensers. (The man in the T-shirt is signing a check on top of one.) They automatically spit out the right amount of those yellow stamps. We bought quite a few things with Top Value Stamps, including a well-built Westinghouse room dehumidifier. The Giant Food at Friendship Heights had a conveyor belt but this store did not. This one had so much land, there was a huge sidewalk area out front where you could bring your carts -- but not to the car. Instead there were pairs of plastic cards, one with a hook for the cart, one with a hole. They had a three digit number, and the note "NO TIPPING". Took me a while to understand that wasn't about tipping over the carts. When you pulled up, an employee (probably young) put the bags in your car for you. Speaking of brand names, I can see the stacks of Mueller's spaghetti in Aisle 6. It's the brand we ate then. (Now I know Farina flour has no business in pasta!) The meat department is along the wall at the left. Deli and seafood were at the far back corner. There were a pair of "Pick a Pickle" barrels in front of the deli counter. One Dill, one Half-Sour. Good pickles, and great fish. The fish department has always been a source of pride for Giant. Of course this was back when a flounder was over a foot long, not these six-inch midgets we get today. All the fish were whole on ice, only gutted, and they scraped the scales, and cut or filleted the fish to your order. The produce department starts behind the Brach's counter, and extends out the photo to the left. There were one or two manned scales there, where they would weigh your brown paper bag of produce, mark the price with a grease pencil, and staple it shut. If it was something tender like cherries, they would put "XX" on it, so that it would be correctly bagged. So the checkers only needed to know the prices of "piece" produce. There was a "post mix" soda machine at the end of Aisle 12, 13, or 14, which would mix syrup and soda water into a cup. I'd often get a Coke. Probably 5 cents. I remember getting Mercury dimes as change from that machine -- this photo is from the last year of silver dimes and quarters. (Serious inflation was kicking in to pay for the Vietnam War.) Cigarettes? Where were they? I should know, my mom smoked then. They were only in cartons, they were so dirt-cheap that nobody bought them by the pack, except in vending machines. They certainly didn't need to be kept "out of the reach of children" then. They were in a six-foot set of shelves somewhere. I suppose I had no taste in clothing at the time, as most of my clothes came from there. Well, let's be honest -- they were much nicer and more stylish than clothes at Sears. (Oh, those horrible Sears Toughskin jeans with the rubber inside the knees!) The department store side, which started to the right of the checkouts, was easily twice the size of what you see here. It had a lot of selection, and lots of good specialty counters. There was a photo counter at the front of the store (pretty much under the photographer, who was up in the balcony where the restrooms were). They sold things at fair prices, and gave good and honest sales help. There was a hobby counter in the far back right corner. Speaking of the restrooms, they had seats that automatically flipped up into the back of the toilet, with UV lights to "sanitize" them. Spooky. The current Giant Food store at that site, which my friends call the "Gucci Giant," is on the former department store side. When they first shut down the three Super Giant department stores, they left the grocery store were it was. I think about the time that White Flint Mall started "upscaling" Rockville Pike, they built a much fancier store on the old department store side. Compared to now, Rockville Pike was very working class, very blue collar. Congressional Plaza (on the site of the former Congressional Airport) had a JC Penney as the anchor, and a Giant Food. Near the Super Giant was an EJ Korvettes, now the site of G Street Decorator Fabrics. A little off Rockville Pike was GEM -- Government Employees Membership. These were the days when "Fair Trade" pricing (price fixing) was still legal, and enforceable everywhere but the District of Columbia. But GEM, being a "membership" store, could discount, so that's where you bought Fair Trade products like Farberware at a discount. Of course, GEM had to compete with discount stores in the District, which Congress had conveniently exempted from the Fair Trade Act, so they could shop cheaply. Scan itI enjoyed coming back to this photo for new comments -- I had one before, but long before the new post. I live not far from Troy, Ohio, where the local newspaper just had an article about the bar code scanner. The very first item scanned -- anywhere -- was at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, in 1974. Troy is less then 30 miles north of Dayton, where NCR developed the scanner. The Marsh store is still there, but NCR is leaving. King Soopers, 1960I work for a division of Kroger called King Soopers in Colorado. My store, which opened in February 1960, has a lot in common with this one. They have tried to modernize it but you can still see the old store showing through in places. Great photo. Bagger NostalgiaRegrettably, the baggers are out of view to the right. My greatest nostalgia for supermarkets past concerns the bag boys, practitioners of a high art. They took pride in how compactly they could pack your groceries with attention to putting the fragile items on top -- not to mention that they all tried to outdo each other in speed. Bagger Nostalgia...Part DeuxWhen I was a kid (1950s) I used to go with my father to the grocery (Kroger's) on Saturday morning. I always helped bag the groceries, especially if they were short handed, and he would always remind me of his bagging rule: "Don't even think about putting the meat next to the soap or even in the same bag." In the 50s as I remember it the majority of the cashiers were women and that was their only job at the store. I notice that even as early as the 60s they had the security screens next to the cash register to keep unwanted fingers out of the till form the adjacent aisle. I also remember making the family excursion to the Top Value redemption store to select the "FREE" gift that the household needed when we had sufficient stamp books filled. The other Super GiantThe third Super Giant is in White Oak. They took the "Super" off ages ago, but it is all still there. Mostly we went to the one in Laurel, which still retains its huge circa-1960 sign in the parking lot. Around 1980 it ate the old Kresge store next door, but by that time the department store features of the biggest stores were mostly gone. It's kind of funny -- the mall they built just south of the shopping center almost killed the latter, but now the shopping center is very busy and the mall may well be torn down. Memories from the early '60sMy mom worked at Chestnut Lodge and would often stop by the Super Giant on Rockville Pike on her way home to shop for groceries -- and clothes for me! I was much too young to be brand- or fashion-conscious and I remember loving the little cotton A-line dresses that Mom would bring home. We lived in the District and a big thrill for me would be to drive up to Rockville with my parents on the weekends and shop at the Super Giant and Korvettes! Crossing the PotomacThe hype of Super Giant was enough to entice these Northern Virginians into crossing The Potomac River into Maryland. The commute is commonplace today but not so much in 1964. We had not seen anything like it. Racks & racks of mass produced clothing and groceries, too! Grandmother bought the same suit in 3 different sizes. She and my mother got their money's worth. I was 13. It never left my closet. The NoiseThe old registers were so noisy. No screens to check what was going on, just quick eye movement to try and keep track. Ahh...back in the day when every item had a price on it. Ohhhh yeah and is that Blake Shelton?I spent many weekends at this gigantic store on Rockville Pike. I think I even bought a prom dress here....is that possible? I very clearly remember going up to the glassed in observation balcony on the second floor, which gave an overall view of the store (as this photo shows). That way I could scan the aisles in order to see where my Dad was at any given moment. I love this photo, and HEY isn't that a time-traveling Blake Shelton a little left of the center wearing a white short-sleeved shirt?? (LIFE, Stores & Markets)
Facebook: 1909
... ready at all times to taunt and victimize the little poor kids working at daddy's mill. My imagination worketh overtime. Hine's ... by the photographer. All those bare feet. Some tough kids! I live in the South, we have some of the nastiest cockleburrs that I ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/23/2009 - 8:17pm -

January 1909. Tifton, Georgia. "Workers in the Tifton Cotton Mills. All these children were working or helping, 125 in all. Some of the smallest have been there one year or more." Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. For ComparisonIt's almost like a scene out of a Little Rascals movie -- the pudgy boy on the left in the suit and cap, tossing a football, and looking every inch the boss's kid. A mean, spoiled bully, ready at all times to taunt and victimize the little poor kids working at daddy's mill. My imagination worketh overtime. Hine's WayLewis Hine seems to have been unusually good at quickly establishing rapport with many of his subjects. Here's yet another of his photos in which many of those posing are reacting with genuine laughter and surprise as they look straight at the lens, full of life. He must have made some spot-on quip that quickened the crowd, not just "Say cheese," or "Watch the birdie," and from the facial expressions and body language of many in the photo, whatever he said must have been a zinger. For sureI am in the front row in the raggedy plaid dress with messy hair. And I would be wishing I were the very pretty girl behind me to my left with her hand on her hip. I'm sure she was the most popular. My mother, father, and sister are there too. LintyAt first I thought it was just weird negatives -- but it's those threads and fabric fibers all over them. They look so ragged, but happy, too. Or at least amused by the photographer. All those bare feet. Some tough kids!I live in the South, we have some of the nastiest cockleburrs that I swear will go to the bone. DichotomyAll those smiling faces. All those bare feet. It's meHere's a question: Who in the photo reminds you of yourself? I would be the little girl in the front row center with a white dress and folded hands. For laughsI suspect the giggling was caused by one or two young wits being photographed. For instance, see the boy at far left with his mouth covered, and some of the eyes mirthfully looking his way. Another delightful Shorpy depiction of the human urge to enjoy living with what you have. Just imagine someone decades from now bemoaning how bad those people had it back in 2009. Or not, who knows what cycles lie ahead? Good and badStarting with the shy girl hiding behind her hands, I absolutely love the expressions on the 6 kids in the front row: the smiling girl to her left; the other smiling girl with her hair swept up, and the two girls next to her, all looking in the same direction; the squinting boy with the impish grin on his face. Part of me is amazed they could smile having to work in a cotton mill, though it probably wasn't as Dickensian as I remember from my history books. And so many are barefoot. I'm such a wimp, I don't like walking barefoot across my hardwood floors. Barefoot, Charles Dickens and MeShoes were a luxury to many families in that place and time. Since kids grew so fast, families couldn't afford to keep 'em in shoes. Feet can get pretty tough if you don't wear shoes. (Maybe not cockleburr tough, but that would be incentive to keep the burrs cleared away.) I betcha the three or four girls with their hands covering their mouths are doing so because Mr. Hine made them laugh and they were covering up their bad teeth. Best I can figure is that the textile factory conditions then were pretty darned Dickensian, given a few decades of slow progress and the lack of a cruel English class system. The boy leaning forward on his elbows, just above the "bully," is me, more or less. Windows 1909Notice those whitewashed windows? Can't have employees getting distracted by the view outside! These kids today...One cannot help but compare these selfless and hard-working children with some of the more indulged kids walking around today loaded down with cell phones, pocket video games, name brand clothes, bling, stylin' expensive haircuts, blue water bottles, etc. These youngsters (pictured) did what they had to do to help their families and accepted it, as seen by their "just do it" attitudes and lack of selfishness, greed, "gimmees" or self-pity. I know they had no choice but still, their willingness to sacrifice their childhoods, as needed, is very touching. There is absolutely no sense of entitlement exhibited by any of them; some even look proud and confident. This was my father's era and he always kept those qualities and always was happy. Mystifying, isn't it? That's me, too.With a smile that's almost a grimace from looking into the sun. That's me in every picture when I was a kid. That GirlTake a look on that girl on the far right. Seems to me she's blond with straight hair. Folks, I would say I could be in love for her if I was born on that time and working on that factory. The whole photo is amazing and with lots of interesting things to looking at. But, was that girl who made me spent more than 10 min thinking about my life. Two Familiar Faces!The two young girls in the front row - one in plaid dress, and the one on her right in light-colored dress, are featured (close up) in another photo you posted some time back. Great smiles! Back rowI'm intrigued by the people who hung back there in the very back row...and on the right, there are either two jokesters or a couple of giants! On the left handrailThat looks like a bobbin of yarn to me. I bet that is the product this department was making. Grace & dignityThe clothes are stained & torn. You know they didn't have much. Yet look at the adult women -- most are neatly dressed with well groomed hair. Can you imagine how hard those women's lives were in days of no birth control, large families, cooking & cleaning with no conveniences? WOW. Can't stop lookingI discovered Hine's photos yesterday afternoon (Friday 06.11.09) and kept search and scrolling and reading and reflecting till 2 a.m., then woke up at 6 this morning to continue. Each face has a story just like I have a story. How many felt that no one would ever think of them once they had gone? How many thought their lives unimportant or dull, which now to me seem so intriguing? (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)
No Peanuts: 1942
... with the meat guy next door? (The Gallery, Bicycles, Kids, Marjory Collins, Small Towns, Stores & Markets) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/30/2024 - 2:25pm -

