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Portugrocer: 1942
... together this grocery store image and the now classic Christmas office party. How wonderful it would be to produce quality images ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/15/2023 - 4:07pm -

April 1942. "Provincetown, Massachusetts. Portuguese grocer." 4x5 inch acetate negative by John Collier for the U.S. Office of the Coordinator of Information. View full size. What do you have that won't give me gas?With that white jacket and hat, the clerk looks like a service station attendant. Lifebuoy, helll!It's the taste of Fels-Naphtha that I remember! Weigh To Go OhioWhile I am very familiar with Toledo scales (from Ohio and now headquartered not far from me), I had never heard of Dayton scales (also from Ohio). Your Portugrocer is ...or was Ernest Carreiro Sr., per the Liz's Cafe/Anybody's Bar website. Ernie died in 1961, and his son, Ernie Jr., just last year. According to Ernie Jr.'s obituary, he and his dad turned Anybody's Market into Tip-for-Tops'n Restaurant sometime in the early '50s. Those Carreiros really had a way with words. What's that effigyhanging above the mirror? [It's a lobster claw. - Dave] Better Hurry!You won't have much longer to buy that coffee or beef, as WWII rationing begins soon! What the!Would love to know the story behind the painted head (lobster claw?) on the top of the cabinet behind the counter! I'm PuzzledI'm often puzzled as to why these Shorpy images aren't offered as 1000 piece to 5000 piece jigsaw puzzles. I'd love to spend a weekend piecing together this grocery store image and the now classic Christmas office party. How wonderful it would be to produce quality images into challenging puzzles worth spending time upon. Please, consider branching out into collectible puzzles. Stacking ArtisteVery orderly shelves considering the cans are of the older three-piece design with seamed tops and bottoms which must be closely aligned to sit atop one another without getting all cattywampus, as with the third row of pop corn cans behind the woman's head (one of the few exceptions.) I hope contemporary stock clerks appreaciate the superior self indexing/interlocking/nesting qualities of modern two-piece steel cans when stacking them (probably not), plus they also make straightening up after an earthquake much easier, although that probably wasn't a major concern in Ptown, then or now. Top Shelf Detergents They were called soap operas for a reason Rinso ... Rinso white, Rinso bright and Solium, the sunlight ingredient Duz ... It’s the soap in Duz that does it Chipso ... "Just back from my honeymoon … Gray hair and a young heart. Because Chipso gets underwear so white.” Soapine ... "For washing and cleaning everything, no matter what -- Soapine works quicker, easier, cheaper and better than soap or anything else." The original (19th century) made from whale blubber. Super Suds ... struck out Lux ... The Thompson agency then began a campaign in 1928 to get endorsements from Hollywood actresses, by sending 425 actresses cases of Lux Soap. It received 414 endorsements in return, leading them to claim that 9 out of 10 stars in Hollywood use Lux Soap. Ivory Flakes ... 1937 Ivory Flakes Laundry Soap "Lazy Twin Misses Out On Party!" Cartoon (Print Ad) Fels-Naptha ... It originally included the ingredient naphtha, effective for cleaning laundry and urushiol, an oil contained in poison ivy. Naphtha was later removed as a cancer risk. Oxydol ... In the 1930s, Oxydol was the sponsor of the Ma Perkins radio show, considered the first soap opera; as such, Oxydol sponsorship put the "soap" in "soap opera". Klek ... White Beads of Soap (Seems to exist only on boxes sold on eBay) [As you note, they're soaps. Strictly speaking, none of those are detergents. - Dave] Tasty Fascinating array of foodstuffs. Would love to be able to taste what that bread was like. Not to mention some delicious cakes with that presumably rich and aromatic coffee. (The Gallery, John Collier, Stores & Markets)
Christmas Seals: 1923
President Coolidge buying Christmas seals in 1923 to benefit the Tuberculosis Association. View full size. National Photo Company Collection. Vintage Christmas Seals Although I don't have the 1923 Christmas Seals, check my blog to see Vintage Christmas Seals from 1926 to ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/31/2012 - 3:58pm -

President Coolidge buying Christmas seals in 1923 to benefit the Tuberculosis Association. View full size. National Photo Company Collection. Vintage Christmas SealsAlthough I don't have the 1923 Christmas Seals, check my blog to see Vintage Christmas Seals from 1926 to 1961. Ol' Cal...He looks so thrilled about it all. Old Mr. Excitement!When Dorothy Parker was told Coolidge was dead, she replied: "How could they tell?" TrueI believe the public's nickname for him was "Silent Cal". Presidents have changed mightily in the talking department over the years. Silent CalWhen someone told Coolidge that he had bet a friend that he could get Coolidge to say more than two words, Coolidge replied, "You lose." My first jobI worked folding Christmas Seals back in the spring of 1967 when I was 11. I was paid a dollar a day to cover bus fare. Technically it was volunteer work, but because they paid me that dollar, I consider it my first job. I folded the sheets of seals in quarters and put them in envelopes. Oddly enough, I don't recall anyone else working with me. I must have been the only person who volunteered. I think about it now and wonder if the entire Canadian 1967 TB Association Christmas Seals fundraiser depended on the work of an 11-year-old girl. (The Gallery, Christmas, D.C., Natl Photo, Public Figures)
On the Edge of the 60s
... the dock and waved goodbye and he said, "I'll see you by Christmas." I am sure he really knew where he was going, but couldn't say. He ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 09/29/2011 - 6:37pm -

