Washington. April 25, 1925. "Mrs. H.A. Colman, Mrs. C.E. Holmes, Mrs. C.M. Busch." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

This is a Kodachrome of my bedroom in Pacifica, California, in November 1966. I was 10 years old, and apparently an unnaturally neat child. That's my stupid dog Blackie on the bed -- Blackie eventually bit a neighbor kid and "got sent to the farm" - I was in college before I figured out that my parents had him put to sleep. They were also like beatniks, so the whole house was covered in that awful seagrass rug stuff that left waffle marks on my feet. My prize possession, one share of McDonnell Aircraft stock, is framed over my desk. That desk, which is now my wife's computer desk, had an elaborate drawing of a Gemini instrument panel on the underside, and I spent hours lying under it, on the overturned Cost Plus chair, pretending I was in orbit. That's a model of a B-57 B-58 bomber on top of the Zenith TV, which had a broken on-off switch and required me to crawl under it and plug it in when I wanted to watch anything. There are a lot of Roy Gallant books on astronomy and space travel on the shelf, and the window looked out on the driveway. I really miss that camel-hair comforter on the bed. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1920. "Harry Wardman property, 1340 G Street." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

St. Louis, May 1910. N. Broadway and De Soto. "Boy with the bag, nicknamed Turk, said he was going to Texas soon. The investigator found him recently with $1.75 he had just won at craps." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.

New York, June 1952. Eartha Kitt, the self-styled "sex kitten" who made "Santa Baby" a staple of the holiday airwaves in a career that spanned half a century, died today at the age of 81. Photo by Gordon Parks, Life archive. View full size.

New York, December 1913. "Christmas tree, Madison Square." 8x10 glass negative, G.G. Bain Collection. View full size. Happy holidays from Shorpy!

I'm sure Santa has been or will be good to this serious little guy, reminiscent though he may be of Augustus Gloop. I can't read the calendar, but the 31st falling on a Friday makes it either 1926 or '37. After researching, I found out that "Boy Scouts to the Rescue" came out in 1921, and the little poem "Am I Ready for School?" was mentioned in a 1924 Louisiana State Health Department bulletin. Any thoughts? [Update: The calendars are from January 1941.] View full size.

"Dorsey Christmas tree, 1922." Merry Christmas to all from Shorpy! National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C. "Post Office Department. Motorcycle postman. 1912." S14 collects the mail. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1918. From a batch of orphaned negatives whose captions are "No caption." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

December 24, 1954. The only explanation I can come up with for my disturbing expression is that this was the same year my brother took me to see Rear Window. But, since it's the only one of me hanging my Christmas stocking (or of anybody in our family hanging one), I'm stuck with it. And my brother jiggled the camera. Funny thing is, there's already stuff in the stocking (probably with a tangerine down in the toe, like always). I'm 8 and well past the Santa Claus pretense, so I'm probably just helping with the decor. Anyway, what I'm mainly interested in is all the really good stuff that'll be there the next morning. My favorite thing here is all the junk (undoubtedly mine) exploding out of the shelf behind the TV.

Many thanks to everybody who's said nice things about my photos, and gigantic thanks to Dave not only for Shorpy itself, but for his ever-expert editorial emendations. I've had a ball here. View full size.

This is how you pull over for a family meal during a road trip. It's the early 60's and the family is off to visit Canada. Kodachrome slide. That camp stove used white gas. View full size.

May 1910. East St. Louis, Illinois. "Noon hour at Obear-Nestor Glass Co. Names of the smaller boys are: Walter Sohler, 918 N. 18th Street; Walter Riley, 918 N. 17th Street; Will Convery, 1828 Natalie Avenue; Clifford Matheny, 1927 Summit Ave. All these boys were working." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.

Circa 1920. "George Barkhausen's Christmas tree." Yet another tastefully understated tree-n-train yuletide display. National Photo Co. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1921. "Woodward & Lothrop window." Department store display with a motoring theme. National Photo glass negative. View full size.