November 1942. Lititz, Pennsylvania. "Small town in wartime. Peanut stand next to the Lutz butcher shop finds it hard to get peanuts since the war started. Peanut oil is needed in industry." Acetate negative by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size. The Original Educator Crax Cracker ...With the Baked-in-Flavor! Crax, not CrackerJackCrax crackers, "The Original Educator" https://clickamericana.com/topics/food-drink/crax-the-most-imitated-crac... Lutz’s Meat Market ... was founded by B.F. Lutz in 1895 in the rear of 15 East Main Street. The bank drive-thru lanes were the site of a farmer’s market operated by Lutz. In 1927 Lutz’s sons, Ben and John, joined in the business and it was relocated to 53 East Main Street. - lititzlibrary.org I Spy ... Ms. Marjory CollinsIn reflection to the left right of the "No Peanuts" sign. A metric wall ??I don't think I've ever seen brickwork before with headers (only) every tenth row (every five or six is the most common). Crax and a crankWhat be crax, I have to ax. Nineteen cents, at any rate. And that's a doozy of an awning crank there. "Hygiene" textbookThe New Healthy Living Series: The Habits of Healthy Living, by Winslow and Hahn, 1932. This is a well-used copy, although it does not sound like the sort of reading that would excite a young teenager. My New BikeBet that boy is mighty proud of his sleek new bike. Nations Beyond The SeasThe bigger book on the bike seat is "Nations Beyond the Seas"; can't quite read the spine of the smaller book. A postwar edition of Nations Beyond The Seas can be borrowed at Archive.org Watch out ...My bike (c. 1948) has a horn like his. It doesn't require batteries, it blasts out a loud klaxon like sound when the plunger is pushed. Lovely Prewar BicycleThe bike pictured is a new prewar Schwinn. Not sure of the exact year or name on the headbadge. Schwinn made bicycles for different companies back then. Thanks to Dave for the zoom into the book spinesReminds me of the movie Blade Runner where Harrison Ford is saying stuff like "Enhance 224 to 176" [You're very welcome. The zoom is actually from a different photo. - Dave] "Nutty" SpellingThe numbers on the old piece of wood beneath the peanut window lead me to believe the bags of nuts, when available, would have set you back a nickel, a dime, or two dimes for the large appetite and wallet crowd. Perhaps if they had raised their prices just a fraction they could have afforded another "R"! Sliver of storefront?That's gotta be the world's narrowest storefront for the peanut guy. No wider than a door opening. Unless it shared space with the meat guy next door? (The Gallery, Bicycles, Kids, Marjory Collins, Small Towns, Stores & Markets)
Rest Stop: 1936
... Resettlement Administration. View full size. Seven kids in one car! I agree with you OTY. The despair these people must have ... in my comment title, here are some of the things my four kids said on our cross-country auto trips 45+ years ago. "He's touching me." ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/17/2012 - 10:01am -

July 1936. "Drought refugees from Bowman, North Dakota, in Montana." En route to Oregon or Washington. Medium-format nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Resettlement Administration. View full size. Seven kids in one car!I agree with you OTY. The despair these people must have known in their lives. Seven mouths to feed and bodies to clothe. I can't imagine. Is that a AAA Trip-Tik she's reading in the car? It sure looks like one. "I'm Bored"Along with the words in my comment title, here are some of the things my four kids said on our cross-country auto trips 45+ years ago. "He's touching me." "There's nothing to do." "I'm thirsty." "I'm hungry." "I need to use the bathroom." "Mary keeps looking at me." "I'm too hot." "He's taking up the whole back seat." "Are we there yet?" That is just a small fraction of the crabbing, even though we had books, toys, little cars, games, crayons, snacks and cold drinks in an ice chest and we slept in motels at night. Here I see SEVEN kids, not a sign of a toy in sight, everyone looks exhausted, hungry and tired and their treat will be water rationed by Dad. We cannot even imagine the despair in the lives of these people but I bet there was not one single peep from anyone about their discontent, despite the lack of Gameboys, Hot Wheels, snack-paks, cold beverages, iPods, auto TVs, etc. What strong character they had, even the tiniest of the group, and we are so spoiled. As if all this toil and trouble weren't enoughOne of the triplets has managed to bust himself an arm. Big sister, I am sure, is quite a help to Mother, who comforts the most recent addition to the family while checking a map. That rear tire could use some air but I'm guessing that's the least of Dad's worries right now. And whoever told him Montana's the place to go must not have seen this particular spot. Hanging water bags up front in the airflow helped lower their contents from hot to tepid, some times. Often it was useful to knock the dead bugs off before you drank, so some of them didn't join the water going into your mouth. The Canvas water bagworks on the principle of evaporation. The bag is slightly porous and the evaporation of the water that comes through the bag cools the water. It's out on the radiator to get lots of air. And I assume as a side benefit the cooler air passing around the bag may help cool the radiator. My Dad had one. Being born in 1889 I imagine he used them on trips. I believe the bag is still around in the house or garage somewhere. I'll have to look for it. Wade Water bagTo those of a certain age (like me), a familiar sight was what's sometimes called a "desert water bag" hanging in front of the radiator on passing cars. Here's a rare shot of one in actual use. I'd always assumed the water was strictly for the radiator, not human consumption. I'm Next!I drank from one of those until 1953. Nice cold water. We always carried it out west from Texas to California and back. It was the only thing that was cool on our '38 Pontiac in the summer. I wonder if he got to go to Disneyland when it opened in 1955? He seems to already be a fan of Mickey. Why did they have seven kids?Because there wasn't room for eight of them in the machine. My grandfather was about this man's age and always referred to any automobile as "the machine." I think that was rather common terminology for his generation. Brother!This shot just makes me puddle up! Wow, a family of nine.Let us hope they did all right. [Papa was evidently no idler. -Dave] The 2-Door Sedan Picturedis a 1927 Chevrolet Coach. The Coach was one of eight body styles available that year. It had a 171 cubic inch, overhead valve 4-cylinder engine and a 3-speed transmission. Chevrolet made just over 1,000,000 vehicles in 1927 and outsold Ford for the first time. Meryl Streep lookalikeThe oldest daughter looks like she was self-consciously reaching to take off her glasses before the photo was taken. (She also bears a striking resemblance to Meryl Streep.) She must have been miserable crammed in the back of that car with five younger siblings (assuming that the baby rode up front with Mama). Shoes for girls, barefoot boysInteresting to note that here we have a clear example of where the kids being barefoot is not an issue of poverty as we might have otherwise assumed. Seeing several barefoot boys in a cramped car in the Depression era would suggest parents too poor to provide shoes. But the fact that all the girls, even those younger than some of the boys, wear shoes proves that the boys are barefoot out of choice. Or perhaps because it was more socially acceptable or even expected for boys to run around that way but not for girls. (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Great Depression, Kids)
Mid-Island Plaza: 1957
... often in my middle and high school years. Gertz had a kids' club called the Pie Club, which gave you a book every year on your ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/05/2024 - 1:20pm -

Circa 1956-57. "Urbanism -- USA. Mid-Island Plaza and parking lot in Long Island, New York." 35mm color transparency, Paul Rudolph Archive, Library of Congress. View full size. 1957 Ford Interestingly, I see only one 1957 auto. The black Ford second from very right of the picture. [You missed the other one! - Dave] No store is an islandBut it can be confined to one. Started as a stationery store in Queens during the Depression, Gertz grew - bigly - at it original location before joining the rush to the suburbs in the 50's. It was one of two Allied Stores divisions in the NYC area - Stern Bros got the Jersey side while Gertz expanded on Long island - but they all became Sterns eventually. The store shown in the main pic ended its life as a macy*s - in what was then known as Broadway Commons - in 2020. DullsvilleCar collectors and nostalgia buffs like to think of 1950s automobiles as the stuff of glamour and youthful dreams. But, as this photo attests (with the exception of the 1955 Chevy and '53 Mercury hardtops as well as the red '54 Chevy convertible), most of them were, withal, pretty dull. That's my hometown!Hicksville, New York. I used to shop at Gertz all the time with my mom. It used to be an outdoor shopping plaza until they finally covered it. it was kind of interesting, all the stores retained their old exteriors. Later on, I worked there at Consumers Dist for a few years. It's seen many highs and lows. She's a fighterMid-Island Plaza has an interesting history. Mid-Island opened in 1956, on the site of a former boys' orphanage and a dairy and vegetable farm. It cost $40 million and was built to accommodate more than 40,000 shoppers daily. That's a lot of shopping. Beneath the mall was a nearly mile long truck tunnel. In 1957 the tunnel was designated a Civil Defense operational headquarters, providing emergency accommodations for over 9,000 people. Those were scary times. Mid-Island was enclosed in 1968, renamed Broadway Mall in 1989, renovated between 1987 and 1991, and completely redeveloped in 1995. Decline set in as we entered the new millennium. As referenced by Notcom, Gertz eventually became Macy's, and closed in 2020. JCPenney opened in 1999 and closed in 2003. I read somewhere Penney's thought online shopping was a passing fad and doubled down on bricks and mortar. But Broadway Mall is still there, which is a lot more than you can say about a lot of other malls. Jericho!We lived just a few miles from Mid-Island Plaza from about 1955 thru 1960 when we moved to New Jersey. My mother didn't drive at that time so we sometimes took a cab there to shop during the week. I don't remember much about the mall but those cab rides!! edit: If you car spotters spy a '56 Studebaker in the lot it may very well be ours. My father loved that thing. Maybe prosaic, but Identifiable!Maybe mostly prosaic daily drivers, but they are nevertheless distinctive. I count 18 identifiable cars and I am able to ID the make (and usually the year) of 16 of them. And yes Dave, two 1957 Fords. [I'm driving that '54 Hudson. - Dave] So I DidA '57 Custom 300. Proust's MadeleineLike the French dude's cookie, this picture brings back a wealth of memories to me. I grew up less than a mile away, and I walked there often in my middle and high school years. Gertz had a kids' club called the Pie Club, which gave you a book every year on your birthday, and they would sponsor a movie for members in the mall theater every few months, with the highlight being a pie-eating contest. One show featured a visit by Carl Yastrzemski, a Boston Red Sox Player who had grown up on Long Island. And the food! Maybe once a year, we'd get a Sicilian pie from Pizza D'Amore. (Our go-to pizza place was Dante's on Woodbury Road.) After Sunday Mass, we'd go to Mid-Island Bakery for crisp crusted Kaiser rolls and seeded rye. If I hadn't kicked the pew in front of us, my mom bought me a Black & White cookie. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Stores & Markets)
The Funnies: 1922
"John M. Bear Jr., 11/26/22." Twenty-one little kids. All wearing hats decorated with characters from the funny papers. At ... is nowhere near as much fun as The Mark of Zorro." Kids Love Boob! toonopedia has the scoop on most of these characters. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/24/2012 - 7:09pm -

