another old photo tour
I think I keep not adding to my Old Photo Entries because I haven’t been scanning lately. I haven’t been scanning because someone has kind of been hogging the computer. Someone is just a tad addicted to Second Life and his own shiny new blog. But that’s not much of an excuse since I’ve already (according to flickr) scanned 70 old pictures. And I certainly haven’t posted anywhere near that. Yet.
Oh, and to answer a couple of notes, I will post some of me and my peers at some point. Whenever I get that far. Providing my Gemini-Butterfly-Brain doesn’t make me drop this before I do get that far. I don’t think it will, though. I’m pretty invested in this project.
AND, there were many questions about how exactly a 18 or so month old child manages to die of a hairball. Cousin E does not remember ever hearing that Elizabeth died of a hairball. She’s going to check in with her mom, the resident family history expert. Because even though I vividly remember hearing throughout my childhood that Elizabeth died of a hairball, I also vividly remember the troll in the drainage ditch behind my uncle’s house talking to me, and I vividly remember standing on the hill in the pasture behind our house and looking up at a very tall woman with a blue face who was wearing one of those big flat round-brimmed hats that Chinese peasants wore, and I vividly remember being in a car with my mother and brother and just as we were about to enter the big tunnel that went from our side of town to downtown, realizing that the little red car in front of us was being driven by a witch. Wearing a pointy black hat. The car was a convertible, and was also about the size of Barbie’s Dream Car.
Obviously, just because I remember something vividly doesn’t mean it actually happened. So I’m doing some fact-checking on the Elizabeth story.
A very wrinkled picture of my grandmother, with Jean on the left and Mabel on the right. That’s an especially nice picture of Mabel, I think. She looks like she’s up to something. I think Mabel was often up to something. For some reason I’d always assumed they were on the Parkway – I seem to always be assuming odd things about these old pictures – but now I’ve realized they’re probably on the hill above where my parents’ house is now. Their house would be at the bottom of the hill, out of sight.
I saw the very tall woman with the blue face and the Chinese peasant hat about halfway down the hill, towards their house. We probably better not talk about that, though.
Pop and Granny in an unusual moment – laughing. I guess they were of the generation that never smiled for the camera, because they are always REALLY serious. I don’t really remember Granny – she died when I was six or so – but Pop certainly wasn’t serious in real life. Just in most camera moments.
LIke they are here, for example. With HL, who doesn’t look too serious himself.
Tiny Mabel on a car! Well, at least I think it’s Mabel. Her hair looks awfully light. I’m sure Aunt M will know for certain.
I love this one just for the oddness. My grandmother, behind a big mound of something, in front of a bunch of corn. I’m sure that’s Pop taking the picture. It certainly looks like his hat in that shadow. Maybe he did that on purpose. Somebody was a good photographer, and by "good" I mean they liked unusual and offbeat photos. Granny is smiling here too, so maybe she was amused by this strange picture as well.
Another picture of Dan, hitched up to the wagon. Pop is steering and according to the notes on the back that’s two of my cousins riding. Juanita’s kids.
The only cat picture I’ve run across. They just had barn cats, not indoor cats. This one has a great caption on the back – "Mama Cat and Daughter Ethel." I had to hunt for Ethel – just her head is sticking up back there on the left and behind Mama Cat.
oh i love you! and you know what? a vivid imgination in a child means a very intelligent person. which you are.
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These are great! I’m so glad you are posting our family history. I don’t remember ever seeing a picture of Granny smiling. Unfortunately I never saw her smile in real life. The last 12 years of her life she was very sick, the side effects of medications made her catatonic. In fact I remember sitting at the kitchen table watching her get an injection on her upper thigh. I must have been 6 or 7. She looked up at me and never smiled. It shocked me that we made eye contact but no response at all. Now I realize that she may not have even seen me. Or she was feeling so badly that she couldn’t smile. Pop took excellent care of her. My first thought is that’s Aunt Jean on the hood of the car (shutter shutter – where’s that car seat?) because of the blonde hair. But even my mother had blonde hair when she was small. Will get back to you on the identity of the mysterious child.
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I am so enjoying all these pictures!