Even though it's 1960, it's obvious that the 60s haven't started yet. My eighth grade class photo in Larkspur - or as Dave would say, idyllic Larkspur. I must say, though, that we're looking somewhat less idyllic than when some of us were gathered at the same spot eight years earlier. I'm in the front row, second from left. So, when did the 60s begin? A case could be made for 1963, 1964 or 1965, but I'm going for 1965. View full size. 60s != sixtiesThe problem here is that the Sixties as a cultural phenomenon has very little correlation with the decade of the 1960s. In most of America, the Sixties (drugs, sex, rock-n-roll, decadence) began in late 1968 with the large demonstrations against the war, and faded out around 1975. By contrast the 1960s, as seen in this picture, were a time of prosperity and optimism, a time when boys looked like rocket scientists and girls looked like rockets. Did any of these boysserve in Vietnam? Great photo BTW When the 60s beganThe 60's began on Sunday night, Feb. 9, 1964! I'm from a later generationbut I think Buddy Holly (among others) had a influence on kids back then. (Or was he just that way?) The 60sI'm in the group who think the '60s started at the end of 1963 with JFK's assassination, followed by the Beatles in '64. And the end of the decade came in 1973 with the U.S. pullout from Vietnam and Nixon's resignation in 1974. No moreAn innocence that no longer exists in our children. So tell us, tterrace, just how innocent *were* you kids? Starting from top right, moving counterclockwise. On a scale of 1 to 10. -Dave] I was six in 1960This shows life as portrayed in "Leave It To Beaver." Then came the Beatles and life changed. That's how I remember it anyway. Girls ARE more matureIf you enlarge this photo, and carefully scrutinize all the faces, it is apparent that all of the girls seem to be certain of who they are and comfortable in their own skin. Many can also pass for high school students. The boys on the other hand show various characteristics of rebelliouness, moodiness, sadness, some seem troubled and pensive, some look like cut-ups and wise guys, just a lot less certain of the image they wish to portray and many can pass as fifth graders, looking at least three years younger. I'm thinking perhaps some parents were much harder on their sons than on their daughters as the girls seem relatively content while the boys show signs of personal conflict. I hope they all found happiness. Thank you for this very nostalgic picture. O.K. RomeoWhich girl (?!!) did you have the hots for? I was in 2nd grade in 1960 ... and you're right, we were all still blissfully living in the fifties then. I think the sixties began with the assassination of JFK and arrival of the Beatles in 1964. The era was in full swing by the time of the Summer of Love and the murders of RFK and MLK. And, btw, if anyone ever perfects a time machine, I'm going back to live with your family, tterrace. "Idyllic" is the right word for most of your pics. Nothing screams 1960... like a Hawaiian t-shirt! Such a lively group of kids, and to think, in just under a decade this same group of youngsters will introduce the world to pot, LSD, and the Grateful Dead! When did the 60s begin?I too was an eighth grader in 1959-60. It's hard to say just when the culture of the "60s" first emerged in the national consciousness. I guess I would say 1964-1965, with the beginning of the Vietnam buildup, the civil rights movement in full swing, campus protests, inner city riots, and the emergence of an entirely different style of popular music. Anyone who leapt from 1963 to 1968 would have been completely lost. I Want to Drivemy '50 Ford to the drive in with that little gal next to the teacher, whew, what a doll she must have become in high school, "Apache" (1960) on the AM car radio. How many?Point of curiosity -- if you know -- how many of your classmates are still alive? It seems like every class starts losing members about a year after graduation so I suspect you've lost your share as well. Innocence of youthWell, our names were innocent-sounding enough anyway: Albert, Bob (2), Bucky (really Harold, but who knew?), Carla, Christine, Cynthia, David (2), Dennis, Earl, Frances, Hilliard, Jack, Jean, John (3), Johnny, Ken, Laurie, Lenore, Lonna, Marcia, Margaret, Paul, Peggy (2), Richard, Roberta, Roger, Russ, Sam, Sharon, Sheila, Tom. Ashley, Brittany, Brandon, Justin and Dakota were absent that day. Could be my classI believe the 60's started around 1962, but in a small way. The folk music scene, and coffee houses contributed to it. Early Dylan, Baez helped nudge us into a new decade. But the really visible 60's didn't occur until around 1964/65 with the British invasion of music, and fashion. The guys in the photo defiantly exhibit a late '50s sensibility in their clothing choice, and hairstyles. [Definitely. - Dave] Decades vs. ErasOne of tterrace's contemporaries takes on the '50s-'60s thing. Let's go back to the '40s. '40-'45: the Depression jarringly became the WWII Era--privation and sacrifice. '46-'51: the Post War Era--baby boom, consumer goods and housing in short supply. '52-'63: "The Fifties", the "Fab-u-luxe Age"--tail fins, massive consumption, rock and roll, shadow of nuclear destruction, JFK. Started to peter out with Cuban missile crisis. Ended November 22, 1963 '63-'72: "The Sixties", civil rights, the British Invasion, Women's Lib., Viet Nam, student riots, Stonewall Riot, M.L. King and RFK assassinations, Chicago convention, Nixon, war winds down. '73-?: Beyond here lies Disco, gay rights, bad presidents, trickle down, AIDS, Iran, energy crisis, limited wars, cell phones, the Internet and Shorpy. Positive IDI graduated a few years later at LCM and recognize about 14 of the people, all boys by the way, as some of those were the ones you had to look out for. Do you remember all the names to go with the faces here? Too Cool for SchoolPlease let us know (if you know) what happened to the dude sitting next to you on the right. I bet he wound up in juvy. Front row guyI wonder what happened to the James Dean guy in the front row. He had an obvious magnetism and confidence that the other boys seem to be lacking. More than 10 years to the SixtiesHaving graduated from 8th grade in the same year, I would say that the 60s began in 1955 with Rosa Parks in the front of the bus and with the trial and ended with the sentencing of Patty Hearst in 1976. For me, just starting to open my eyes to the world, the Sixties began with the Civil Rights movement, JFK, and the Space Race. In between there was Vietnam, the draft and the anti-war movement; the assassinations (JFK, RFK, MLK and Malcom X); the Summer of Love, Woodstock, and the rest of the drugs, sex, and rock & roll scene; and all the societal and personal changes, large and small, that we remember in different ways. It ended with Altamont, Kent State, Manson, Nixon and the Symbionese Liberation Army. A long, strange trip indeed. I'm glad I was on the ride. The girl by the teacherShe is not only seriously cute, but that direct gaze, as if she's looking right at ME, indicates she really knows who she is (as someone else pointed out). That, and she's quite a flirt. Alpha Male spottedBack row, between Buddy Holly and Susan Boyle. An ath-uh-lete. Those are some seriously huge looking trees in back. Redwoods? Casual Friday?I was in public school 8th grade in 1964, my first experience with "real clothes" after parochial school. I am amazed at the attire in this photo. In the front row alone I spy sneakers, rolled-up pants, and dungarees. All would have been verboten in our school. There's also the glaring absence of shoe polish. The gals, though, all appear demurely and appropriately dressed. Could this have been "class day" or some other occasion calling for "dress-down" attire? BTW, the gal at the top right is hottimus maximus! My wife posed in front of these redwood trees.And she did it many times through her school years. She also remembers Mr. G, the teacher in this photo. Seemingly fondly. Some of these guys look familiar to me. My sister was this age, and ended up going to Redwood High School with most of this crowd. I think she even went out with the guy in the second row from the top, two over from the teacher. I'm pretty sure he was kind of a baseball hero in high school. Some of these lads look like the kind of guys you'd have to avoid if you were younger like I was. There was a pretty good pecking order that went on back then between age groups. And if you were from out of town, then you were in real trouble. I was from the next town over, but would head to Larkspur to run amok in the abandoned houses along the Corte Madera Creek. Dangerous and fun. No real teasing quite yet... of the girls' hair, that is. In a couple of years those natural looking bobs would be teased and sprayed into larger than life beehives and bouffants. By 1962 I am doing just that and seeking great heights of unnatural hair that looked just like the styles in Hairspray. Although my sixth grade year of 63-64 was certainly pivotal between Dallas and the Beatles, the 60s started for me in 1962, when hair was hard to the touch, shoes were very pointy, and boys that looked like the Danny Zuko lookalike in the front row would have been the object of my desire. That day in Dealey PlazaDefinitely the 60s started that Dallas afternoon on November 22nd 1963 Fan ClubOh tterrace....you need to have a fan club! And I want to be your president! Your photos make my day, Daddy-o! Bye, Bye Miss American Pie!I’ve been wrestling with what I could ad to these observations. I’ve decided that Don McLean knew what he was talking about when he sang about “The Day The Music died.” That did seem like the day of transition to me. Before, it was the optimistically innocent time of early rock ‘n roll, Davy Crockett and Annette Funicello. Afterwards came the threat of nuclear war, the Beatles & Stones and the threat of being drafted. The onset of darkness seemed overwhelming as our high school years commenced. Most of us got through it. People from The Edge of the 60sI met up with a number of them at the 40th reunion of the Redwood High class of 1964 and learned that the gal next to our teacher Mr. G. is, I'm afraid, one of the ones no longer with us. The fellow in the second row from the top, second from left was indeed an athletic-type guy, but it was his older brother who became a tennis pro of some note. This wasn't a "casual Friday" or any other kind of special-clothing day. This is pretty much how we all looked day-in, day-out. CreepyThat is how I feel whenever the adult male visitors on Shorpy make comments about the physical appearance of underage girls in the pictures....even if the pics are decades old ... it is just creepy. [There is definitely one creepy comment here -- yours. Ick! - Dave] Why so few girls?Was there a Catholic girls school nearby and thus the out of whack boy-girl ratio? I am about this age and this looks a lot like one of my Indiana school pictures of the time. Socks that always fell down. Checked shirts. Buzz (butch), flat top cut or Brylcreem. Jeans with a cuff. Always a white T-shirt under your shirt. Girls more mature so they were always going out with guys 2 years older. Thin and NowOne notable difference between your class picture and one of a current 8th grade class is the lack of fat kids! Everywhere schoolYou guys are youngsters. That year, 1959-60, was my first as a teacher. Every kid in the photo reminds me of one I taught. When in a group, mob psychology seems to rule, and these kids, especially the boys, could give any teacher problems. But in one-on-one situations, you would probably enjoy getting to know any of them. One of the best things about kids is that most of them eventually grow up! If you replaced all the girls in the photo... with iPods, this would look like a pack of present-day Brooklyn hipsters. Creepy?Hardly -- I look at this photo, and I feel part heartbreak, part bittersweet nostalgia. I see tterrace and his friends, and I see myself and MY classmates*, now scattered to the winds. This is a reminder of lost opportunities, a reminder of the futures we saw for ourselves -- mayhap, realized, more likely not -- and above all, a reminder of the fleet passing of our lives. Still, it's nice to remember what we were, and not try to force ourselves into the shorthand of decade-sized boxes. *Admittedly, some of us were smitten with other classmates. Remembering those early crushes -- and that's what has been commented on -- is part of who we were and are. Something in the WaterI distinctly remember my eighth grade class & none of the girls looked like this. 3/4 of these girls here look like 25-year-old women. It's a strange phenomenon. The beautiful girl sitting on the far right has a timeless look but definitely exemplifies wholesome fifties beauty to me; the dark girl with the sweater sitting in the middle looks four years ahead of her time, like she should be dancing to Spector records. Biology is strangeCan't help but notice - with this photo as well as my own grade eight class photo, taken 17 years later - the disparity between the girls and boys. Some of the boys look like seniors in high school already, while some - the line sitting in the front - could be in grade 5 or 6. The girls, on the other hand, look around the same age, and far more mature than kids just a summer away from high school. They do, as someone said earlier, seem like 25-year-old women. The same strange phenomenon is present in my own grade school grad class photo, shot in 1977. The stretch between 10 and 14 really is a biological roller coaster for boys in a way that girls seem to have been spared. I would love an explanation for that. The 60s started, for me, in the early spring of 1965, when I was 10 years old. My dad, a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, California, came home from work and said that he had to get on board ship in a few days. He said he didn't know where he was going or when he would be back. We went down to the dock and waved goodbye and he said, "I'll see you by Christmas." I am sure he really knew where he was going, but couldn't say. He did come back, thankfully, 13 months later. I don't think I had a single waking moment, over the rest of the decade, that I was not conscious of the Vietnam War. I guess when the 60s started depends on what about the 60s you are thinking of. If it is civil rights, then I agree that it started even before 1960. If you are thinking of the hippie culture, campus demonstrations, etc., then I say it started in 1965. There were certainly all ready things, like the JFK assassination and the arrival of the Beatles, that had kind of paved the way, though. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Kids, tterrapix)
Mrs. Claus: 1949
Christmas 1949 in Valparaiso, Indiana. That's Grandma in a Kodachrome slide. ... size. Very Very Merry Now this is what I call a Christmas tree. Scotch, cigars and hazmat tinsel. Don't Forget ... you missed the bourbon and the ashtray. Now that's a Merry Christmas! We Need More Like This! This is Christmas for the grownups. I ... 
 