"John M. Bear Jr., 11/26/22." Twenty-one little kids. All wearing hats decorated with characters from the funny papers. At Johnny's 11th birthday party. And they're mortified, every last one. (Thought you'd all slip under the radar, did you? That this embarrassing little artifact would just go on collecting dust at the bottom of a box somewhere? Well. Guess what. Not only did they invent radar, they invented computers and scanners and the Internet. Bwahaha. View full size!) See You in the Funny Papers!They're all adorable. Check out the vampette in the Jerry hat playing peekaboo with her ostrich feather fan. Standing left is Jeff who is thinking, "This is nowhere near as much fun as The Mark of Zorro." Kids Love Boob!toonopedia has the scoop on most of these characters. Boob McNutt started as a series of one-shot gags, which usually ended with Boob being tortured to death for his innocently destructive ways, but before long, week-to-week continuity was added. In 1922, he met the love of his life, Pearl, and the focus shifted to his quest to win her hand in marriage. The task was accomplished in 1926, but they were soon divorced. They went through a few more cycles of courtship, marriage and divorce. Funny Cartoons...I'm not sure you could have a character today called "Boob McNutt"... Great shot... Sheesh.Never has fun looked so enforced. Attn. Internet: Please pick up your shipment of WINHo. Lee. Mo. Ley. What an amazing picture. Although I do have to wonder how much counseling the kid with the "Boob McNutt" hat had to undergo later in life. Gloomy GusFabulous picture! Check out Gloomy Gus there in the middle. Her little moniker suits her just fine, don't you think? Next to her is "Boob McNutt." *snicker snicker* And the row of preteen girls in the back. Oh, can't you just feel the awkward?! I'm guessing the adult responsible for this is standing to the right of the kids. Many of them are looking that way with looks on their faces ranging from disbelief to possible hatred. But mostly disbelief. Now Stop It, All Of You!My guesses on why the long faces include the probability that they've just been threatened with bodily harm into keeping still for the photo and that maybe none of them got the character they wanted on their hat. Another reason to look so glumCheck out the water on under the porch railing. If you had to be outside on a cold November day in the rain taking a picture I don't think you would be very happy either. Thanks, Mom.Thanks a LOT. One is Having a Little FunThe "S'matter Pop" girl has actually been caught having a small amount of...."fun". The "Jeff" lad is a perfect portrait of misery, however. This is the saddest "party" I've ever seen. FrighteningI'm not talking about how these kids look. It is absolutely frightening how many of these comic strip characters I can identify without resorting to Wikipedia! By the way, Maw Katz is short for Maw Katzenjammer from "The Katzenjammer Kids." As for Ham Gravy, he was the boyfriend of a girl named Olive Oyl before the arrival of a mono-ocular spinach chomping sailor called Popeye, in the strip "Thimble Theater." With one or two exceptions that I can't track down, these are all King Features strips. [Someone misspelled Joneses. And I think it should be "Keeping." - Dave] Let the good times roll!I hate to say it, but these look like the photos we just got back from one of our scarce family reunions. Most of the people had no idea who the others were, had little in common, were dressed in uncomfortable Sunday clothes and had the body language of pulling away from the people next to them and folding their arms across their waist. Creating a posed memory photo of united hilarity when none existed is not easy (and of course there was no liquor since we could not tempt the recovering alcoholics), but I digress. I'm guessing that either the party was extremely dull, the hostess was too strict or uptight, there was not enough food or the guest of honor did not like his gifts and threw a tantrum. Anyway, it brings to me reveries of gatherings in my own experience wherein the chemistry was just not right and, like "MacArthur Park", someone left the cake out in the rain. I love this telling picture of the party with no joy. It happens. Par-tayWow. It looks like they all just lost ice-cream privileges. Buck up, kids! This is the best time of your lives! "Good Old Days" my thick, woolen suit! ...as worn by poor, sad, finger-clasping "Jeff" at far left. "Betty" beside him, however, is kind of an insouciant charmer with a bended knee and a knowing grin. All that formalwear for kids, and then these craptastic hats! Jim said it best: "Ho. Lee. Mo. Ley." Craptastic HatsI feel kinda sorry for the person who spent so much time on those hats! I am sure they expected a better reaction! Clearly a talented artist, it looks like they took the time to personalize each hat, as well. Each cartoon character seems to be giving an individual message to the child that wears the hat. The easiest to read is the "Mutt" hat. It says "Hello Hector, by heck". The first two boys seated seem to be named Phillip and Nathanial. Hard to read anything else but, that was a nice touch, although totally lost on this glum bunch. Gloomy Gus seems to fit her hat very well, and the serious bags under her eyes make me think she might be getting sick. Gee, I hope it isn't tuberculosis! That would make this birthday disaster even more tragic! - Kathleen [Birthday boy John is Hairbreadth Harry. Eleven years old! His friends are Hector, Ralph, Francis and Eugene. - Dave] Awesome!How did you do that? I was far off on the names, but at least they were personalized! Although they look as if they were done with markers, these great close-ups show that they were most likely done with pastel pencils. I am thinking now that the parents of John might have actually commissioned a sketch artist to do these hats. They look as if they have the effortless, clean lines that come with a lot of practice. And each is a perfect copy of the characters they are drawing. I love the details here. Beautiful lace work on the little girl's dress behind Francis. Hairbreadth Harry looks like quite the dandy! He is one I don't recognize, I am going to have to look him up. Wow, that expression on Eugene looks familiar. It is the same dull look my grandson gives me when I am lecturing him! That is one bored kid. Kathleen Mom is so proud!Methinks that a party hostess/mother had what she thought was a spanking idea of making hats for all the kids to wear with their "favorite" cartoon characters on them. She is no doubt pleased with herself and the drawings, hence she made the kids pose so she could capture the moment forever. To share and share and share. Note all the water and mud on the porch, and the carpet the front row kids are sitting on. The second row kids are in chairs. Setting up this picture took a bit of work, that's why I think it is a self-pleased mother. [Martha Stewart's grandma, maybe. - Dave] NSFW!Sadly, I couldn't click through to the comments for this picture at work. The filter claimed the action was blocked because of "porn." Not a problem I usually have with Shorpy. Thanks a lot, Boob McNutt. Hairbreadth HarryIn the modern age of the 1920s, old-time melodramas, with their mustache-twirling, top-hatted villains kidnapping innocent gals and subjecting them to unspeakable perils, and the early silent film versions of same, were considered old-hat and ripe for ridicule. Think of the swinging, mod 60s being sent up by Austin Powers today. That was the shtick of the comic strip, as well as a series of short film comedies made by the Weiss Brothers in the late 20s. A number of those have recently been issued on DVD, transferred from the original negatives. Many feature breakneck car chases through the streets of Los Angeles and vicinity. In a way, they're like Shorpy in motion: high-quality, moving images of everyday street scenes in a time gone by - cars, roadways, shopping and residential districts the way they used to be. During one chase sequence you can plainly see the famous HOLLYWOOD sign arrayed across a hillside, except it's the original: HOLLYWOODLAND. Huck Finn?Look at those freckles, and the mischief on her face. Huck Finn she is, no doubt. Lonely Hats Club BandI thought I had seen every detail in this photograph by now, and then I noticed it! A lonely hat, perfectly flat, perched on the porch railing, waiting for that one kid whose mom wouldn't let him come at the last minute! Probably an early 20th century victim of "groundation"!- Kathleen As Dr. Johnson said"Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme for merriment." Where are they now?I'll bet when Polly grew up she was amazing in the sack. MOM!!!You TOLD us we were going to Glen Echo amusement park! Who knew?I almost did a Givney flip take when I saw young Katie Holmes standing there wearing the Ham Gravy hat. Who could've guessed that she, of all people, would master time travel? Katie Can Travel Through Time......because that Scientology stuff is really amazing. Really. Textbook CaseThis should be in Webster's or on Wikipedia next to the definition for "mortification." Great idea for 6 year olds.... Baer, not Bear?From 1917 to 1921, Congressman - and populist political cartoonist - John Miller Baer resided in Washington while representing North Dakota's First Congressional District. After his Congressional service ended, he remained in Washington, continuing to draw cartoons for labor publications. The 1940 census reflects that his household included a 28-year-old son named John M. Baer Jr., who by then was working as an architect with the U.S. Army. John Jr. would have been eleven years old in November 1922. (The Gallery, Kids, Natl Photo)
A Dickey Christmas: 1919
... other years. (The Gallery, Bizarre, Christmas, D.C., Kids, Natl Photo, The Dickeys) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/20/2023 - 3:27pm -

"Dickey Christmas tree, 1919." The family of Washington, D.C., lawyer Raymond Dickey. 8x6 inch glass negative, National Photo Co. View full size. It's Not Christmas Without The DickeysAlways look forward to the latest Dickey Christmas picture. If someone made a book of all the pictures I would buy it. They intrigue me, despite their gloominess! I would love to see what they looked like smiling. I read they lived at 1702 Kilbourne NW in Washington DC, it can be found on Google Street View. I wonder what it looks like inside there now. Happier than they look.I would bet they aren't nearly as gloomy as their pictures suggest. Clearly this is a family that loved Christmas enough to get a tree that all out of proportion to the room, decorate it haphazardly and have the most unflattering portraits made of themselves. This is not the picture of a rigid, organized, disciplinarian father with an iron fist. Children of the DamnedI think the younger Dickey boy is attempting to will them out of yet another Dickey Christmas with yet one more rotund tree. Judging from the molecular disturbance around Dad and Sis, I think his efforts at quantum phase-shifting just might be working. We'll know for sure when the gunboat disappears. Well of course they're upsetThats a Marklin "La Dague" Steam powered Torpedo Boat worth between $18,000 and $20,000. And someone has already broken off one of the smokestacks. I would be upset too! Dickeyensian ChristmasThey may well have been the most pleasant of families, but their consistently disturbing Christmas portraits always seem to hint at some dark, Stephen Kingesque, ongoing abuse; something along the lines of "Sybil." Unanswered prayersKid at center: "Please don't let the mold eat me like it has the rest of the -- oops, too late!" Obviously a lawyer ahead of his time.He and his family are already thinking "This will eventually be Public Domain". Good and EvilThe younger brother's Christmas prayer is that his evil sister and her voodoo doll will leave home and never return. While their older brother, Emilio Estevez, keeps his distance from this entire clan huddled beneath the Griswold family Christmas tree. The doll fits in with the family well.The eyes have it. Meet the DickeysDoing a quick Google on Raymond Dickey, I found that there was a Raymond R. Dickey who was a political intimate of William Casey, late head of the CIA and a "Republican Party Stalwart". He died somewhere in the second half of the Twentieth Century (one of the sons?) Also there is a J. Raymond Dickey (grandson?) still practicing law in the Washington area. Marklin ShipActually the ship is a Marklin USS New York. Count the rear portholes at rear; in the picture there are about 6, the other ship proposed has nine visible. What do you mean? Smile? I *am* smiling. Xmas Lesson #1When the tree is too tall, cut at the bottom, not at the top. The weight of the world -- or something -- seems to be pressing down on this family. Is it the tree? The ceiling? Dickey family informationI found the Raymond Dickey family in the 1910 and the 1920 US Census. In 1910 Raymond and Rose lived at 1358 Otis Place NW with two children, Granville and Alice, and two servants, a 33-year-old woman and her 16-year-old son. The son also worked as a laborer in a store. When the house last sold in 2003, it was 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 1,776 square feet. In Street View below, 1358 is the house to the right, trimmed in blue and white. In the 1920 Census Raymond and Rose lived at 1702 Kilbourne Place NW with four children (welcome John and Raymond Jr.) and four women lodgers, all in their early 20s, two were sisters. One was a stenographer and three were clerks. When the house last sold in 1996 it was 5 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2,631 sf. In Street View it is the house painted white. Raymond was born in Maryland and Rose in Indiana. Why they chose such an unusual Christmas tree each year is still a mystery. Bah, humbugThe Dickey family's collective ponder of father's comment regarding the cost of photography has been captured for the archives. A good son will pray that he doesn't blur the investment. Remnants of the Kaiser's army may have returned to the toy factory, but shell shock has impacted quality control. Regardless, Marklin models must have been a difficult get in 1919, even for wealthy Americans. The toy museum is worth a visit if you go to Goppingen. I have a treasured photo of my father's Christmas tree circa 1919-1921. The cast iron carbide cannon under the tree now sits on my living room end table. The tree is decorated with dozens of unlit candles in clip-on candle holders. Scary! Six years too early for the Office PartyI thought, by digitally adding some color, that it might would improve their holiday outlook ... but then I realized their real problem. No doubt, they are despondent over the fact that they are six years too early for the Office Christmas Party-1925! Trite but trueI've said it before and I'll say it again, with no judgment or unkindness intended, but merely as an observation: Mrs. Dickey is hammered. More Dickey family informationSome years are a little off, but I think I have the correct family members. Raymond Dickey wed Rose Maxwell in 1901 when Raymond was 23 and Rose was 21. Her father, the Reverend John A. Maxwell performed the ceremony in Washington. Raymond died in 1940 at the age of 62 and is buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery, Prince George's County, Maryland. Rose died in 1967 at the age of 87 and is also buried in Cedar Hill. It appears she did not remarry. Granville was born in 1902. In 1924 he graduated from the College of Journalism at Northwestern University in Chicago, where he was a member of the varsity swim team, and in his senior year was named a member of the all-American swim team. In 1928 he married La Verne Carnes and the couple settled in Chicago where Granville was an advertising manager for a large wholesale house. By 1942 he was living in Maryland and employed at the U.S. Conservation Corps in DC. The move may have been due to a divorce and remarriage. He divorced in 1941 and an Evening Star death notice said Granville’s second wife passed away April 5, 1945. Granville died in 1948 at the age of 45 and is buried in the same cemetery as his parents. His obituary references his surviving sister as Mrs. Alice Beaton. I could not find Alice. Raymond Jr.'s 1981 obituary referenced survivors included his sister, Mrs. John Beaton of St. Croix, Virgin Islands. I did not find a grave or obituary for John. But in the 1940 Census I found a 28yr old J. M. Dickey, attorney, born in DC. Divorced, he was living at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel in Clarksburg, West Virginia. I did not find anyone who might be John in the 1950 Census. He was referenced as a survivor in Granville's 1948 obituary, but not of Raymond Jr. in 1981. Raymond Jr. became a very influential Washington D.C. lawyer. His first law firm was Dickey and Dickey in which he was a partner from 1940 (when he was 22) to 1942. This would seem to be with his father or brother, except his father died in 1940 and his brother was in West Virginia. Married three times, twice divorced, Raymond died of cancer in 1981 at the age of 63. A place of internment was not given. AgonyOur family went thru the agony of Christmas pictures every year. Since we lived overseas, my folks would have the pictures taken in September. That gave my mom enough time to get the prints, write the annual missive, and get them in the mail in October. She mailed them via surface mail (would take just about two months to get to the US) since in those days air mail was too expensive for the number of folks the missive went to. I was so thankful one year that I was going to be leaving home in July. I thought I would not have to go thru the agony. Nope, the folks just took the pictures a week before I left. And the following year, when I was not home, my folks had my grandparents take a photo in July and mail the negatives home. I tried to find out when the Dickey photos were taken. Curious as to whether these photos were taken early to share with friends or taken in December just for the family. Unfortunately, at LOC, all I could find is the year taken, no month. Poor Mrs. DickeyHammered or not, she has to put up with Mr. Dickey. And there’s less speculation about his consumption habits, because we’ve seen the outline of his flask in other years. (The Gallery, Bizarre, Christmas, D.C., Kids, Natl Photo, The Dickeys)
A Typical Group: 1910
... hit them over the head with a blunt object. Ethnic kids This seems to be what the "ethnic" kids were doing - working for a living instead of going to summer camp with the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/12/2011 - 11:25am -

