Hastily titled Bathing Beauties - but maybe not so beauteous!
1. unknowns, circa 1900 or before. Check out the "bathing costumes". Can you imagine trying to swim with all that excess fabric?
2. My mom (left) with a woman who was one of the first to be Miss West Virginia.
3. unknown
4. yours truly, age 8, mugging for the camera on the day I almost drowned by stepping into a "hole" at Coal River. P.S. The lifeguard was very handsome!
5. and 6. Two of the girls who lived at my grandmother's rooming house.
7. unknown
8. My mom (seated) and her friend in 1924.
Edit: In response to SRP's comment about the lifeguard:
Shortly after that photo was snapped, my friend and I walked out a little further into the river. The swimming area was roped off so that you couldn't go too far away, but the sandy river bottom was uneven, due to eddys and rough currents. I stepped out a foot or two ahead of my friend, and into a hole that I later dicovered was only a foot deep. My head was below the surface, and my friend, who was floating on an inner tube, tried to pick me up by my ears, which served to remove my bathing cap, but not me. Had I been smart enough to just step up out of the hole, I would have been fine, but I stood there, paralyzed with fear. After a few minutes, my friend called for the lifeguard; a tall, comely boy of about 18, who came crashing through the river, pinned my arms tightly and lifted me up out of the water and back to shore. I was instantly smitten; after coughing and sputtering and shaking the water out of my ears. He, of course, was strutting around like the cock of the walk - having saved a young damsel in distress. His purpose was to impress all the teenage girls sitting around on the sand watching him be the hero, and I was soon forgotten in the waves of attention they were all too happy to give!
15 comments:
Those are great! I think the vintage swimsuits are beautiful. I've seen pictures of my mum from when she was younger and she'll be 71 in December.
Here via michele this time, but I do stop by daily :)
Have a great labor day.
Love these!!! As you may recall I also posted vintage bathing suit pics awhile ago... may have to dig up a few more of those!
Great pictures. Now you have to tell your story of the "girl and her lifeguard hero."
You have the best photo collection- and ability to scan it! I love your retrospective posts- thanks.
What great photos and keepsakes.
Hello,Michele sent me.
I think bathing suits should be fabric, fabric and more fabric so that the ladies don't have to feel self-conscious about every little so-called imperfection they imagine that they have! More fabric, less skin, that's what I say.
oops, almost forgot -- Michele sent me!
I love the pictures kenju!! I think we broke 1k together:)
Nice pictures. Nice life guard story too.
Michele sent me this time.
Great photos.
Here via Michele's
"By the ears"? What a friend (ha, ha). Great story! Sorry your lifeguard had other girls on his mind.
The operative word for my cooking again is BOX MIX. It's hard to mess them up. I have messed them up, but it's harder to do than from scratch.
Michele sent me, Judy.
The picture wouldn't click through for me. I tried changing the address a bit in case it was off slightly but it didn't work. Alas!
Thanks for sharing your pictures and memories, Judy.
Utenzi, I don't know what you mean by "the picture wouldn't click through..."
Sorry if you couldn't see them.
Fantastic story about your near-drowning. I think I would have done the same thing ... stood there and totally panicked.
So glad mr handsome lifeguard came to your rescue.
Your pictures are so wonderful... can't get enough of them. This is also a wonderful means to preserve them. I may follow suit sometime soon with some more of my own black and whites.
(sidenote: Judy, I would NEVER forget the J's - *wink wink* - it just takes me some time to make my way over here)
I had virtually the same thing happen to me at Yellow Pine in Yosemite, only it was my dad who "saved" me. Much less glamourous, let me tell you. : D
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