Posted by delworthio - 12/16/2008 - 7:17pm -

Christmas 1949 in Valparaiso, Indiana. That's Grandma in a Kodachrome slide. View full size. Very Very MerryNow this is what I call a Christmas tree. Scotch, cigars and hazmat tinsel. Don't ForgetDave, you missed the bourbon and the ashtray. Now that's a Merry Christmas! We Need More Like This!This is Christmas for the grownups. I heartily approve! It is a Christmas MiracleI love all the wonderful gifts under the tree, but I'm curious about what appears to be the ship's wheel. Is that a clock or a decanter full of Old Spice? Ship's WheelIt looks like a thermometer. Grandpa was a chief engineer in the merchant marine so I'm sure that provided the theme for lots of gifts. He probably placed it over by all the Old Spice and ships in bottles. While in the Navy during WWI he met this fine lass in England, married her there, and shipped her home to St. Louis while he finished his tour of duty. If only they had reality newspaper serials back then. "We thought we would place this English girl literally in the middle of the United States with people she's never met, including her new mother-in-law!" Smokin'Grandma enjoyed a good stogy, eh? Ship's wheelIt's a decorative thermometer. Its twin is illustrated and described on this page of an antique dealer's site. Scroll down to the thermometer listings. [So it doubles as a flask, right? And hopefully has a lighter built in. Put it all together and you'd have a little thermostatically controlled stove. - Dave] Yum.Looks like some nice fruitcakes there on the right. Or maybe it's Grandma's famous Wensleydale Loaf. Een More MerryBoth Schenley and Old Forester. (And just think, that used to be the norm and not worthy of comment.) Scotch-IrishI heartily approve of a "grownup Christmas" too! My fiance has asked for a bottle of good scotch and Bailey's Irish Cream for Christmas -- doubt that we will save those for New Year's Eve. Unfortunately the bottles won't be under a tree as beautiful as this one. With two tree-climbing, ornament-batting cats, I've had to settle for my ceramic tree since 1994. HeavyThose aren't fruitcakes, just decorative doorstops. But then, again, aren't they the same? Christmas decorationsYou don't see those silver icicles on today's trees. How I miss them. ZeldaThis lovely lass reminds me of my grandmother Zelda Small, my mother's mum. I was born 12:28 a.m. on December 27, 1949, two days after this picture was taken; missing the Christmas due date much to Zelda’s chagrin. As a young boy, I remember presents wrapped gaily in simply printed papers with thin curling ribbons just like this used more like string than decorative embellishments. This photo represents what was quite a nice bounty for the times. Martha-Stewart-styled rooms filled with mansion-scaled decorations and piles of elaborately wrapped gifts touching the ceiling all came progressively later peaking in the 80s and 90s. Everyone has now either passed on or the younger ones are now living in their new families. I am back to this simpler Christmas and I cherish every moment of it. Thank you for this "memory spark." I am preparing for a very small party and have to mull some cider for a friend from Marseilles. Merry Christmas Charles Worthington Tasteful TinselGramma Delworthio had a nice, light touch with the tinsel for a midcentury lady. Hoosier HolidaysI have so enjoyed all the family holiday pictures you have shared of late - especially this one from Valpo (I am a lifelong Hoosier myself). Even though I never knew any of these people personally, still I grew up with people very much like the ones depicted in your family photos. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Christmas)
Yesterday's News: 1940
... in window of Brockton Enterprise newspaper office on Christmas Eve." 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. View full size. ... Santa and that he might not finish up his route until Christmas morning! Men Without Hats The style changed, I believe, with ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/28/2018 - 8:56am -

December 1940. Brockton, Massachusetts. "Men and a woman reading headlines posted in window of Brockton Enterprise newspaper office on Christmas Eve." 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. View full size. FedorasYour best bet finding them are in Hasidic neighborhood stores. Anthony UtoI think the sign reads "Enterprise Barber Shop." I have no doubt tho that the sign was changed to something that did not resemble the imperial battle flag! Still AroundUnlike the Seattle Post-Intelligencer or the Rocky Mountain News, the Brockton Enterprise will still deliver a physical newspaper to your home. I find that comforting. You two, yeah you, get out of the wayI really want to know more about problems with the schoolbooks, but those two guys are in the way. Twitter 1.0Just a few short words on a subject, broadcast for all the world (if the world happens to walk by that window) to read. Japanese Barber ShopThis picture was taken in December 1940. I'd be willing to bet that one year later "Anthony Uto's Japanese Barber Shop" was no longer in business. ["Japanese"? I think you're misreading the sign. - Dave] It Comes Full CircleI was wetting my pants in 1940 and here we are back in the same mode, its deja vu all over again. Brockton EnterpriseThe Enterprise of Brockton is still there: http://www.enterprisenews.com/ And it still resides at 60 Main Street in Brockton. And W.B. Mason (2nd Floor) is still going strong as well. R.I.P. Billy HillBilly Hill, Boston native, wrote a number of popular songs including The Last Round-Up, Wagon Wheels, Empty Saddles, In the Chapel in the Moonlight, The Glory of Love. At the age of seventeen he went out West and spent the next fifteen years working at various jobs including dishwasher in several roadhouses, cowpuncher in Montana, payroll clerk at a mining camp in Death Valley, and band leader at a Chinese restaurant in Salt Lake City. Sadly, Billy "lost his battle with alcohol" on Dec. 24, 1940. You can learn more at www.americanmusicpreservation.com Staying connected to your world.Wow! I wish we had a place to go today to read news headlines. Enterprise Barber Shop?Is that what is says? Although, when I saw the "Empire of the Sun" sign, my first thought was "Japanese" as well. School Board,not schoolbooks. The past is prologueInteresting how the formatting of newspaper pages on the window presages the formatting of information on the screen of my iPod Touch. Quake?There was an earthquake? Indeed, two? In Massachusetts? Many years back I read that there is a fault line running under Manhattan. I suppose this may be connected. EarthquakeThe USGS website confirms the headlines in the window. A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck the Lake Ossippee region in New Hampshire on December 20th and 24th of 1940. It reports that aftershocks were felt throughout the northeast. News FlashToday this would be replaced with the news "zipper" like in Times Square, New York. Evergreen street tree?Is that a Doug Fur or Canadian Hemlock in the corner of the picture? It looks like there is an ornament on it, which would make sense, but it seems like an odd place for a Xmas tree that size in the middle of the sidewalk. Keeping an eyeWas everybody a private detective in those days? Hatzoff, Fedora ManAs I grow older (and balder), I find myself coveting those fedoras. Gonna go find me one, somewhere... Get Your News HereUnlike today, there were no text messages, no blogs, no CNN, only newspapers and radios. There were no all news stations but there were morning and afternoon papers. Things changed much later on and I believe we are all the better for it. FedorasGosh, I really like the look of a man with a nice hat on. I remember that growing up in the 50's and 60's, practically all men wore them. I don't know why they stopped, but they sure look elegant. SantaI like that even back then they were "tracking" Santa and that he might not finish up his route until Christmas morning! Men Without HatsThe style changed, I believe, with John F. Kennedy, who was the first U.S. President to regularly go hatless. This encouraged a lot of other young men of his generation to follow suit (but not hat). Then there was the disastrous collapse of the once-mighty Japanese-American barbershop industry, which has yet to be fully documented. Not by me, though. Still, the familiar Kabuki barber in his garish makeup and flowing silk costume used to be a fixture in American cities from coast to coast, like Howard Johnson's restaurants and motels. For some reason or other, they never made a comeback after 1945. Maybe it was because, as my WWII veteran Grandpa used to say, "I'll never, ever trust one of those little guys with a razor again!" Since the average customer wasn't getting shaved bald any more (except for the traditional Samauri topknot, on request), the hat was no longer needed. [Disclaimer: If you don't think that real history is entertaining enough, you can always make up your own]. Marciano and HaglerBrockton is indeed home to boxing great Rocky Marciano. It is also home to another boxing great, Marvelous Marvin Hagler! Window vs. Web LogsBrockton, Mass. Who knew it was the birthplace of blogging? This is also a very early use of Windows Media. The Brockton BomberWasn't Rocky Marciano from Brockton? Eaton CuttersSomething about Eaton sounded familiar. The Eaton Cutters post for the army shoe workers is a reference to the Charles A. Eaton Shoe Company founded 1876 in Brockton, eventually adding their golf shoes to its line. In 1976, the company changed its name to Etonic. Read all about itAs a newspaper editor, this photo is evocative of a time when people truly treasured their daily or weekly newspaper, read it religiously, wrote letters to the editor, subscribed for generations, and hungered for important news as it was packaged in those days--on paper. Sure, they listened to H.P. Kaltenborn, but they still read all about it. Just a year later, when I was a month old, the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor, leaving our generation to question why anyone in 1940 used a rising sun motif for their outdoor advertising! Nowadays, our industry is on the ropes, but I'm glad to see that the Brockton Enterprise is still going strong, right where it started. For how long, though? Reading is becoming a lost art, alas. Re: As a newspaper editorRe: As a newspaper editor, this photo is That's saying this photo is a newspaper editor. I thought it was reporters who fell into the trap of the dangling modifier, and the editors were the ones who pulled them out! Oops, ya got me!Anonymous Tipster is so right. Those dangling modifiers are pernicious. What is missing are the words "I find" from my original draft, inserted just after "editor," and just before "this." Good catch! I know who caused the earthquake!My dad, who would have been 14 at the time of this picture, grew up in Manchester, NH, and told me this story several times: One day he and his younger brother were in their upstairs bedroom doing nothing in particular while their mother was in the kitchen. Suddenly the dishes rattled and the cupboard doors shook. Mom marched to the foot of the stairs and shouted, "YOU BOYS CUT THAT OUT!" They looked at each other, then replied, "We weren't doing anything." (They were fond of fighting and wrestling, so Mom had every reason to blame them.) "You rattled the dishes down here!" "It wasn't us, honest. It must have been an earthquake," they countered. Well, that was ridiculous because earthquakes just don't happen in New England. However, when the next day's paper reported an earthquake, they all had a good laugh, and Mom was reassured that her boys weren't lying. The EnterpriseThe Enterprise is no longer at 60 Main Street in downtown Brockton. Delano's photo shows where the old Enterprise offices were, where the city of Brockton water/sewer offices currently reside, I believe. 60 Main is to the right, on the other corner. The building has been sold to a developer and the presses were dismantled and removed in 2008. In October 2008, part of the newsroom operation moved to a nondescript office on the city limits. Flying SantaThe "flying Santa Claus" referred to was Edward Rowe Snow, a local historian who every year, with the help of the Coast Guard, delivered Christmas packages to lighthouse keepers and their families. You can find more about him here. Grandfather Uto's barbershopThis was not a Japanese barbershop. My grandfather Anthony Uto came to this country from Italy in 1899 and opened his shop under the Enterprise building in the early 1900s. Until his retirement in the late 1960s, that was his shop. (The Gallery, Brockton, Jack Delano)
Merry Dickey Christmas: 1912
"Dickey Christmas tree." From around 1912 comes our sixth holiday greeting from the ... so the exposure time was an eye-blink. -Dave] Christmas Decorations Amazing how little they have changed. The one to the ... chartered in D.C. but meets in Maryland. (The Gallery, Christmas, D.C., Natl Photo, The Dickeys) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/10/2012 - 12:39pm -