New York, July 1910. "A typical group of messengers at Postal Telegraph Company's main office, 253 Broadway. During hot weather they wear these shirtwaists. (A Suggestion for the other companies.)" Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Library of Congress. View full size. Bless their Arbusy little heartsIt's a gnome convention! Have you ever seen so many weak eye muscles in all your life? The eyes have itLadies and gentlemen, we have the largest collection of "deer in he headlights" ever seen on the web....especially those two guys on the left!! Yeowww! Either that or somebody just hit them over the head with a blunt object. Ethnic kidsThis seems to be what the "ethnic" kids were doing - working for a living instead of going to summer camp with the wealthy blond boys. QuestionWhat were or are "shirtwaists"? [A shirt. As opposed to the suit coats that were the standard messenger uniform. - Dave] Please keep the Hine photos comingLewis Hine, with his unique mixture of an artist's eye and a social worker's concern, left us an endlessly fascinating, provocative, and touching picture a world that is far away but also the past of us all and the family heritage of many of us. Seeing a Hine photo on Shorpy is always a treat. . . . And Dave, please give us bigger versions of those three images you added as comments here! [They are on my to-do list. - Dave] How old?How old do you suppose these boys are? They look short in stature but their faces have such a mature look to them. Like old men faces on little boy's bodies. DishonestIt is dishonest for Shorpy not to publish my comments on the "ethnic kids". It preserves history as a venue for gatekeepers, no matter how talented (or untalented) they are. While the site is undoubtedly remarkable for its inquiry into the past, the gatekeeper, "Dave", is a pedant of some sort who makes his comments from the safety of a black box. The results are predictable: as the site becomes a sentimentalized view of the past it will become less interesting. [Actually I'm just trying to spare you comments like this. - Dave] SpiffyNice ties! Shorpy Has An Upside Too ...In the comment section for the Berberich Shoe Store photo, I mentioned that a downside in visiting this site was the depressive reaction I often have to seeing beautiful, old buildings and then finding out, by calling up their addresses on Google Maps, that they no longer exist. That's been very true for me - and, I'm sure, for more than a few other regular visitors here as well. But there's also a very personal upside for me, too, and I'd like to take this opportunity to mention it. I began studying my family's genealogy about two years ago and in trying to track down my Mother's New York City relatives, I've learned that in April of 1910 her then 16 year old Father was living with his parents and siblings at 512 W 125th St. I "went there" on Google Maps and discovered that the tenement they'd lived in was no longer standing. I shrugged my shoulders, moved on, and forgot about it - until I tripped over Shorpy earlier this year. This site's focus on (beautiful and cool) old buildings got me thinking about W 125th St. again and so I went back there today and had another look. While its certainly true that my family's tenement had long since disappeared, there were plenty of old buildings still standing in that area - and it dawned on me as I looked that my Grandfather, who'd died 15 years before I was born, had once looked at these same buildings and so did my Great Grandparents. Suddenly, the entire half-destroyed neighborhood took on a new meaning for me and I have to thank Dave - you know, the guy who wears white gloves and lives in a black box? - and his wonderful Shorpy-site for that new appreciation. Architectural history in both general and particular has come alive for me and has led me to new appreciations for what I had previously dismissed as irrelevant. I say this now because this current photo, "A Typical Group: 1910," was taken three months after the census that listed my Grandfather way up on W 125th. The guys in this picture would have been the same age as him - and for that reason both he and they come alive for me in a way that never would have been possible before. NaiveteI am charmed by the naivete in these boys' faces. See what a hundred years has done for us? I would be hard-pressed to cast a group of boys with this lack of "knowing" in present day. There were some very simple films but this was a time before the movies like we have today. Before television too. Just the books filled with great literature such as "Moby-Dick," etc., and the Bible and Torah of course. They yearned for and cherished books. Religious families rich or poor sat together and read together. My father did this at the time of this picture as a child. He passed the habit on to us children in the 1950s to the early 60s. [For the messenger boys and newsies of this era there were vaudeville and burlesque houses, the nickelodeon, gambling, "movies," tobacco and of course drugs and the red-light district as sources of diversion. Which isn't to say that the boys in our group portrait didn't all have library cards. Below, more Lewis Hine photos from 1910 and 1914. - Dave] Naive??It's today's kids who are naive -- the only vice most of them will ever see is on a video screen or newspaper page. But these boys who were growing up in New York in 1910, they saw it and lived it firsthand. This was the world of Hell's Kitchen, the Bowery, Damon Runyon. What a time it must have been! RefreshingSort of refreshing to see young men who kept their trousers pulled up. I bet even plumbers hadn't yet gained their reputation as crack workmen in 1910. "Nip it in the bud!"Front row left: It's Barney Fife before he was deputized! Shirts and ShirtwaistsI'd never seen the term "shirtwaist" used to refer to men's clothing, so I did a little research. In the 1897 Sears catalog all the men's shirts, from fancy dress shirts to laborer's shirts, were pullovers with a front placket so they buttoned only halfway down. Sears offered a few male shirtwaists (shirts with buttons all the way to the hem) but only for small boys. In the late teens Sears called button-to-the-hem shirts "negligee shirts" and by the '20s they are "coat style shirts." I don't understand, however, why Hine considered this sort of shirt superior to the standard pullover style of shirt. The collar isn't the issue -- it was possible to get pullover shirts with soft collars, and it looks like a few of these fellows are wearing detachable collars on their shirtwaists. Yet another minor Shorpy mystery. [Hine's point, as noted below, is that the boys don't have to wear coats as part of their summer uniform. - Dave] Woolworth's253 Broadway is where the Woolworth building is today. [253 Broadway is the Home Life Building. The Woolworth Building is 233 Broadway. - Dave] Working kidsIf this was one of the more menial jobs for children in New York, how come there are no black kids among them? Did the races not mix? I'm from England by the way. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, NYC)
Kids at Play: 1940
... Where to begin? Boys wrasslin' and roughhousing, too many kids on the seesaw and slide, rocks everywhere - and I see London, I see ... no tackle games, etc. My thought was that the kids were a bunch of wimps. They weren't. I did get in trouble with a new found ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/18/2018 - 11:30am -

May 1940. "Recess time at grade school in Hobbs, New Mexico." Medium format negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Recess the way I remember it!Where to begin? Boys wrasslin' and roughhousing, too many kids on the seesaw and slide, rocks everywhere - and I see London, I see France, I see some girl's underpants! BTW, I live only about 45 miles from Hobbs, NM. Bullying.This is when bullying was just part of play time. Fights in progress, fights finishing and fights about to begin. Playground equipment... must have been quite a novelty in 1940. MoonscapeThat's a pretty rough playground for little ones. I imagine there were a few bloody knees when the bell finally rang. Fun playgroundsThe playground at my elementary school in the '50s at least had grass, minimal rocks. But the boys were very much like the boys here. Lots of roughhousing. Games were tough, all were a tackle game of some sort. Don't know what the girls did, we weren't interested. They certainly did not play any of the "boy" games. But that was all overseas. In 1961, we went on vacation to the US. My mom stuck me in a 5th grade class in a public school in Santa Ana CA. Playground was sanitized then. No roughhousing, no tackle games, etc. My thought was that the kids were a bunch of wimps. They weren't. I did get in trouble with a new found friend when I found out he like to roughhouse as much as I did. We both got detention. Of course it wasn't the kids' fault that there were no rough and tumble games, they did not make the rules. It was the parents and the school administration. Recess was boring. I couldn't wait to go back home where it was fun. Soft surfaceI remember when the debate at my kids’ school for the playground surface was wood chips or rubberized. How about lots of rocks? With regard to the merry-go-round on the far right: Word was, when I was a kid, that if you fell underneath while it was spinning, certain death would result. No adult supervisionThis wild "playtime" would never be tolerated today by parents who demand that there be only organized games, safety patrol observers and several teachers on playground duty whenever they release the kids from their classrooms. Not only are most of the boys in this picture pummeling each other or getting prepped to pick a fight, I even see a girl on the left (climbing the stairs of the big slide) about to push another girl off of a seesaw. I don't know if kids were tougher then or if parents just let their children deal with the consequences of their own behavior. I do think that most of these kids got their clothes dirty and also came home each day with a new bruise or two. Rough playgroundLooking at that playground surface, my first thought was: "I'll bet the school nurse had Mercurochrome by the quart." Child's play It just shows you that no matter what the circumstances -- blazing sun, grassless play yard that looks like the edge of a gravel pit -- the total enjoyment on these children's faces says it all. Rodeo BoysI would say one of the two boys that are on the ground, the one with the cowboy boot must live on a cattle ranch. Prosperous CommunityAll the kids have shoes, unlike many other Shorpy pics. (The Gallery, Education, Schools, Kids, Russell Lee)
The Curb Market: 1905
... 100 and a few years ago, some of our grandparents just kids then, but the cityscape is overwhelmingly male (except for a few women ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/08/2012 - 2:03pm -

