More of the family albums: **see below for the image aboveTop Left: My dad's father, circa 1887-1892. He was born in 1867. Everybody in the family called him "Pop". He worked at an oil refinery as a young man, but by the time I knew him, he had retired and sat in an old rocker on the porch nearly all day.
Top Right: Yours truly, Age 2 and a half. My hair was in corkscrew curls back then. The jumper was burgundy velvet and (of course) my socks matched. I was holding my favorite Mother Goose book, and wearing my high-top white Stride-Right Shoes. Remember those?
Lower Left: my mother's sister, circa 1920-25. I am sorry this is so dark because it is a primer for how women dressed in the 20's. With the requisite cloche hat, cheek curls and pointy shoes, my aunt was quite the flapper. She was quite a cook as well; I have chronicled her fame in the kitchen in previous posts.
Lower right: My dad in 1909, age 5. I had this photo restored and printed from an old tin-type I found in my parent's secretary desk. He looks like a very old man in a child's body, don't you think? So solemn and stoic at an early age; he remained stoic but he livened up a little bit. Daddy seldom drank booze, but I always knew when he did, because he would sit around with a very silly grin on his face, saying nothing, and looking very much like the "cheshire cat" or the "cat that ate the canary".
I tried to put the image on the very top below the others, but it didn't work. It is the reverse of "Pop" photo. I love the old time calligraphy and advertising copy. It sure beats anything we have today!
11 comments:
Oh, these are very cool! I've often noticed that in almost all of the old, black and white picts, the people aren't smiling! They tend to look very seriously at the camera.
Enjoyed the New Orleans photos below, so glad you posted those! and so sad, in some ways. It's great you have memories of the way it was before it hit. I've never been there, unfortunately!
I enjoyed seeing your photos as well. I noticed your that your Father looks pretty mature.
Corkscrew curls-that is what you call them!
Hope you will be out for Friendly Friday, what is a marching band without the piano:)
You must be the person in your family who saves all the photos and the stories to tell to future generations. That is so admirable. I love to scrapbook and do that for my immediate family, but I wish I had the time to look back and really tell the stories of my grandparents and great grandparents. It's a special gift to give someone their heritage like that.
Oh, and Michelle sent me!
Nice photos. I have lots of old photos from my Dad's family, but unfortunately I don't know who's in most of them. Here from Michele's.
Lish
I'm just here.
In many, many photos I don't think my grandpa (mother's side) ever smiled. He always stood very stiff and still and almost always held his hat in his hand or had his foot up on something.
I think back then, it used to be serious business to have a photo taken. Especially photos taken from the earliest of cameras. It was costly and most people took it very seriously.
Nice post again, Judy!
Oh, I love old photos. These ones are great. You look like such a sweetie ;)
Here via Michele's.
Have a great weekend.
I love old family photos. You're inspiring me. I think I'll be posting some of mine soon.
Oh my, these are incredible photos. I have some really old ones of my Great Grandparents, and definitely need to get them scanned in.
visiting from michele's
Thank you so much for sharing these. I just spent entirely too much time sifting through my parents' old photo boxes before they moved out of the house they'd been in for 40+ years. Some of the old pictures were stunning...you've incented me to post them on my site.
One neat thing I've learned about old-time photography is how long each exposure was. They didn't have the benefit of high-ISO films back then. So exposures of 30 seconds to many minutes were commonplace. The serious looks on folks' faces is typical of the era: it was easier to look serious and stay still for a long time than it was to smile in one place.
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