"Dickey Christmas tree." From around 1912 comes our sixth holiday greeting from the family of Washington, D.C., lawyer Raymond Dickey in what has become a Shorpy holiday tradition. National Photo glass negative. View full size. PennantsInteresting display of pennants, and not collegiate ones. One seems to say "Germantown" so I'm guessing localities sold these as souvenirs. Wondering if these were a common thing to collect back then. [The one on the right bears the name of Kallipolis Grotto No. 15, the lodge of a Masonic fraternal order. - Dave] Whatever You DoDon't confuse the Dickeys with the Denbys. Pennant raceI believe the pennant reads "Georgetown" and the one on the left reads "Ocean City" (most likely Maryland). They look happy hereMuch happier than they do in the later photos. Wonder what happened between 1912 and 1914 to turn things sour. That TreeJust big enough to be a tad too tall ---- perfect! Senior DickThis is now the earliest of the six photos that extends from 1912 to 1923 in a sequence that is decidedly grim. It really is one of the saddest Shorpy experiences I've come across. Over the years, the mother becomes increasingly unhappy and insane, the children look more and more beaten down, and we Shorpy witnesses find solace in the tree and ornaments. I have no proof whatsoever, but I put the blame for this family misery wholly on the father. He with the cigar and the pocket flask has sucked the joy out of his home and stubbed out the merriness of the season in the lives of his wife and children. [You'd think that after 10 years they (and National Photo) would have gotten the hang of it, but evidently not. Or maybe we are just seeing the outtakes. I look at these people, and the boy on the right, and think of James Thurber. -Dave] CheeksThat little boy has such huge cheeks. They look swollen, almost like he had the mumps? Or bad adenoids. I do enjoy seeing pics of this family, even though they never look too happy (I realize the exposure times, and people were more serious in pics back then, usually). [These are all flash pictures, so the exposure time was an eye-blink. -Dave] Christmas DecorationsAmazing how little they have changed. The one to the left of Mr. Dickey's head is identical to ones I have. It's OKCut a hole in the ceiling and be done with it. ShoesSomeone buy that baby some new shoes! Naughty or Nice? Hard to know...If you judged my own father's large family from the grim series of photographs spanning 100 years from about 1880, now in a trunk in my home, you might also think "Chekhov, Addams, and a dash of Dickens" (but truth is closer to Tennessee Williams or Erskine Caldwell), but my memory of those same people grimly photographed in gritty black and white in large gatherings over the years is consistently non-stop storytelling, laughter, and music. So I don't really think it's fair to assume "family misery" from the series of family photographs we have here, much less blame Pa Dickey's cigars or flask. I think it's simply that no one had come up with "Smile for the birdy" till somewhere around 1965. Aside from that, it amazes me how consistent they were in getting trees that were just barely too tall. My sister and I often enough laugh about our grim photographs wondering where Ma Barker and her boys have buried the bodies, but only because it seems remarkable such a happy and loving bunch could make so many decades of criminally grim photographs. The GrottoI belong to Kallipolis Grotto. It is chartered in D.C. but meets in Maryland. (The Gallery, Christmas, D.C., Natl Photo, The Dickeys)
1950s Record Store
... later. But, lots of fun nonetheless. Given that the Christmas records are on display, I guess we can assume it's late in the year. ... the text. Doris Day did Tea for Two in 1950. Bing Crosby's Christmas album was from 1949. Couldn't find a manufacturer's name on the ... 
 