New York circa 1905. "Broad Street exchange and curb brokers." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. No barsHow did they ever get any business done? All of these businessmen, and not one using his cell phone! What did she forget to tell him?Love the lady leaning out of the third floor window on the lower right to say something to the man who appears next to the lamppost, looking back up at her. Hey JoeYou can meet my brother tomorrow afternoon on Broad Street. He'll be the one wearing the bowler. No AutosIt's interesting that there don't appear to be any motorized vehicles in the picture. So far as I can see, everything is horse-drawn. It appears to me that nearly all of the businessmen in the picture are wearing bowlers. For the most part, other hats, such as caps, are on younger men. Thus, I am guessing that the woman leaning out the window has sent the young man as a runner on some errand, and perhaps is, as coriander suggestions, adding something to the request. The American Stock ExchangeThe "curbstone market" was the predecessor of the American Stock Exchange. PeekingI love to see if anyone is looking out those windows ... Found one! Lux MortemAwesome example of a Bishop's Crook Type #1 with crossbar. Today's reproductions are based on the BC type 24a, which look pretty close. But those globe luminaires hanging from the fluted fixtures are long, long gone. What are we all looking at?It seems like there is a LOT of folks in the middle of the street doing something -- but what? [Trading stocks. - Dave] Au courantHere's the 1905 look, complete with a bowler hat.. And this is:Where I have all my money invested? Wish I would have seen this photo before my chat with an investment dealer. Get that man a hat!I see you there to the left of the foreground globe... You think you can just stroll about in public half naked? There's always one in the crowd! One Hatless MaleAnd two women. Love the pic. Neither Rain nor SnowGreat Photo! Does anyone know what the denizens of the Curb did when the weather got nasty, similar to what New York experienced this January? Post Lux MortemThe crossbar is an artifact from the gaslight days, where the lamplighter would rest his ladder. StandoutThere's one top hat (left foreground) vs 1,000 bowlers. Is this an executive? Mr. Peanut? Nothing much changed by 1980I worked at 48 Wall Street for 16 years. Wall Street intersects at those steps at the top of the picture. That is where George Washington once spoke. Really, very little had changed. Most of those buildings were still there, and the crowd levels were the same. By 1975 crowds weren't playing stocks but 3 card monte that would scram when the lookout whistled. Until about 1980 men with bowlers and tophats still walked the streets. They were carrying physical stocks and bonds between dealers. There was a 4 pm drop dead delivery for all transactions. Hats off to youI'm reminded of the Simpsons episode where Homer ends up in the psych ward after wearing a pink shirt to the plant. The guys in lab coats were probably headed right for the poor hatless gentleman right behind the lamp bulb when this picture was taken. Strange that a century later those wearing hats on a regular basis are the odd ones. What are the vendors selling??I see apples and, what exactly? Parsnips? Carrots? Topless on BroadPerhaps the crowd gathered are actually trading. Or maybe, when the man without a hat showed up, they all ran ran away from him, as if he were some strange alien, and are all discussing what they are going to do about this social deviant. Notice he's all alone there in the middle. Perhaps the man walking toward him (with something in his left arm...maybe a summons) will be the one to set him straight. "Sir, you need to put a hat on, or else. Get with the system, man." A tale of two citizensA few paces behind the gent in the top hat is a fellow in working garb -- a lighter colored jacket that is open, with a different style hat. And on the other side of the street, there is a fellow who is sitting on the railing, getting his shoes shined. Three left standingActually only three of the buildings shown here are still standing: 1) The New York Stock Exchange of George B. Post (the pedimented building midway up the left side of the street), built in 1903; 2) the Subtreasury, aka Federal Hall National Memorial, originally the US Custom House (the partially visible Greek temple at the corner of Wall Street), built by Town and Davis, 1833-1842; and 3) the Broad Exchange Building, second from the right, built by Clinton & Russell in 1900. Everything else you see has been torn down and replaced by newer buildings. [The poster below was speaking of the 1970s. - Dave] You could hear a pin dropI worked on the Staten Island Ferry on weekends in the early 70's. The whole area was a ghost town when business was not in session. I remember the sound of a windblown rope hitting a flagpole that you could hear from blocks away. The Third LevelSo few women, it looks like the Egyptian demonstrations. Only 100 and a few years ago, some of our grandparents just kids then, but the cityscape is overwhelmingly male (except for a few women selling fruits and vegetables from the carts). Are the men actually purchasing vegetables to bring home for supper? There's one man in the foreground on the left smoking a cigarette, while the man next to him has his hand up to his face like he is using a cellphone. Or making a gesture of some kind ("Hey, can you spare a smoke?") Of course, this could be a Jack Finney time traveler who forgot he isn't supposed to bring his cellphone and that not only do cellphones not work on planes, they don't work when you take the Third Level either. Fruit CartsIf you're wondering what those carts are all about, they are selling fruit, not vegetables, to the brokers, who often didn't have time for a proper lunch. Instead, they'd grab a couple of apples or bananas, etc., and go back inside for more trading. (This comment from food historian Jane Ziegelman) ToucheI wonder what put a smile on the faces of the two men at bottom left, who btw look very much alike. Brothers? The bear of a man in centre front of the milling throng seems to be looking at the photographer. SlapstickI got to thinking about all those discarded banana skins that seem to be in the gutters, on the road and doubtless on the footpath (sidewalk) in this photo. And wondered if this was a common sight in other locations where the fruit vendors plied their trade. Is this then the basis for the comical slipping on a banana skin routine? (BOBS). A person slipping on a banana peel has been a staple of physical comedy for generations. A 1910 comedy recording features a popular character of the time, "Uncle Josh", claiming to describe his own such incident: Now I don't think much of the man that throws a banana peelin' on the sidewalk, and I don't think much of the banana peel that throws a man on the sidewalk neither ... my foot hit the bananer peelin' and I went up in the air, and I come down ker-plunk, jist as I was pickin' myself up a little boy come runnin' across the street ... he says, "Oh mister, won't you please do that agin? My little brother didn't see you do it."(wikipedia) Top 5This is truly a great picture but curious what makes it so popular that it has virtually become a permanent photo in the top 5? The last posted comment was on 2-19. Thanks for any info. [Links from Stumbleupon and Reddit. - Dave] Thought I would shareCute little moment they happened to catch. Old Stomping GroundI love this 1905 photo and miss working at 25 Broad St (Paine Webber). I get a kick out of all the banana peels! Guess Peter Coyote is correct, it's a perfect food. (The Gallery, DPC, NYC)
Mountain Men: 1964
... wear today. Very interesting picture. Visiting the Kids The March 4, 1964 "Arizona Republic" (10 days before the picture's ... day's activity being likewise at Children's Hospital. Kids Yes, I like the outfit on the 'class clown' you mentioned, lower left. ... 
 
Posted by heckdiver - 07/27/2013 - 3:49pm -

Looks like Western Day at a school in Phoenix, Arizona with the Bill Williams Mountain Men. On the back is stamped "Earl's Camera Shop, 1616 E. Camelback, Phoenix, Ariz. 85016, 3/13/64." 8x10 from an estate sale in an older neighborhood in Phoenix. Any Shorpyites recognize the record album the girl in the upper left is holding? I can make out Sammy Davis Jr. and Ray Charles. Check out the outfit the boy (4th from left, front row) is wearing. View full size. For the RecordThe album shows the back cover of a Design "Spotlight Series" LP. The titles ("Spotlight on Ray Charles," etc.) came in mono and stereo. Click to enlarge. Album frontWe had an album with this on the back cover, but I just can't remember what was on the front. Hairy SituationFor whatever reason, every single adult male in the photo has facial hair, and I'll bet 10c it was real then, not some fake whiskers. Doesn't appear any of the women have much facial hair, but I'm still inspecting. And, we'll also wager the men wearing fox heads as part of their caps got them from real foxes, too, not some plastic look-alike that we'd wear today. Very interesting picture. Visiting the KidsThe March 4, 1964 "Arizona Republic" (10 days before the picture's date) tells us that the BWMM were just then taking off for their horseback journey to Phoenix in unusually cold weather, and that a destination for March 14th was to "meet the children in Good Samaritan Hospital" -- the previous day's activity being likewise at Children's Hospital. KidsYes, I like the outfit on the 'class clown' you mentioned, lower left. I also love the expression on the lil cow poke just to the right of that record album. There's a devilish glint in them thar eyes! The cigar chompin mountain man looks a little like Alan Hale. There's a boy, mid right side that reminds me of David Nelson. And I just love the cowboy accountant seated in front of him. Real FurPretty much all the re-enactors I know are very particular about authenticity. Guys portraying mountain men would most certainly have real beards, and genuine fur hats, and real buckskin, etc. There's a ton of peer pressure for everything to be authentic to the period being portrayed. My son bought a genuine fox head pelt at the Fort Massac encampment near Metropolis, Illinois. He loved it, and as a bonus (in his mind) it creeped his sisters out. Doggone it!I had my mind all made up to be an astronaut, but now I'm not sure I wouldn't rather be a mountain man! (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
Suburban Cowboy: 1963
I just started scanning my sister's photos of her kids from the 1960s. Here's why she was smart to have saved the negatives. Back ... times so much better or is it that we were just innocent kids? I had a car that was built there! I used to have a '68 Pontiac ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 03/03/2023 - 12:57am -

