Beantown Bathers: 1906

A great collection of catboats, sloops and schooners, plus a couple of Noman's Land boats and apparently electric launches.

When viewing these beach scenes all I can think about is the salt and sand working its way under those dark, heavy, sometimes wet clothes (and hats). It must have been a miserable feeling, but I guess that was an acceptable level of misery back then.

One of trolley cars in the previous photo was heading to City Point. There must have been public changing rooms with lockers.

That gal under the left umbrella is as cute as they come.

I wonder if there is a shark harpooned to each of those barrels.

Looking at this photo, I was reminded of my youth at beaches and mudholes where we would go for a swim to cool off on summer afternoons and immediately realized that there was always at least one frail kid who would turn sort of grayish-white immediately upon exiting the water and invariably would start shaking and his teeth would chatter uncontrollably and his lips would turn blue. Then he would rush to wherever he left his clothes, cover up with everything he had while he wrapped his arms around himself and just trembled until the sun warmed him up again. There is one particular child seen from the back near the middle of this picture who looks like a little tent with a hat on. I think he was one of those kids. Seems there is one in every crowd.