Posted by John.Debold - 06/25/2008 - 2:05pm -

Interior of the Holiday Shop record and camera store at the Roeland Park Shopping Center in Roeland Park, Kansas. View full size. [A fascinating member-submitted photo. Just the thing for a Saturday night. Like a number of the commenters below, I would place the date here around 1950-51. - Dave] Records?Records? What's a "record"? 1950s Record StoreA great photo. I would date it at 1950. On the right are a dozen or so 10-inch Columbia LP's released that year, then re-released around 1955 as 12-inch discs. The Record StoreThis is a great photo...seems to be from a pretty-good-sized negative, given the detail coming across on the scan. I would concur with "Anonymous Tipster" that it's a bit earlier than 1955. She/he is correct about the datings for the 10-inch LPs on the right. Plus, the Columbia 33 rpm LP was a brand-new technology in 1948, and so the stuff at the left of the photo to play the "new LPs" wouldn't have been any big deal in by 1955. But then, I was surprised that there was any sort of consumer reel-to-reel on the market just then (left of photo; $109 = serious money); I would have expected that a few years later. But, lots of fun nonetheless. Given that the Christmas records are on display, I guess we can assume it's late in the year. [This was scanned from a print. Below, a newspaper ad from October 1950 for the Ampro-Tape recorder shown in the photo, at the same price. - Dave] LPsLooked up a couple of albums from the rack. Went by the cover design since I couldn't make out very much of the text. Doris Day did Tea for Two in 1950. Bing Crosby's Christmas album was from 1949. Couldn't find a manufacturer's name on the tape deck. Looks like it went for 109 and change. Checked a dollar inflation conversion table, and that 109 circa 1950 would be 938 in current dollars. [The manufacturer, whose name can be seen upside down in the lid, is Ampro. - Dave] No. 1 on my hit paradeWhat a fantastic image! This store is so cool and serene; it's hard to believe record stores would change so much over the next twenty years. I have so many questions about this photo. Where was it taken? Can anybody identify the children's record player in the display case on the left? What's the story behind the photos displayed high on the wall? (They don't seem to have anything to do with musicians or records.) I'm adding this photo to my list of Shorpy all-time favorites. [That's a Frank Luther record player. Frank was a country singer who also did kiddie songs. Check out John's other photos. I especially like Lunch on the Pennsy. - Dave] Edith PiafI can't add anything definitive since I don't know which Edith Piaf album that is on the rack, but the little inset photo on the album cover is the famous Piaf photo taken in 1948. That seems to jibe with the assumed 1950 date. Photo At Upper LeftGreat pic not just for the record collectors but audio hobbyists like me. But what is that thing in the photo at upper left? I've zoomed in it and I still am not sure what to make of it. Frank Luther and 10-in. LPsWow! A great nostalgia photo! The first records I ever "owned" when I was a tiny lad were very small 78rpm items that featured Frank Luther singing children's songs. One nonsense ditty that sticks out in my mind began "A frog he would a-courting go, 'Hi-Ho' says Toady; The cat, the rat and little froggy, with a roly-poly gammon and spinach, 'Hi-Ho' says Anthony Toady." As for those 10-inch 33-1/3 RPM Columbia records...I had almost forgotten that such things existed. I had quite a few, mostly featuring the Boston Pops orchestra. [There were also 7-inch 33-1/3 discs, as we can see on the left. - Dave] AllmusicLooking at the Hal McIntyre and Harry James records on the top row, I'd say 1950. The first band only released two albums, the second being "Dance Date" in 1950. Harry James cranked out a bunch, but I find one in 1950 called "Your Dance Date" which can be decoded from what I see in the picture. Both were released on Columbia, BTW. The pictures at the top intrigue me as well. Part of me suspects that they are from old calendars. [The pictures along the top are examples of photo studio work. Meaning this could have been a record-camera store. - Dave] Edith PiafI'm not surprised in seeing the Doris Day and Bing Crosby records on the wall on the right, but I am a little shocked that Edith Piaf features on that wall. Though she was massively popular in France and in French Canada in the 50's, I had no idea she was known in the USA... let alone be popular enough to be displayed in a prominent spot like that. Can we see a close-up of the other records to see the other artists? Der BingleThe Shorpy sleuths seem to be correct [again] as to the vintage of the photo -- in our basement stash of records is the album "Christmas Greetings" on the Decca label from 1949 -- Bing Crosby with the Andrew Sisters, a 3 record set. If this were late 1949, the shoppers as dressed here would seemingly be from a Southern state. For what it's worth, in my small hometown in 1952, I was the first to buy a reel to reel tape recorder, a RCA model similar to the Ampro shown for about $125 if I remember correctly, and still it have in A1 shape. A friend of the mine had an Ampro wire recorder. Time TravelAmazing. Photos like this make me wish time travel was a reality. I would love to insert myself into this scene and go wandering around that bright and shiny place. But for now, photos like this one are a pretty good substitute. Don't suppose anyone knows the name and/or location of this particular shop? I wonder how long it remained a record store? Was it there when Elvis hit the scene a few years later? The Beatles? U2? Excellent photo and thank you for sharing it! Or is it Memorex?Despite my husband's insistence, I must say, this photograph, well, the photo itself is lovely; too lovely. Something about it doesn't set right with me. I am not sure if it is the fit of the dungarees of the guy on the right, the girl's shoes, the fact that the kid's victrola is locked in the showcase yet the expensive reel to reel sits right out in the open. or maybe it is the streamlined look of the counter and wall, or the way the high up pictures are displayed, and their subject matter. Could one have gotten by us? [No. Page through a 1950 House Beautiful or the LOC's Gottscho-Schleiser archive. This is that, on the nose. Below: 1951 music store, 1957 record department, 1951 radio showroom. The tape recorder is where it is so it can be demonstrated to customers. UPDATE: This is the Holiday Shop record and camera store at the Roeland Park Shopping Center in Roeland Park, Kansas. - Dave] Another Soon!I'll put up another record store photo soon. I'm a little busy right now so hopefully by this coming Wednesday. Thanks for the nice comments and information. The next one has Frank Sinatra! -John [We can hardly wait! And you know what would be great, if possible, is a higher-resolution scan of the record-store photo, and whatever you can tell us about it. What might be written on the back, for example. It has caused quite a stir. - Dave] Newfangled SinglesOn the right of the counter, that revolving rack of Capitol singles in boxes really takes me back. This was when 7-inch microgroove (long-playing) records were new and different. They did that for just a few years before going to paper sleeves. Edith PiafThe Piaf discography includes dozens of releases on American labels in the 1950s. [Below on the left, "Chansons Parisiennes" from 1949, an early Columbia Microgroove (LP) release. At right is the one in the photo -- "Edith Piaf Sings," Columbia ML-2603, a 1951 release. - Dave] 7-inch discsThose boxes on the revolving Capitol rack, as well as on the right side of two shelves behind the counter, do indeed contain 7" 45rpm discs, but they're albums, not "singles." Eventually the 45rpm format came to be used exclusively for singles, but initially it was also used for complete multi-disc albums, duplicating the contents of a standard 78rpm album. This was when the RCA/Columbia format war was still underway. 45rpm singles were always issued in paper sleeves, just like their 78rpm counterparts. The thin items on the left side of the two shelves behind the counter are 78 singles. You see a small section of 7" singles on the shelf behind the hand of the customer on the left. Counter KidsWhat exactly are the people at the counter doing? Did you have to pick out the record you wanted from a list or something, and the clerk would retrieve it? [Or she would order it for you. - Dave] Record Store UpdateThis is the Holiday Shop record and camera store at the Roeland Park Shopping Center in Roeland Park, Kansas. Harry JamesHi there. Nice picture! I happen to own a copy of the Harry James 10" depicted in the photograph: "Your Dance Date With Harry James" (Columbia CL 6138). It's dated 1950, so my guess would be 1950 too. Love your site. The Record ShopHere is a nice pic of the local record store circa 1954, named fittingly, The Record Shop. It closed sometime in the 1970's. They also sold audio gear and had a service center in the basement, which the service center remains. One of the original repair techs took over the service center and he's still there servicing. Frank Luther Record PlayerThis Billboard Magazine from December 9, 1950 has an ad for the player on Page 15 (upper right): Browsing BoxesThe "browser boxes" seen below in the "Record Shop" comment were created by Capitol Records' Fred Rice. His team brought the records in music and department stores out from behind the counter to self-service displays that let the customer leaf through the albums and see the covers. Counter-service stores would normally place them with the spines facing out as shown in the main photo above. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Stores & Markets)
Deck the Halls: 1959
"Janet, Christmas 1959." We return to the Baltimore home of Kermy and his sister , who has the look of a kid who just got ... clothes for Christmas . 35mm Kodachrome slide. View full size. I spy Pretty ... (maybe Kermy?) got The Big Bag of foreign Stamps for Christmas. From eBay: The big bags of stamps I remember those being ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/25/2015 - 8:18pm -

"Janet, Christmas 1959." We return to the Baltimore home of Kermy and his sister, who has the look of a kid who just got ... clothes for Christmas. 35mm Kodachrome slide. View full size. I spyPretty sure I see a GINNY Doll upside down on that pink box! I LOVED them & had about 10! All named Debbie, silly me. Happy New Year all! Stamp collectingSomeone (maybe Kermy?) got The Big Bag of foreign Stamps for Christmas. From eBay: The big bags of stampsI remember those being in every five-and-dime store as a kid. The bright orange bag was quite an attention getter but I never knew anyone who actually wanted one of them, let alone bought one. Memories of a 50's ChristmasAside from the stiff, uncomfortable dress, of which I had many, 2 things caught my eye - the Big Bag of Foreign Stamps, which would have kept me busy for hours, and the mirror over the fireplace, which is stenciled with Glass Wax stencils. Not long ago I found an unused set at an estate sale. Clothes For ChristmasParental rule: Never give clothes as Christmas presents. Clothing is a natural requirement for kids during the year as they outgrow or wear out. Now if it was some special piece of clothing they hinted they wanted, okay. Just MHO. Good Morning, Sister!Lengthen that skirt about four inches and this little lady is good to go at Our Lady of Perpetual Travail Junior High. Love those frecklesbut she probably hated them! WOW the memories in this imageI too started stamp collecting with one or more of those orange bags of stamps. And the previously mentioned Glass Wax stencils were used at Christmas too. The Tall Mystery Box with the TreesIt's probably for Dad. Could be Dewar's White Label or Johnnie Walker Red, but my money is on Windsor Canadian. Another Kit for KermyLooks like brother Kermy got a Strombecker Maserati 250F Grand Prix car model. (Christmas, Kermy Kodachromes, Kids)
Hi-Fi Boombox: 1954
... Mrs. Audiophile has just been surprised with this exciting Christmas present from Hubby and he refuses to hook it up until he gets outside ... on her face is actually a grimace of pain from cooking Christmas Dinner in those high-heeled pumps. Missing She may be wearing ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/20/2019 - 2:09pm -