I just started scanning my sister's photos of her kids from the 1960s. Here's why she was smart to have saved the negatives. Back in 1963, they lived in South Gate, California, in a neighborhood full of classic cars, it seems. My nephew Jimmy in a 2¼-inch square Kodacolor negative. View full size. The clouded crystal ballJimmy (now James) tells me that three years later and a block away from this idyllic scene, there were the Watts riots. Color SaturationI can't help but wonder if most of us who grew up in the middle-class or upper-middle class white America of the 60's and 70's see our childhood memories in lavish Kodacolor. When I was this boy's age, there were the Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy assassinations, coming almost one right after the other. I knew that the grown-ups were very worried, but I wasn't sure just why. Later, I figured out that the only thing that Westchester had in common with Watts was that both names begin with a W. The innocence of childhood is fleeting, indeed. She squealed with delightwhen she saw this photo! Where to begin? The lights integrated with the porch railing are fascinating. Like the house itself, they have a very 1930s art deco flavor. Little Red WagonAlmost everyone can remember having one when they were a kid. I bet this photo makes us all just a little nostalgic. Thank you for sharing all of these great photos with us, tterrace! Blue skiesI see why now people continue to believe in "the good old days." The color saturation, blue skies, happy, smiling kid -- looks like nothing would ever go wrong in this place, doesn't it? Old RedThat Radio Flyer sure brings back memories. Thanks. South Gate StreetviewThe cars were better-looking in 1963. Particularly the Buick next door. View Larger Map Street View! Street View!Can you give an address so we can see how the neighborhood has fared? Ouch!!The beautiful '56 Ford at the left has been tagged but you can see that it did naught but bend the bumper! It didn't disturb the paint! The good old days indeed! Today, that'd be a $3000 repair! Great PictureLove that "Jimmy" has been written on the back of the Radio Flyer! South Gate!I grew up in the neighboring city of Downey and I would LOVE to see more pics of the South Gate area if you would be so kind as to post them! THANKS! Wouldn't you really rather have a Buick?There's another classic Buick in this shot, the white one in the distance, straddling the sidewalk. There's not enough detail for me to tell, but it appears to be a '55 or '56 Roadmaster. I'm sure that if anyone (visiting from the future) had told the owners of these Buicks that GM would be a tottering financial wreck in 2009, they'd never have believed it. Sign of the times...Any idea what the sign posted on your sis's house says? Just so IdealI have to agree with the comments made under the heading Colour Saturation. I recently have been looking at photos of me and my family in our house as I was growing up and you know I don't remember that the carpet was threadbare -- yet it was. I don't remember that we had a broken down car in our backyard -- yet we did. I don't remember that our lounge suite was old and we needed a new one -- but we did. All I remember is that it was a safe, happy and fun place to grow up in and I had a great time. So yeah I think we all of us remember the good and not so much the bad, and isnt that the way it should be. The high, fine, sky of awhile agoIt doesn't happen as much as it seemed to 40 years ago when I was a kid, but every now and then, usually on a quiet Sunday morning or a Tuesday off from work, the sky will have that same tall, bright, look; gently spotted with clouds and a blue turning from light to dark off into space and there will be a slightly warm breeze and everything will seem clean and new and full of possibility. And you can take a deep breath and smell the trees and maybe some creosote from a power pole, and it's 1967 again. A lovely day in this beautywood Love those Mr. Roger's blue tennis shoes. You could buy them at any Alpha Beta grocery store for $1.98. I grew up in a similar Southern California community around the same era. The loppy sidewalks remind me of the joyous hours I spent on roller skates with a skate key on a string around my neck. Were those times so much better or is it that we were just innocent kids? I had a car that was built there!I used to have a '68 Pontiac Bonneville that was built at the South Gate GM plant. It was a great car, very well screwed together. Kodacolor wonderlandDon't you wish you could reprogram your brain to "see" full-time in Kodacolor? The world would be such a cheery place! Was the big warehouse in the current Street View next door in 1963? It seems so out of place. Martini LaneIt's Mad Men! Odd porch lightsThose garden lights were very common in our nearby suburb. They were mostly used along driveways, paths, or planters. This is a most unusual installation. And they are still there. I might give this place a drive-by at lunchtime. American IronI really enjoy the look of these old cars - especially the 1959 Pontiac ahead of the Ford. It's probably a Catalina. Many of these cars had a space age theme to their design. By the hour?It's worse than a warehouse next door. It's a skeezy motel. And it looks like it's been there since the '60s. 2819 Willow PlaceIt looks like the place might be for rent, $895 a month. ColorI think two things contribute to the burst of color. One is that color film is much richer than the digital stuff we have now. And, secondly, the cars WERE much more colorful then than the drab vehicles we see now. Unfortunately, I think some of the color has gone from our lives in many ways since then. P.S. - From the glimpse of the back wheel well in the car in the distance, I can't help but wonder if it might not be an Olds instead. Beautiful streetMy children lived this kind of life on a street like this in the early 1950s in Detroit as hard as that is to believe. You want sunshine-- on a cloudy day? Some readers spoke about the past as always being bright and sunny like this picture. During a bout of temporary insanity many moons ago, I took leave of my senses and purchased yellow-lens prescription glasses. It did make every day sunny and the world brightened when you put them on. Or you can look just look through a colored cellophane candy wrapper and get the same effect. Just trying to be helpful. South Gate street view 1961Here's 2819 Willow Place, along with the ugly building next door, a couple years earlier. Jimmy playing with a neighbor's puppy, and a selection of early-50s cars. Yes, those are different lamps on the railings. The Salmon DeSotoI know what you mean about auto paint being brighter back then. My guess is that paint trends were still built more around primary colors than the more subtle and "nuanced" tints and shades of today. I remember there was a year or two that featured flamingo pink, black, and white as a trio. Knocked your eyes for a loop. Especially on the big fin cars. Dad was looking at one, but ended up going with the pale blue. Too much pink for a man from the Ozarks, I guess, looking back on it. How did Jimmy turn outWhat is he, about 48 years old today? Had I only known..Geez.. had I known I was a branding opportunity, I'd have taken advantage of it a long time ago. I don't think I've been that cool since that day -- red wagon, cowboy, riding a possible Radio Flyer tricycle as well (I'm sure someone will sort out the logo, maybe it was Royce Union). Funny thing about that pic. Those years I only have memories of things in black and white. Maybe I only remember those years from pictures which were mostly black and white, I guess. Obviously there was color. My memories of color start about 1967, yet every television event memory I have was black and white until about 1970. Apparently we got a color TV then? So what the hell happened to Jimmy? Well, without getting too personal and please forgive the third person narrative, here ya go. After leaving Los Angeles in 1971, the family moved to Marin County. Jimmy decided he was going to be a rock and roll star and started a metal rock band in the early 80's. The day Nirvana hit the charts, he knew that the music he was good at was no longer popular, so he joined a Southern rock tribute act and toured the Bay Area for 10 years. He then decided to get back to the original reason why he started playing music in the first place, for fun, and only plays local gigs, usually benefits. During this time he also got married and had two children. He is now a media personality in Wine Country and owns his own web consulting firm. He also writes for several Wine country publications and does "flavorful" wine industry videos. If you're ever in Sonoma Valley, you may even run into him. Though he goes by James now. A note from Jimmy's MomThis part of South Gate was a blue collar area, consisting of single family homes, and "court" apartments. The lots there were fairly deep, and so people would put in two rows of four apartments, usually single story, with the garage or carport at the rear with the laundry room and clotheslines. The "court" was the central walkway between the two buildings where the entrances were, except for the front apartments. Just behind Willow Place was Firestone Boulevard, a heavy industrial area at the time. The big Firestone plant was there, and other manufacturing plants. Often in the evening, strange smells would fill the air. This era was also what I call "between the smogs." They had banned outdoor burning of leaves and trash in the Los Angeles Basin in the late 1950s, and the air was fairly clear most of the time. But with increased population, and the increase of jet travel, the smog was back by 1964. The only real clear air days were when the Santa Ana winds blew. The ugly building next door contained a restaurant as I remember, in its one-story days. It may have also been a small motel. We moved to our first home in Diamond Bar, in the eastern part of the L.A. basin, in 1963. The red wagon makes an appearance there with Jimmy pulling his little sister in Little Red Wagons elsewhere on Shorpy. The South Gate apartment was the inspiration for the Salmon Kitchen, also seen elsewhere on Shorpy. Our landlady developed a blend of paint that she used on all her kitchens. As I remember, it was part peach, part mushroom and some kind of off white. She said it didn't yellow, and when the tenant moved out there wouldn't be any shadows on the walls from where the clock or the calendar had hung. So she would not have to repaint every time, just have the walls washed. Our dad and mom liked this idea, and so was born the salmon kitchen in Larkspur. Jimmy's Mom Just fabulous!Saw this link from Instapundit. What a fabulous photo! I love the comments, too, and the Google maps link. InstacowboyForty-six years later, Jimmy's 15 minutes of fame in the blogosphere have arrived. Now the top link on Instapundit. 9I was 9 years old in another part of California, but I had that tricycle and a similar little red wagon. My parents had a Ford Crown Victoria, my father worked, my mother stayed at home to raise me and the world I grew up in was truly both wonderful and wondrous. Even with the duck-and-cover exercises in school. LampsI believe the lamps were replaced during the time we were there.. Look at those in the background then look at the pic above. I dare say they're different. Status symbolsFor the younger Shorpyites that might not remember the 1960s, most working or middle class families had only one car (if they had one at all). It was a point of pride to park your car either directly in front of your house or prominently displayed in the driveway. The more obvious the better; bright colors helped even more. Take that, you Joneses! Also, you scored big status points with of those gangly omnidirectional TV antennas on your roof as seen in the background. Indoor "rabbit ear" antennas just had no class. Nirvana vs. Marshall TuckerJust my opinion, Real Jimmy, but at least you were paying tribute to music that deserved it. I really hope there won't be any grunge tribute bands in the future. Status SymbolsWe started with one car in 1960 but had to have another since we both worked. Then, we had a teenager and, then, another. Soooo -- 4 cars. Walk? Bicycle? Ha! Not in California. Now, it is a nationwide problem. Thanks for reminding me. Cool Hat, KidLove the photo. I had a had just like that as a kid and think I have photo somewhere of me wearing it while sitting on a pony at a neighborhood birthday party. Takes me back...I think THIS is the turning point. This photo captures the apex of our society. I see the dreams of so many families right here. A house of your own. A clean street. Meticulously maintained homes. The kids free to play in the neighborhood. A perfect blue sky. This photo makes me cry. Grew up nearbyI grew up in the SF Valley in the same era, that photo takes me back. I also watch the TV series "Mad Men" and the cars, furniture, fashion etc. are all things I remember. The easy days of riding your bike up and down the neighborhood with your friends, not a care in the world. Sigh. Pure EvilNo helmet, knee pads or elbow pads denote a neglectful lack of regard for poor Jimmy by his mother. That hat no doubt contains lead-based pigments; clear evidence of child abuse. And what's this?? A toy GUN??? That poor child's evil, troglodyte mother should be thrown in jail for creating another gun-crazed criminal!!!!elevnty1!! (/nanny-state nutjob) Great pic. It reminds me of my own childhood, before childhood was destroyed by the culture of fear we have today. Dang, That Could Have Been ME!Boy, does that look familiar. My grandparents had a house in South Gate, at Tweedy Boulevard and San Luis Street. I was even born about the same time. And I had my trusty steed "Tricycle" and my Mattel Fanner 50! The Melting PotOh yes, I remember the days when all the kids in the suburbs had Anglo names like Will, Paul, and Rosemary. Today we have a much more diverse society. Suburban namesNo, they had names like Jimmy, Mary and Davy. Their Mom Some things aren't so differentMy childhood was like this in northern Illinois. However, there are still some pockets of America like this. In my subdivision outside of Denver, small children play up and down the street just like Jimmy. If you look around, you can provide a life like this for your children Same hereMy mother and I watch Mad Men and love it. But she'll always point things out while we're watching and say "My parents had those! And those, and those!!!" "I remember using that!" Apparently they get everything "down to the t" when it comes to the setting. Re Pure Evil by Random Numbers Random Numbers said: Great pic. It reminds me of my own childhood, before childhood was destroyed by the culture of fear we have today. The irony I see in Random Numbers' remarks is that this kind of negativity sounds just as whiny as today’s “nanny state," and serves the unintentional purpose of proving that life--or at least People--haven't changed much at all since the 1960's--when grumpy old people even then lamented how much better (more real, more sincere, etc.) things were when THEY were children. Anyway, I trust that Random Numbers and his like-minded baby boomer peers are “keeping it real” by not giving in to today’s "culture of fear" paranoia and availing themselves of the myriad medical advancements and pharmaceuticals that have increased well-being and longevity by decades as compared to those fun and free “good old days” when people routinely died in their 60s! (--Wouldn’t want to be a hypocrite.) p.s. tterrace your photos are WONDERFUL! Cowboy Jimmy Honest to Abe, this is one of my favorite pictures of yours! South Gate memoriesMy folks had a house on Kauffman Avenue until 1968, when they bought their house in Downey. It was very close to the old South Gate water tower, near South Gate park. I'm sure you remember the area. I only have vague memories, as I was just a toddler when we lived there. I should see if I can find some of the photos my folks took during the time they lived on Kauffman. I'm sure they look very much like these! "Just a snapshot "As beautiful as any William Eggleston photo I've ever seen, and I consider him a genius in the world of photography. This is just utterly enchanting -- I can't take my eyes off it. (Same is true for the photo you posted a while back of the young man in a sea of blacklight posters.) This is just the best website ever! South Gate kidI grew up in South Gate in the 70's and 80's. This picture looks very much like my grandparents street. They moved to South Gate after WWII ended and lived and worked there for the rest of their lives. It was a wonderful & diverse city at that time. I was wondering what street this picture was on. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Kids, tterrapix)
Downhill Racer: 1968
... shot this on 35mm Kodachrome. View full size. You kids get offa my lawn! Looks like broken glass on the top of the cinderblock wall behind the pickup truck. That'll keep them damn kids offa the lawn! There's one in every neighborhood - a cranky old man. ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 06/24/2009 - 4:51pm -