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I find scanning to be a tedious soul-sucking chore, but what a reward once you’ve gotten these old and irreplaceable photos into the computer. (The photo shops charge $1 PER PHOTO to scan.) I love this. I am so enamored with old photos and trying to get behind the eyes and brains of those people at the moment they had their pictures made.
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Why can’t the upcoming generation know what we know and not waste the great opportunities they have just sitting at their feet! As Mark Twain said, “Youth is wasted on the young.” I tend to think d is lazy like B says of A, but perhaps it’s just their priorities are different from ours. That and those d___ computer games we bought for them (when we should have locked them in a library) which sucked out their brains.
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Edna, it’s time for the truth. You remember the troll talking to you from the drainage pipe because you heard it. The troll had a deep voice. I heard it too. Since I am older, I remember figuring out the mystery just before our ever the fun loving girl Cousin L stopped. That’s right, it was Cousin L and I was probably 8 or 10 before she stopped. I too believed anything L said. I was almost a teenager when L locked me in the corn crib by myself, banged on the outter walls, howled like a ghost, scared the bejabbers out of me, unlocked the door, let a terrified me out, and with a straight face asked me what was wrong. She was so convincing – “oh no Cousin E, I was in the house the whole time. It must have been a ghost.” I was so scared I had to pee in the ham can or maybe out the hole in the floor. It’s amazing that L is a nurse. She could easily have been a successful lawyer or criminal
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I am loving this as if this was my own family. I guess its the memories that it brings up. But now you are making me really question some of my memories. Did they really happen?
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these are so damn cool.
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What Haredawg said. Hello Ethel!
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These are so great. My fav is Grandma with “The Shadow.” I am dying over cousin e’s revelation! 😀
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So, Edna, I suppose the real question is – Did you SEE the troll?
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Oh yes, that troll was a great conversationalist.
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I love old photos. My mind just starts going a mile a minute wondering what the person’s life was like.
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I love this. Even Freds came over to look over my shoulder at these. You know, I have very fond rememberances of Buddy (my mom’s best friend from NC) and he always dressed so fancy – unlike anyone else around. These pics often remind me of the more genteel side of the south that we lost up here quicker than you did down there, I think.
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I think all relative photos remind me of my relatives.
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You are very blessed to have so many family photos. My parents came over from England. I don’t even know half the people in the pictures. When my Uncle Steve came over last fall from England, he seemed annoyed that I didn’t know some people. HELLO, I have never met them. LOL! I loved reading about your ‘vivid’ memories. There might have been some slight truth in them.:)
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Old photos are such a mystery.
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I love old photos like this. I wish I still had my grandmothers, but my father has them. It must have been expensive at the time, so maybe that’s why there aren’t that many cat pictures? My grandmother told me that when she was young, she only took pictures of what really mattered. RYN: I was actually starting to like the idea of owning something- even if it was just a mobile home,but that plan’s out too. We won’t get approved for the amount. We’re $3000 short. Which seems to be the case for everything. Hugs, John
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you mean the alien in the trunk of my parents’ car who talked to me on long road trips wasn’t real?! but i remember him vividly!!
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Glorious and evocative pictures. I wonder what was the precise point in time that people moved from being serious + solemn when having their picture taken to the ‘big beaming Say Cheese’ smiles.
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I love trips down memory lane, even someone else’s.
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Very fascinating, these old pictures. Last week I also spent an entire afternoon to look at old family photo’s at dad’s place. He added an old story to every picture we looked at. Pure joy! I hope Spring will ‘finally’ set in this weekend!! Take care, have a nice week,
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I hate to sound morbid, and also perhaps just plain crazy, but I desperately hope it was a hairball she died from. I looooooove these old photos!
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i could have sworn i left a note here. yikes!..it’s happening. i love the old pics you post. i wish i had an easy way to post all the old ones i have. ryn: it is good that he makes his own crowns. it costs more when the lab has to make the crown, and they don’t always do it right so this dentist sends it back. i had to sit there longer at his office but it was worth the wait. have a safe week-end.
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Those pictures are very nice indeed! 🙂
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Thanks for the great old pics and the memories-haha-to go with them. I can see where you got your love of offbeat photos, and thank goodness for it! It’s not just taking a photo; it’s how you look at life in your own way.
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Of course my favorite is the cat pic. How do you know which one was mama and which one is Ethel. Spinster maybe NSI
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