December 1954. "A novel idea for the audiophile who likes his music wherever he is. A household teacart can be used as a mobile carrier for any combination of audio gear." View full size. Ektachrome by Ken Schmid Studio. Components: Regency HF-150 high fidelity amplifier, Webcor "Diskchanger," Jensen "Duette" reproducer. More from the original press release from Regency Inc.: "Most homemakers are used to wheeling their cleaning equipment with them from room to room -- why not do the same for the entertainment unit that helps to lighten her tasks as much as her vacuum cleaner or her floor waxer? Pictured are the essential ingredients for a simple portable hi-fi system that can be moved from room to room with ease. The idea is of interest to the audio dealer as an unusual and salable merchandising gimmick and to the audiophile as a convenient method of mounting standard components to provide portability to his hi-fi system. Before our eagle-eyed reader-technicians swamp us with letters pointing out the missing interconnections, may we say that Mrs. Audiophile has just been surprised with this exciting Christmas present from Hubby and he refuses to hook it up until he gets outside of his turkey dinner." Is that how The MashedIs that how The Mashed Potato started (the dance)? Not Harsh Anyone's Buzz...... But where the hell is that thing plugged in? ["Does anyone read the captions??" - Dave] That's no Ipod.Oops, I spilled mashed potatoes on the record player... The lady even hasa dishwasher, formica counter tops, and aspic/jello molds galore - a regular '50s time capsule. But the turkey looks rather pathetic. Or is it a shank of ham? Is that a tube amp?There's a kind of renaissance for those amps but to connect them to the newer stuff.. iPod Hi-FiSeparated at birth? http://www.apple.com/ipodhifi/ The color?Is that really Ektachrome? It almost looks like a colorized B&W print. [It's a scan of a four-color litho made from an Ektachrome transparency. - Dave] She looks a bit manic, eh?"If I have to listen to Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians sing Silver Bells one more time, I am going to drop the Roast Beast on that f---ing turntable!" Thank youYour Fred Waring reference just made my day a little bit happier. Thank you! Nice PicWhat do you figure the copyright info is for this image? Jensen DuetteThe speaker is a Jensen Duette http://www.hifilit.com/hifilit/Jensen/1955-4.jpg Don't know what the amp is, might be a Dukane [Or could it be a Regency HF-150? Since that's what the caption says. Dave] FeedbackPretty big speaker, considering you can't play that unit loudly. The vibrations would go straight up the cart and down the needle... FEEDBACK CITY! Us older folks know to keep the speaker(s) isolated from the turntable. [It does look kind of precarious. Although when I was a kid my dad had the R channel speaker (Acoustic Research AR-3) in a cabinet on a shelf six inches above the turntable (Empire Troubadour) and there was never a problem with feedback. Served him well from 1961 until about 10 years ago. - Dave] Hi-FiI know a person that has one of those Jensen speakers...had it hooked up to his TV for years. That is a Regency amplifier. Regency electronics are perhaps better known for their police scanner type radios. Early on, they were in the hi-fi business to some extent, with mostly west-coast distribution. The turntable is spring-mounted to the turntable base, thus isolating it somewhat from vibration, and the heavy weight of the period tone-arm and cartridge, probably around 10 grams or more would pretty much eliminate the possibility of the record skipping a groove. In any case, that speaker system was rather "modest" in bass output. Kitchen IntruderOh my, how did you get into my upstairs kitchen? The cabinets, jello molds, floor tiles and most of the appliances are the same. Now I feel so old!!! Now I know when it was last updated. This is a great site. Manic or...I think that manic look on her face is actually a grimace of pain from cooking Christmas Dinner in those high-heeled pumps. MissingShe may be wearing high heel pumps but you'll notice that she's not missing the ultimate home maker accessory, the June Cleaver model string of pearls. Maybe her husband spent the pearl money on that contraption. ToobsI have 3 of those amps, just revived one last week. Regency made some decent products. This ad will look very cool with all the old tube gear! Love that countertopWhat I wouldn't give for that turquoise Formica countertop with stainless trim! (Technology, The Gallery, Christmas, Kitchens etc., Music)
Motoress: 1921
... Santa I'd like that huge and well crafted model car for Christmas. The American Guide K2, I have a copy of that book, too. I ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/24/2012 - 9:48pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1921. "Woodward & Lothrop window." Department store display with a motoring theme. National Photo glass negative. View full size. Sporty Knicker SuitThe mannequin is wearing a woman's wool knicker suit, with matching plaid fabric on the pocket facings as on the short pants. The tight button or buckle fastener band just below the knees identify the knickers. Vaguely scandalous knicker suits for women came in with bicycling in the 1890s, and remained fashionable as outdoor sports attire through the end of the 1920s. The arrow clocks on her stockings (which may be decorated seams) and her two-tone shoes indicate sports activities also, perhaps golf, or just hacking about the countryside on what was then still called a pic-nic. FirstsApparently the Woodward & Lothrop stores were the first major retailers to sell chemistry kits (Chemcraft) to the public, as well as the first store to introduce Play-Doh in the 50s. Still doesn't make this yawn of a window display any more exciting though... ProsceniumWhen I first looked at this, I thought it was a stage. Great dressing, and great lighting, highlighting the shape of the proscenium arch. Touring BookThe book on the floor with "Kelly Tires" on the spine is an "Automobile Blue Book" - a highway touring guide that listed point by point travel instructions for regional travel. ABB changed formats in the late 1920's, changing from the almanac style shown here to a wider book format in the late 1920's. I have not seen any publications from them in the 1930's. The directions were more detailed than modern triptiks or the directions you get from online mapping services. In older areas, you can still find the landmarks these guides referenced. The map on the wall is AAA. No highway numbers were used in this area at the time, any numbers you could make out are mileages. The turnpikes and interstates are decades away, but the roads that would make up the US highway system five years later can be seen. A Short TripTrip's off. I don't see how she's going to get in that car. Still touringI have a similar book -- "The American Guide," published by Hastings House and dated 1949. Think I picked it up from the throwaway pile at my local library! 1270 pages of directions, followed by bibliography and index for a total of 1348 pages, all without benefit of advertising support. Take that, AAA! Heaven's AboveThe stockings with the up-pointing arrows reminds me of an old joke Groucho Marx told about a girl he once knew: "She was very religious. She wore an ankle bracelet that said "Heaven's Above." Dear SantaI'd like that huge and well crafted model car for Christmas. The American GuideK2, I have a copy of that book, too. I can only imagine that it had to be read aloud by a passenger while the driver tried to follow the directions. It's much easier to follow the gal's sock arrows. (Oh, and her shoes look like a marriage of saddle shoes and spectator shoes that produced ugly kids.) Map on the wallThe Baltimore-Washington map is interesting. It's big enough to see that there were far fewer roads in 1921. I wonder how many were still unpaved. Ho, Ho, HosieryThose stockings on Miss Mannequin are highly suggestive. To what are the arrows pointing? A little racy?I liked the upward pointing arrows on the mannequin's stockings. Reminds me of some of the less than subtle lingerie I have seen advertised but the shoes might be a mood killer. Eye-openingWell, this might be yawn inducing for A. Tipster, but that model car made my eyes fall out of my head. Is it too late to get a letter to Santa? Spiffy socks!!I love the socks on that dummy! Skiddoo!I like the arrowhead clocks on those stockings. Very spiffy. She's gone all out in packing her picnic for two -- salad AND entree forks, two spoons, two knives, three spreaders, and enough wine to guarantee post-prandial petting in the back seat and a nap. Cigarette?What is she holding in her right hand? [A glove. - Dave] Stunning Model!The car, I mean. I have been trying to gauge just how large it is - surely at least four feet, perhaps more. A model that size, detail and workmanship had to be an expensive item, not the sort of thing you might expect for the typical window shopping display. Not a toy. I would be amazed if it hasn't survived to grace someone's private or museum collection. Sock ArrowsMaybe they were to remind you how to put them on. This end up. A hole in oneI believe those arrowed beauties are part of period golfing attire. That said, they best belong on that mannequin. Or on a hussy, advertising her wares. 1921 Blue BookThe 1921 Automobile Blue Book cost $4 in 1921, and came with advertising. It is very similar to today's AAA regional guides: Locational advertising for placves like Poland Spring, Maine, The Balsams at Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, The Belleview in Bellair Heights, Florida... "National Touring Objectives" Local garages are listed throughout the guide, as well as hotels (American or European Plan) Fireproof was a big selling point. There were also ads for tires and other auto accessories. Inset maps for 1921 as usually still accurate today, very few places have totally destroyed the old downtown street grid. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Natl Photo, Stores & Markets)
Old-School Tree: 1962
... trees can't hold a candle to a classic, heirloom festooned Christmas tree. Great photo! P.S. I enjoy your family photos a great deal. Keep them coming. No more Christmas trees? It's nice to see a real Christmas tree after looking for ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 12/07/2018 - 3:52pm -