Diamond Bar, California, July 1968. My niece Mary having a good time, apparently. Neighbor has a nice early-60s Ford pickup. I shot this on 35mm Kodachrome. View full size. You kids get offa my lawn!Looks like broken glass on the top of the cinderblock wall behind the pickup truck. That'll keep them damn kids offa the lawn! There's one in every neighborhood - a cranky old man. In my semi-rural East Texas childhood neighborhood Mr. T (name withheld to protect the innocent) and his yappy dachshund Socrates ruled the block with a yard rake and bark alarm. We kids devised a bicycle-tire innertube mortar to launch magnolia cones and sweetgum seedpods into his yard from our tree fort - forcing him out there to pick them up, grumbling all the while "I'm a-goin' ta GIT them kids!" Ahhh, suburbia. Over the wallAnd on the other side of that cinderblock wall, a car I wish I'd gotten a close-up of. '58 Chrysler is my guess. Already a classic only 10 years later. I'm also reliably informed that the stuff on the wall isn't glass, but white rocks about the size of golf balls, like the kind used on roofs at this time, and in fact you can see on the house the wall belongs to. Total Bliss!Those kiddos are having an absolute blast! What a difference from working in a coal mine or putting together fake flowers in a tenement house. Thanks Lewis Hine! And what an awesome truck. I'd love to tool around in it today. Downhill racerNope, not glass, but white quartz rocks left over from the roofing job on the yellow house. I think the neighbors that lived there had 2 or 3 boys, but the rocks on the wall were just decorative. Or maybe to keep their own kids from climbing on them and falling off. Notice the Dichondra lawn. All the latest in suburban Southern Calif living in 1968. --Mother of the skateboard girl. P.S. I sewed her dress. Did lots of clothesmaking in those days in suburbia. JoyI was going to say, the look on that sweet little girl's face is pure joy. Or pure terror. Either way, it looked fun and it put a smile on my face. Thanks again, I am enjoying your pictures. ~mrs.djs California RollGreat perspective here. The girl's taller than the house and twice as big as the truck. Diamond Bar!I grew up right next to here in be-yootiful Walnut... but not until the late 70's, I'm afraid. Still, it's nice to see the San Gabriel Valley on Shorpy for once! FordThe Ford pickup is a 1964, 65 or 66. They used different bed styling in '63 and everything changed (for the worse) in 1967. I had a 1964 Ford 3/4 ton camper special. I sold it around 1980 and I still regret that bonehead move. I should have kept it. They REALLY don't make 'em like that anymore. Ford interiors aren't what they once were.The most amazing thing about that old '64 Ford was the interior. It had a thin pad across the edge of the dash but otherwise the interior (except for the bench seat and vinyl floormat, obviously) was nearly all painted or chromed metal. The steering wheel had a glorious chrome horn ring. I challenge you to find even one small bit of exposed steel on a modern automobile or truck, let alone nearly the whole interior. MoparOr is that car a DeSoto -- nothing else had taillights like it (except the Belchfire 88!). Steve Miller Someplace near the crossroads of America What I Noticed...The Blue Blue Sky! Not any more! Not in Diamond Bar anyway! Great stuff. Alternative Skateboard TechniquesThat's how my friend & I rode the old steel-wheeled skateboards (not that sissy urethane!) that belonged to my much older brother and sister. Or laying down on our stomachs, which is how I put a hole in my favorite shirt (purple paisley short-sleeve button-down) when it got stuck under one wheel. Unbridled JOYOne of the most wonderful images I have seen in a long, long time. You managed to capture perfectly the moment of pure joy from a simple pleasure - that most of us remember from our youth. Personally I love your mix of the old with the new. Thank you for all the work you do with this site. Joy from MA Skateboard wheelsThose are clay wheels, an improvement (?) over steel wheels. State-of-the-art in the 60s. Then urethane came along... Wow!My favorite picture on this site. It captures the care free days of my youth in the 60's perfectly. Thanks for posting that. Like my ChildhoodWow, this is beautiful! It's amazing to see my hometown in such a nostalgic light, since most people who live here only know it as it is now. It's also kind of fun to see kids then doing the same activities as kids do now, here. (I witnessed 3 kids going down my street today in the very same fashion, albeit on more modern boards) Butt boarding!I can hear her laughing! Tonka truck!The hairstyles! The blue of that truck! Looks like my Tonka toy camper blue-green! I was 13 and in Louisiana in '68, but can TOTALLY connect with this moment that the kids are experiencing-- thanks for the post! Young lady, put on your shoes!Looks like she was having a blast! I wonder what happened when she dropped her heels down to stop though. I took many a chunk out of my feet when I just caught them on the ground for a second. I'm from the East Coast though, so it wasn't skateboards but pedal cars and stripped grocery carts. Looks like just a hint of 1966-67 Dodge Charger poking out behind the pickup. StoppingAs I recall it, "braking" wasn't done with your heels; you simply let the board roll to a stop, or you rolled off the footpath onto the grass of the nearest front lawn. Great photo, with great colours. "Yahoo! You're all clear, kid!"I've been scouring this site for an archetypal example of an image that matches my fictional mental stereotype of Kodachrome, and this is right near the top - it's violently sunny and was shot in California and it has a huge truck and suburbia. The truck has white-walled tyres. The image even has a lady in a one-piece dress, although she's not blonde and isn't wearing plastic sunglasses. But the date is a little advanced; when I think of the colours of 1968 I think of colours that film could not capture, that could only be generated within a human mind soaked in drugs and the spirit of rock and roll. And the colour of armoured personnel carriers and helicopters in Vietnam, and of "Disraeli Gears." And a lot of third-hand mental images of things that happened in other continents ten years before I was born. It's also a good image on an unemotional level. The photographer was smart enough to put the camera down at child-level; he pressed the button at the right time, and the other kids in the background tell a little story. Right time, right place, right direction, right film, right weather conditions etc. And on an emotional level it's wonderful. Mopar PowerI wonder if that's a Chrysler 300 down the street. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Kids, tterrapix)
Happy Halloween: 1958
... joy on display The family is obviously proud of their kids, but they are also showing off their new 21" color TV. In 1958, color TV ... of roasting dust and melting wax capacitors. Our kids will never know the joy of watching the picture dwindle to a shrinking ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/31/2023 - 1:02pm -

October 1958, somewhere in Pennsylvania. Big brother is ready for a night of trick-or-treating. Rob from the rich, and share with your understudy! Our fourth selection from a batch of Kodachrome slides found on eBay. View full size. 1950's TV MemoriesFirst we were told we had to sit at least five feet away from the screen or we would contract radiation sickness. There were pieces of filmy plastic one could purchase in transparent colors like green and yellow to instantly turn a black and white into a color TV (whatever color the plastic was). There was often nothing on in small towns in the hills that could receive only one or two channels, except a test pattern, but we would watch it anyway. At some time during the life of everyone's TV, there would be a failure of the "vertical/horizontal" knob which would cause the picture to continuously flip and STILL we would watch it. I remember my amazement of seeing the coronation of Queen Elizabeth taking place in Great Britain, in my own home in a small town in Ct. That was truly a miracle to me. Needless to say, I now find Skype absolute magic. We can only speculate at what is coming next. Costumes by Irwin Mainway no doubt.We all wore them back then, and most of us survived. LegsWhen those kind of legs started showing up I thought they made otherwise nice furniture look chintzy. Place Your BetsGuess how long after exiting the house before Mom or Dad was carrying Robin's: bow, treat bag, younger brother. Safety panel on TVI notice that the parents of Robin Hood and Wonder Bread opted for the transparent safety panel in front of the picture tube of the TV. When my older brother and I, as young adults, removed the defunct TV component from our parents’ massive wooden hi-fi cabinetry (to create extra storage space), we took the TV - with safety screen attached – to a local dumpster so we could toss it from a high place and watch it explode. Far from breaking, the TV hit the bottom of the dumpster and bounced back up about five feet. Like much else back then, those things were tough. [That "safety panel" is a glare shield. - Dave] Technical Aspects AsideThat RCA simply cries out for a pair of rabbit ears. Safety glassThe glass screen cover wasn't an option or a glare shield, though many of them were tinted to increase the contrast. It was there to protect the unbonded picture tube from being hit and imploding, thereby causing serious injury. It's Its other function was to contain the flying glass should the tube implode for some other reason. Pretty much every set from 1946 till 1960 or so had a safety glass. Sets starting in the early 60's either had the safety glass bonded directly to the face of the CRT or they were banded to contain the glass in the event of implosion, after that the extra glass in front of the screen was not needed. My User Name will explain why I know this stuff. [The outer flat panel, made of safety glass, was designed to reduce glare and ambient reflections. Hence names like "Glare-Guard." (And something that implodes doesn't pose much of a risk to anyone unless they're inside the picture tube.) - Dave] The family's pride and joy on displayThe family is obviously proud of their kids, but they are also showing off their new 21" color TV. In 1958, color TV was still quite a rarity in the home, since RCA introduced their first color set, the 15" CT100, in 1954. [That's not a color TV. - Dave] [RCA used a similar cabinet for black-and-white sets and the one in our photo most closely resembles the 1956 Glenwood 21 Deluxe in several details. Also, the screen mask isn't quite the same shape as those used for the round color tubes. - tterrace] The TVForget the creepy John Wayne Gacy meets Wonderbread and store bought Robin Hood costumes. Yuck. That TV is the star of this scene. I can see it is RCA Victor at the top. I think it is black and white because the color sets of that era had a round sided picture tube. Only the b&w sets had a more squared green shape. I can see somebody has been going overboard on the Lemon Pledge. This family loved that set. I also can't read the script strip at the bottom of the speaker. It might be a remote control or other advertising slogan, not the model name. [It's the "eluxe" part of "Deluxe," the "D" having broken off. - tterrace] Winky DinkThe comments about the safety cover remind me of the vinyl screen you got so you could draw on the screen while watching Winky Dink. I think it was so you could draw paths to help him escape from some plot or another. I can smell that TV from hereThere were nearly 20 tubes in that thing, warming up the room and lending a faint smell of roasting dust and melting wax capacitors. Our kids will never know the joy of watching the picture dwindle to a shrinking white rectangle, then a little bright white spot in the middle of the screen when the set was turned off. Smell-a-VisionNixibunny. My very first thought was the smell that the television would emit. Your description is perfect. I might also add the sounds it would make as it warmed up as well. Those hidden control knobsIf I'm not mistaken, that center panel below the screen opened (downward, I believe) to reveal all those little knobs we kids were not supposed to touch like the vertical, horizontal, contrast,and brightness. Without rabbit ears they probably had a 75 ohm lead up to the roof antenna. Eventually Dad would get real sophisticated and install a "tenna rotor" device that would rotate the roof antenna with just a twist of the dial that sat on top of the TV! Warming up the TVMy 30-something children don't know whether to believe me when I tell them that TVs of the era needed a few minutes to "warm up" before the picture appeared and came into focus. Also, they seem skeptical when I tell them that TV stations played the National Anthem and signed off for the night around midnight. And that if you turned on the TV early the next morning, you were likely to see nothing but a test pattern, which usually included a Native American in a headdress. Is it just me? So I'm the only one interested in the costumes and not the TV set? LOL. Robin Hood is store bought but the clown looks like it could be homemade. I'd love to know what sewing machine was used and if it was a hand-me-down from Big Brother. Was the material purchased only for this costume or did Mom have a matching apron? A picture says a thousand words but I'd like a few more in this case! And speaking of explanations, can anybody describe the candy that went into that bag? Was anything individually wrapped back then? Could you get "fun size"? Is little sister dressed as a clown,or a loaf of Wonder Bread? Kid picture!Is it just me, or did every American have a picture of their kids in that exact same frame? We had one of me holding the cat named Nameless. I was 8 in 1958. Sorry, we had a 190inch Zenith (or was it Admiral?) in a black metal case with the speaker and controls on the side ... sitting on a wrought iron swivel stand. In the den downstairs, not the living room. I wasn't going to mention the TV, too late now. This photo reminds methat I closed on the house in which I live now on October 31, aka Halloween. No ghosts or goblins to speak of ... because they told me to keep my mouth shut. VIPs didn't wait for warm up.Waiting for the old tube type TVs to warm up was a problem of the hoi polloi. Presidents of the U.S. had better things to do than to wait for the many White House TVs to stabilize as they flitted around the various work areas (Richard Milhous Nixon was particularly irked by this) so their TVs were rewired so the tube filaments/heaters were on a separate circuit that was on all the time and was only shut off if a set wasn't expected to be used for an extended period. When they entered a room and powered on a TV (usually with the switch at the lower end of the volume control knob rotation range), it sprang to (stable) life almost instantly as it merely had to turn on the B+, grid and flyback etc. voltages. Maybe not so surprisingly, it was found that this didn't particularly cause the tubes to burn out that much more quickly as it eliminated many of the on-off thermal shocks that were the bane of tube filament life, which was in turn responsible for most sudden tube failures. Solid state electronics brought instant TV warm up to the masses, but things seem to be regressing as we now have to wait for interconnected everythings to boot up and connect to the mothership. _etachedThere's a running joke about how many of this era RCA sets have the D broken off the Deluxe script, possibly snagged by dust rags. It's so common that there were reproduction scripts made. This photo proves it started very early on. B/W vs ColorMy grandfather refused to give up the first TV he purchased in about 1955, maybe 1956. It was a black and white, only thing he could get then. When color came out, he saw no reason to have one. I don't believe he was being cheap, contrary to what my mother thought. He finally ended up with a color TV when my mother bought one, set it up, and took his black and white away. My grandmother loved the new color set, so my grandfather lost out. And I think I have a lot of my grandfather in me. No, I don't have a black and white TV, but, I much prefer the old black and white photos on this website than any of the original color ones. I will admit, though, that this one has to be one the best black and white color combos on the site: https://www.shorpy.com/node/25954. Wracking my brainKathyRo, I came along a few years after this photo, but I don't really remember any fun size candy bars, and folks I knew were definitely not springing for full size candy bars. We generally got several pieces of small, individually wrapped candy. The ones I remember were hard candy, Smarties, Dum Dum and Tootsie Pops, Tootsie Rolls, and the dreaded Peanut Butter Kisses. If folks had a good year, you would get a box of Good N Plenty, Milk Duds or Boston Baked Beans. Finally, you might get a homemade treat like cookies, which were good, or popcorn balls, which always seemed to me to be made from leftovers from last month's movie nights. This is what I remember in my town - other areas might be different. OMNISCIENTDave, how do you know everything? [Deitization. - Dave] Re: Kid Picture! -> Happy's StoryWhile it's not 100% the same, and it definitely came later, I still have a picture frame (rounded, not squared, insets, the difference) just like that one in my office at home. Of course, the office used to be my bedroom, when I moved into the house at 2 years old in 1968, before moving into the larger, side bedroom when my sister got married in 1978, before moving out back in 1992; I've just moved back into the home after inheriting it in 2016 with my parents passing. The picture has NEVER had a child in it, instead, taken in said 1968, it has the picture of a dog, blown up from an old photograph taken at Christmas 1968. Said dog, "Happy," was a good girl, as little as I can remember of her from life, who somehow, even though she was probably only three or at most four at the time (she was a street rescue in 1963), knew my mom was pregnant with me prior to her giving birth and was my mom's constant companion during her (tough) pregnancy (my mom ended up with a classic Near Death Experience which I've only just talked with my wife of 27 years about last week at the end, to explain how tough it was). Happy was, by all reports, devoted to me. In August, 1970, while walking through the under construction neighborhood around the corner from our home, I was walking/toddling in the road, while my parents and older sister walked in the grass. Happy was concerned, and kept trying to grab me and pull me onto the grass. A car came around the corner, driven by a newly licensed teenager arguing with a friend at too high a speed, not seeing the child in the road. Happy switched to pushing instead of pulling and pushed me out of the path of the car. My father carried her dying body back to our house; she died on the way home, only a block away, and we ended up burying her in the back yard. My father disliked being on that road for the rest of his life, and would go the long way if possible to avoid it when we had to go into that area. My father loved dogs, but the only portrait he ever had of a dog of his was Happy (he did, admittedly, have lots of just photographs of other dogs), which had pride of place on his dresser from 1970 until 2016, when I inherited it. I have been told by a few so-called psychics who don't know this story that I have a guardian angel, always with me, a small-medium black and white dog (yes, a good description of Happy). Over the years, I've only met one dog, no matter how vicious or "Guard Dog"ish, who didn't warm up to me within minutes of meeting me (the one exception was psychotic, and ended up needing to be put down, and even that dog was generally friendlier with me even than his owner, and no, it was a Cocker Spaniel), and I thank her for that. She'll have pride of place in my home for as long as I live, just as she did in my fathers, still in that frame. Re: WrackingThe prime stuff in the loot bag were chocolate bars, smaller than the full-size bars that cost a dime and still smaller than the nickel versions, but larger than the mini-bars of today. Many Hallowe’en kisses, which was taffy of an indeterminate brown/gray color, and which seemed lame at the time but are for me, now, at the top of the nostalgia list. There were hard candies, too, either individually wrapped or a mini LifeSavers tube, far too many suckers, caramels, definitely Tootsie Pops and Tootsie Rolls, small bags of assorted squishy things or jelly beans, then loose stuff like apples or peanuts in the shell, thrown in by the handful. I don’t think there were mini bags of chips back then in the sixties. As for the apples, I didn’t eat them like treats because they weren’t treats, they were food, so I gave them straight to my mom who used them for lunches or desserts. (ShorpyBlog, Halloween, Kids, Pa. Kodachromes)
Noel, Iola: 1944
... as it was. (The Gallery, Chicago, Christmas, Iola S., Kids, News Photo Archive) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/24/2023 - 11:31am -

On this Christmas Eve, we travel back 79 years for a visit with the First Lady of Shorpy, Iola Swinnerton. Some two decades after her bathing-pageant days, she is still radiating beauty and cheer. Scroll down to the comments for more of Iola's life story. View full size. "STONE WOMAN" ENJOYS CHRISTMAS PREPAREDNESS         CHICAGO (Dec. 23, 1944) -- Mrs. Iola Swinnerton Warren, who suffered the illness known as myositis ossificans after inoculation for typhoid following a Florida hurricane, watches her husband Theron V. Warren and little nephew Herbert Taylor trim Christmas tree. (Acme Newspictures photo.) Licensed to Marry.From the Washington Post of August 4, 1918: "Gerald Swinnerton, 31, of Williamston, Michigan, and Iola Taylor, 18, of Rockford, Illinois." Iola in 1947Here is part of article from the Waterloo Sunday Courier (Waterloo, Iowa) of March 9, 1947. The Warrens adopted Herbert Taylor (Iola's nephew). Herbert was 13 in 1947. Forever YoungIt would seem, from an earlier comment, that she was born in 1902, so she would have been 19 or 20 in those earlier photos from 1921 and 1922, and 42 here. She has lovely, youthful skin and a radiant smile. [If she was 18 when married in 1918, she'd have been born in 1899 or 1900. - Dave] Not just Christmas celebrationsThis is also the occasion of their second wedding anniversary - I found the announcement from the Suburbanite Economist (Chicago) of December 23, 1942. It sounds like she had a terrible time with this illness -- it started in 1926 and she spent nine years in the hospital! I'm glad she seems to have found happiness with Theron. Based on what I read about myositis ossificans, it seems unlikely that this is what she had. It is normally caused by an injury to a muscle, and from what I can tell, stays within that muscle -- it doesn't spread to other areas of the body. It's probably more likely that she had heterotopic ossification, possibly caused by central nervous system injury or an underlying genetic disorder. *Cringe*I am sure that Herbie really enjoyed being characterized in the newspaper as her "little" nephew. Hope his friends didn't see the story! [He looks like Larry Mondello. - Dave] Carpentry and TweedNotice the nicely done rest for her feet that does not appear to be part of the original wheelchair--not the easiest thing to put together if you're doing it with nails instead of wood screws, which may be the case here. Also, I love the nephew's tweed slacks--sadly, winter weight slacks seem to be a thing of the past, even up north here in Minnesota. They're keeping him so warm, he doesn't need to keep his shirt tucked in. The story that keeps on givingAnother amazing feature of this website. Over the course of eleven and a half years (dating back to April of 2007) we are treated to a series of photos of Iola Swinnerton from a very specific two-year period (1921-1922) in a very specific context (bathing suit beauty contest). No sense of limitation or lack of variety, and every new photo was a delight. Flash forward suddenly 22 years to 1944 and to a whole new context. We find Iola in a wheelchair with a strange and rare disease, and yet she is happy, recently married to a benevolent-looking church organist, and she and her husband have adopted her nephew. The husband "wasn’t discouraged because the pretty invalid was confined to a wheelchair," and she is able to report that her "condition has steadily improved" since they got married. The crowning glory of her positivity: "My dreams during so many years in hospitals have come true." (She writes songs which are published!) "I only hope someone else can take hope from my happiness." This is one of the most truly marvelous stories I've ever come across. Stiff Man’s SyndromeIola may have had what is now called Stiff Person’s Syndrome. It was first diagnosed in 1956. A friend had it. IolatryHere's a few more details regarding Iola. The New York Times, while reporting her wedding, stated that she was earning her living as a seamstress. The paper also said, "She was stricken by the baffling disease after the Florida Hurricane of 1926. At that time she lived in a Miami Beach cottage, the wife of Gerald Swinnerton, whom she divorced in April, charging desertion." In the 1940 U.S. Census Gerald Swinnerton is claiming to have been widowed. He was a camera designer and repairman, as well as a World War I veteran, and he was also known as George Simons. He died in 1961. Regarding her wedding, the Chicago Tribune of December 24, 1942 published the following story. "Smiling from her wheelchair, in a moire taffeta wedding dress and a shoulder length tulle veil, Iona Swinnerton, 40 years old, was married last night to Theron Victor Warren, 42, a shipyard worker and organist in the Wentworth Baptist church. The bride is suffering from a rare disease characterized by hardening of the muscles. "About 100 relatives and friends were present as the Rev. Eugene H. Daniels read the marriage ceremony. L. Duke Taylor, 1918 Cleveland avenue, her brother, gave the bride away. Donald McGowan, 1954 Henderson street, was the best man. "Miss Swinnerton, who lives at 4044 Wentworth avenue, has been suffering from the malady since 1926. She teaches a Bible class at the church, and met Warren while attending the services there." An article in the Cedar Rapids Gazette in December 1945 indicated that she had spent six years at the Cook County Hospital for treatment of her condition. She was refinishing furniture and canning fruit in addition to writing songs. "Theron proposed not very long after I cooked him a duck dinner," she confided. In 1949 Iola won fourth place in a nationwide Army songwriting contest, which earned her a $50 savings bond. The title of the tune was "Three Cheers For the Army." She died five years later, in 1954. Her obituary from the Chicago Tribune is below. "Iola N. Warren, 2642 Barry avenue, June 13, 1954, beloved wife of Theron V. Warren, dear sister of Louis Duke Taylor, dear aunt to Herbert Taylor. At chapel, 316 W. 63d street, at Harvard avenue, where services will be held Thursday, June 17, at 1 p.m. Cremation Oak Woods." Theron Warren died on May 3, 1976. The image below is from the January 4, 1937 issue of the Wilson (N.C.) Daily Times. FOPI presume Iola had fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. Story of Two FamiliesLuckily, I accepted an invitation to the Swinnertons' Christmas party before the invitation to the Dickeys' Christmas party arrived. Three cheers for King CottonThe pants of the kid look as if they are scratchy. Ask me how I know. It’s a small worldI’ve been a long-time Shorpy lurker, and have many of the wonderful images saved as desktop wallpaper. I had to comment on this picture -- the Eugene H. Daniels mentioned as the officiant in the newspaper article was my great-grandfather! By the time I knew him, he was just “Grandpa Dan”; it’s neat to be able to read about Iola and Theron some 78 years later. Merry Christmas to all! Eeugh!Theron is a ringer for an ex of mine. I hope Iola had better luck--she certainly endured enough as it was. (The Gallery, Chicago, Christmas, Iola S., Kids, News Photo Archive)
« first‹ prev…2 [3]4…next ›last »
Syndicate content  Shorpy.com is a vintage photography site featuring thousands of high-definition images. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago. Contact us | Privacy policy | Accessibility Statement | Site © 2024 Shorpy Inc.