        Meanwhile, seven years later ...         This Kodachrome, originally posted here in 2011, can be seen in the December 2018 Canadian edition of Reader's Digest, illustrating the story "Andrea's Gift" in a two-page spread starting on Page 96. They spotted it here on Shorpy and I licensed it to them. Old-school and old-old-school decorations on our traditional old-school tree. We always called these Scotch firs, but it looks more like the Noble firs I've seen online. We liked them because they had plenty of open space to let the ornaments show unhindered. The oldest one is the frosted pine cone face toward the bottom; it still has some wax blobs from early 20th Century tree candles on it. The hot-air balloon was always one of my favorites. The blue one at the center top is from our "new" c.1960 set. The plastic church was glitter-enhanced by me personally. A couple years later, all the 1940s-era light strings sacrificed their lives to illuminate my castle diorama in the basement. You can see me reflected in the ornament at lower left, along with the bright spot on the ceiling from the bounce flash I used to light this Kodachrome. View full size. ReflectionsI wonder if we'd see any details of the room in which the tree stood if we look real close at some of the ornaments. WhyWhy are we being treated to 50 year old family snapshots lately? You can certainly put whatever you want on your own website but I have boxes of similar photos in the basement. There's nothing about these that stand out. [New here, aren't you? - Dave] Pretty much as I recallLovely! We had many of the same ornaments, and always had the same kind of Noble fir, which my father called a "Burn Barn Tree," for reasons that became obvious as the tree dried. A few of our old ornaments have survived, but the gas balloon is long gone. Alas. Memories Of Old OrnamentsNice. Thanks tt. Did you have any old strings of lights that were in series circuits, so that all would go out if one bulb failed? You can almost hear Bing in the backgroundReally nice depth of field in this shot. And I always love when the photographer is captured indirectly -- reminds me of the Dutch paintings where the artist would include himself in a mirror behind the subject. This would be a great holiday-themed desktop background! ClassicI have to say that this tree looks very similar to my tree this very year. We still use many of the classic ornaments handed down from our families and lots of handmade decorations produced by our children. Today's glossy designer trees can't hold a candle to a classic, heirloom festooned Christmas tree. Great photo! P.S. I enjoy your family photos a great deal. Keep them coming. No more Christmas trees?It's nice to see a real Christmas tree after looking for them this past few decades and seeing so few. Mostly offered these days are "Christmas bushes" which have been heavily sheared during their life of growing then put into a giant Christmas tree sharpener to make them as uniform as possible. Is a tree that is so dense that you can't see through it what people want today? How do you hang ornaments on the bush? I guess you just push them a little ways into the thick foliage and that will do. Certainly one can't hang tinsel on a Christmas Bush. Thanks for your photo of the kind of tree that I remember and love. Ha!Copernicus, just drift along with us as we enjoy the ride. We'd like to see some of your photos too, really we would. They help us all think back on better times and better days. Asking "Why?"If you have to ask why . . . then you have no appreciation of holiday spirit. It isn't found under the tree, it's in your heart. Look deeply into the gazing ball...you're getting sleepy...The fun part is looking into the reflections. The top-middle blue ball has what looks like someone sitting in a chair on the other side of the room. And is that a giant fireplace on the left side of the ball (also seen in the bottom left blue ball with photographer)? A photo that begs close inspection - thanks for offering it. familiarWe have an ornament identical to that lower left one on our tree. Lovely treeI finally made an account to say; I love the '50 year old family snapshots' as much I as I enjoy the older photos. I like seeing what the world was like not so long ago, and seeing the happy family scenes. My own family did not have such warm and wonderful memories, and I enjoy seeing the scenes from happier families. What a crimeNO bubble lights!!! Beautiful tree! Keep the photos coming, tterrace. Complainers need not visit this site if it offends them. Merry Christmas! Bubble lightsBy this time, all our old-style bubble lights had failed. I loved them, but they were a chancy proposition even when they were (mostly) working. Eventually we got a newer set, but they were about a third the size of the old ones, and just weren't the same at all. To Bull City Boy: early on in my time we still had a string of in-series lights. The only similar thing by the time this shot was taken was the lighted tree base, and each year it was a challenge locating the two or more bulbs that always seemed to have mysteriously failed in storage. In answer to Dutch, the thing that sort of looks like a giant fireplace reflected in the bottom left ball is actually the archway between the living room and dining room. 1950s Bubble LightsIn the early 1950s I became enamored of the Bubble Light display in a local store. After much pestering by me my parents finally got a set. Their use was very short-lived, as when we had to relocate to the UK in early 1952 there was something forbidding the shipment of any fragile glass articles with fluids in them. The store in Soap Lake, WA may have gotten them back to resell to another lucky family. tterrace, THANKS for the memoriesAs much as I like the old photos that show what life was like in my parents' time (born 1897 and 1910), I also like to see the photos from the '40s, through the 80s that I can relate too from my own life. KEEP 'EM COMING tterrace, THANKS for the memories. I am about two years older than you are and I see a lot of similarity in your family photos with my lifetime. Your photos of your mother working in the kitchen bring back a lot of pleasant memories for me. InterestingIt's interesting to me how many different styles of decorating Christmas trees there are, in every era. My family tree in Sacramento in that same year of 1962 consisted of the nightlight-sized bulbs: red, green blue, yellow, and purple. Ornaments were one-color plain, in two sizes: metallic gold, silver, green and red. Some "icicles" draped over the branches but not suffocated like they were a decade earlier. Just like the ones I used to know...Lovely photo. We still use noble fir for all those thinned out reasons. And C-7 lights too! Sadly, they aren't old enough to have cloth covered insulation on the wiring. I am still using the early bubble lightsI wire them in strings of 16 bulbs, instead of the original 8 bulbs. They burn half as bright, but are still more than bright enough, they don't get as hot, and most of them still bubble. I have 160 lights on my 7 1/2 foot artificial tree, and about 93 of them are bubble lights. I've been using these for the past 40 years and have never burned out a light. Every once in a while a socket will fall apart, but I have lots of spare light strings for parts. You can still purchase the bulbs for these lights on eBay, and sometimes you can get replacement plastic parts for them. I rebuilt about 40 lights a few years ago. The fluid in the bubble part is methylene chloride, and is very toxic. Fortunately I have not broken many of them. Thanks for the great pictures. MemoriesThis is one of my favourite seasonal images. I saw it on here when it was originally posted in 2011 and I use it every year as my computer desktop picture. Why I Visit ShorpyToday's three images are a great example of why I keep coming back to this site. The wonderful image of Union Station in Toronto, the time capsule image of the Miami Beach living room from the early '40s (despite the unfortunate "joints" comment), and this wonderful personal image. Born in 1956, a Christmas tree like this reminds me of when Christmas was such a magical time for me as a child. We also had family heirloom ornaments from when my parents got married in the early 1940s, and I remember the annual tradition of tracking down the burned-out bulb in strings of series lights. The one difference I see is that my parents used bright-plated metal reflectors under each bulb for most of their lives. Thank you! Only needs tinsel -- a thing of the pastThis looks just like the tree I set up yesterday. I like tinsel and was shocked to find out that tinsel is a thing of the past. Years ago I loaded up on tinsel (3 for $1 after Christmas) and haven't needed any since. I also reuse tinsel-a habit I picked up from my thrifty Irish Grandmother. Laugh if you want but that learned thriftiness has served me very well financially. Yesterday I went looking for tinsel and was quite surprised that it is really hard to find but find it I did. I have 25 packages coming from a hardware store in Missouri, at a reasonable price. Sellers on Amazon want upwards of $8 a box. That order ought to last me until I die. Merry Christmas all. Colorful lightsI'm wondering how many people still use the larger colored lights seen here as opposed to white miniatures. I grew up with the colored lights, and can't imagine having a tree without them. I am also using the larger lights on my second treeIn addition to the bubble lights on my 7 1/2 foot tree, I have a 6 foot artificial tree using the larger bulbs. Some of the strings are the ones used on my parents' trees when I was a kid. I recently found a stash of brand new "Sugar Plum" bulbs, which are almost 2 inches in diameter and covered in plastic "sugar". They come in various colours and are beautiful. The normal bulbs, especially the blue painted ones, get extremely HOT when run on full voltage. Two weeks ago I installed a light dimmer switch on an extension cord, and now I can regulate the brightness to my liking. My 3 foot tree has LED lights,which use very little power, but they are certainly not as nice as the old style lights of which I have some very fond memories. Merry Christmas to all. Terrific AssortmentI really enjoy the memories triggered by this photo. It reminds me of my dad's Christmas tree, which he still puts up by himself at the tender age of 92! He even has a few ornaments that his mother and father bought for each other for their first Christmas together--in 1923! His tree looks very similar to this one, and he can tell you the story behind each ornament. I love the stories. In fact, I'm pretty sure he has ones much like the ornaments in the upper left and bottom right corners. Thanks for sharing! (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Christmas, tterrapix)
Merry Christmas: 1913
... we first posted this. New York, December 1913. "Christmas tree, Madison Square." 8x10 glass negative, G.G. Bain Collection. View full size. Happy holidays from Shorpy! Merry Christmas Wishing all friends and followers of Shorpy a very merry Christmas ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/24/2013 - 11:47pm -

        One hundred years ago -- yet it seems like just yesterday that we first posted this. New York, December 1913. "Christmas tree, Madison Square." 8x10 glass negative, G.G. Bain Collection. View full size. Happy holidays from Shorpy! Merry ChristmasWishing all friends and followers of Shorpy a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. Edmund 100 Years Later And 11 Blocks NorthAt 34th Street and 5th Avenue, the Empire State Building, illuminated by the new LED lighting system, shows off it's Christmas colors. We are also being treated to several Light Shows. Where it all began.Madison Park was the first place in New York City to put up a public Christmas Tree. Great tradition that has spread to pretty much all of the Parks here in Manhattan. Toy CenterWe're looking to the west in this picture. The building in the background is 200 Fifth Avenue, completed just a few years earlier, which is called the "Toy Center" because for decades it was mainly occupied by toy manufacturers and wholesalers. Today it has a more varied tenant mix, though it still hosts a major annual trade show for the toy industry. The Flatiron Building, a favorite on this site, is just out of view on the left. Just behind the photographer would be the Metropolitan Life Tower, which had just become the second-tallest building in the world. It had been the tallest from 1909 until the completion of the Woolworth Building earlier in 1913. An' a Guid New Year!Seasonal Felicitations to all Shorpologists on both sides of the Atlantic! From Andrew in Central Scotland. 1913 ColorWhat color process was used for this - Autochrome? Or was it colorized? [Note the tag above it that says "Colorized Photos." -tterrace] (ShorpyBlog, Christmas, Colorized Photos, G.G. Bain, NYC)
A Higher Tower: 1942
... are no longer on top of the Penobscot Building. Merry Christmas Dave, I don't know how to photoshop, but you get the idea. Thanks ... much as you do. I hope you and tterrace et al. have Merry Christmas and a great 2023. Thank you Arthur Siegel For your beautifully ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/23/2022 - 12:31pm -

July 1942. "Top of Detroit City Hall dwarfed by the modern Penobscot Building in the background." Photo by Arthur Siegel for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. The Front-line Fallenmuch as in warfare, all of the buildings in the foreground are gone, all those behind them have survived (with some battle wounds). Of more interest, perhaps, this photo serves as a tutorial on the "Detroit's Highest" progression: the Hammond Building, to City Hall's left, and the Majestic, to the right, had each borne that title previously. Less than forty years separated the Hammond from the Penobscot; the latter would hold the title for fifty. [Among the background survivors are the twin towers of the Dime Savings Bank. - Dave] Eighth-tallest towerEighth-tallest building in the world when completed in 1928 (according to wikipedia). This beautiful 566-foot building has 45 above-ground floors and has Native American motifs in art deco ornamentation inside and out. As a kid driving downtown with my parents I loved seeing the Penobscot getting closer, crowned by the red-blinking tower on top. Penobscot AntennaThe Penobscot Building originally hosted AM radio station WBXWJ, owned by the Detroit News. The FCC, however, decided that FM was the future thing. So, in anticipation of the FCC's actions, the Detroit News began the process of replacing W8XWJ with an FM station. AM station W8XWJ went silent on 4/13/1941. Beginning on 5/13/1941, the new FM facility, employing W8XWJ's former Penobscot Building studios and transmitter antenna, returned to the airwaves as Michigan's first FM station, W45D. Today, WXYT-FM is owned by Audacy Inc. The transmitter and antenna are no longer on top of the Penobscot Building. Merry ChristmasDave, I don't know how to photoshop, but you get the idea. Thanks for creating such a great website. Thanks for letting me babble on it as much as you do. I hope you and tterrace et al. have Merry Christmas and a great 2023. Thank you Arthur SiegelFor your beautifully and strikingly composed and executed photograph. (The Gallery, Arthur Siegel, Detroit Photos)
Early American Christmas: 1961
... the end table a pointy black pump, so odds favor that Christmas Eve was spicy for someone! Those Rugs! I recognize those rugs. ... wrapped in a festive bow. Because nothing says "Merry Christmas" quite like a gift-wrapped carton of Kools. This is from someone ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 09/29/2011 - 7:13pm -

December 1961. Maybe people who lived in the Hollywood Hills or in the pages of Sunset Magazine dwelt in high-concept Case Study homes, but regular young marrieds of this period were more likely to have furnished their abodes from the Early American section of the Montgomery Ward catalog. Here is a classic example of its kind, down to the ubiquitous braided rugs. My nephew Jimmy, on the right, is visiting his cousin Bobby, and apparently I came along to record the event on this 127 Ektachrome. Jimmy is pulling the talk string on his Casper the Friendly Ghost, one of about a billion times he did it that year. "I'm co-o-o-o-ld." After 47 years that sound still echoes in my brain. Bobby's got himself a Mr. Machine, who didn't talk, but the TV commercial jingle still resonates. "Here he comes, here he comes, greatest toy you've ever seen, and his name is Mr. Machine!" I know that because at the age of 15 I was still watching cartoons on TV every day. In addition to the incredibly cool army truck, somebody has gotten a "Super Sonic Jetliner," whose wings were cleverly designed to deliberately detach. Someone else, presumably, has gotten the gift box of Kools up there on the end table. View full size. Previous Night's PartyI spy under the end table a pointy black pump, so odds favor that Christmas Eve was spicy for someone! Those Rugs!I recognize those rugs. My folks had a set and they lasted for a good 20 years before they started coming apart. I've no idea where my folks got them but those were well-made rugs! Early AmericanMy aunt was very proud of her "Early American" decor. My mother used to get a giggle out of it behind her back, because the kitchen curtains actually had the words "Early American" incorporated into the design of the fabric. Space-Age ColonialBeing the queen of Early American yard sales, I have a pair of the same side tables in my den, even as I type. Solid maple, no veneers, no particleboard, ahhhhhh. Mr. MachineI received a Mr. Machine for my birthday in 1963. I also took him apart and my dad had to reassemble him. I haven't taken it apart since then-- I still have it! Also, it does kind of talk. It emitted a weird, synthetic "ahhh" when the mouth opened. "He is real, he is real..."And for you he is ideal And his name is Mr. Machine! I had Casper too. "Will you be friends with me?" Happy Yule, Kool Fool!And then there were the cigarette commercials where you'd see a young couple arrive at the front door of a house while it snowed. They're bundled up for the cold weather, laughing and smiling - and under his arm he's carrying a carton of cigs, wrapped in a festive bow. Because nothing says "Merry Christmas" quite like a gift-wrapped carton of Kools. This is from someone who smoked - and loved smoking - for decades. Yay!It's so wild to hear that theme song again! And really....what a cool toy. Deja VuThat could have been taken at my house. I remember my mother making those braided rag rugs. My little brother got a Mr. Machine for Christmas. My folks smoked Winstons, however. I guess because they "taste good, like a cigarette should." Good MemoriesI had a Mr. Machine for Christmas. Took him apart and couldn't get him back together again. Deja Vu - 2!Your folks smoked Winstons, Horace T. Water; my mom smoked Salems because when she took a puff, it was springtime and my Dad smoked L&Ms because "L&M has got the filter that unlocks the flavor in a filter cigarette." Me? I ended up carrying around a pack of Kools and a pack of Lucky Strikes, alternating brands when my lungs got too raw or too frozen. Ah! the good old days! Mr. MachineI always wanted a Mr. Machine! I also remember rolling around on the same kind of woven rug. You could lose all sorts of things on the rug due to its unique camouflage of colors. No knotsLove Jimmy's bow tie. Bet it was a clip-on version. CigarettesAll of those cigarette brands are foreign to people who grew up in Canada. Kools - what are they? We (by which I mean those who smoked - in 52 years I never have) had brands like Du Maurier, Rothmans, Number 7, Players (my uncle Harry's favourite) Sportsman, and Cameo. For years in Canada when you heard "Macdonalds" you thought cigarettes because Macdonald Tobacco was one of the biggest companies around (they sponsored the national curling championships, the Macdonald Brier). Their main brand was Export A and the menthol version, Export M. To this day I can tell when someone is smoking an American cigarette - the smell of the smoke harsher and, well stinkier. Poor CasperOf all the photos I've enjoyed here, this one hits home, right down to the furniture. I too had a Casper that I loved as a child. But not so much that curiosity didn't get the better of me -- after having him a few years, I ripped him open to find out what made him talk. No microchips in those days, but a little record with "Mattel" on the label. Poor Casper, but seeing as he was a ghost I'm sure he felt no pain. Re: CigarettesThere apparently is a difference between U.S. and Canadian brands. When I visited Canada years ago, a local scolded me for lighting up one of my "stinky" American coffin-nails. He described the smell of American cigarettes as that of "burning rope." He then explained that none of the Canadian brands utilize Turkish tobacco in their blends, which most American brands do, and offered to let me sample one of his. The difference he was describing was evident. In my opinion, however, they just didn't pack the wallop that a good-old Kool did (hack, hack). The Friendly GhostFor Christmas 1962 I got a Casper doll, Which is of course long gone now. Until last Christmas, when someone very close to me found one on eBay. The tag said "Mattel 1962." I like to think this is THE one that got away. Which doesn't have much to do with the photo of course, but this picture sure did bring back fond memories of that Christmas in particular. Thanks very much for posting this. I'd almost forgotten...How every second household had that horrible red-stained "colonial" furniture during the sixties. That was what working class people actually bought, as opposed to the sophisticated "up to the minute" ultra modern extravaganzas seen elswhere on this site. And, changing the topic back to cigarettes: When I used to indulge, back in my youth, I found our Canadian smokes boring after a while. So, every time I crossed the border, I'd bring back some Camel Filters. I remember how they crackled like gunpowder while giving off that exotic Turkish tobacco smell. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Art & Design, Christmas, tterrapix)
Just What I Always Wanted: 1962
... guy (i.e., me) be so happy about getting a vase for Christmas? What I should be happy about is that it's not actually my present, ... and go back fifty years and get me one, please. My Christmas in 1962 I remember my Christmas of 1962 so well because I got a ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 12/03/2009 - 11:11pm -

So, why would a 16 year-old guy (i.e., me) be so happy about getting a vase for Christmas? What I should be happy about is that it's not actually my present, but my mother's; I'm only using it as a prop for this shot because I felt that none of my own gifts were quite as picturesque. Probably what I really wanted were ear transplants or a zitectomy. I set up my new Retinette for this bounce-flash Kodachrome and had my brother click it off. Later, I shot him pretending to be enthused upon unwrapping a box of handkerchiefs. View full size. The Burning Questionis what is the design on the other side?That little gold spot at the top is haunting me. Does a family member still have this vase? Its rich color does play nicely with the rich colors on the tree. I love the tree! Each ornament looks placed just so, was that your doing or a compulsive family member. My father used to get upset when we didn't hang the tinsel "just so." Eventually we were happy to let him hang all the tinsel himself, and take it down too. He would smooth the individual strands over cardboard to be stored away for next year. New tinsel was about 29 cents a box, but he was raised in the Depression years. Looks like your family was over tinsel on the tree. tterraceIt's so weird....I feel like I've seen so many pictures of you and your family that I would recognize you on the street if I saw you today! Thanks for sharing, man. Finishing touchesAll you need on the tree are some bubble lights and tinsel!!! I would like one, pleaseI think that's a pretty vase. Now just hop in your time machine and go back fifty years and get me one, please. My Christmas in 1962I remember my Christmas of 1962 so well because I got a fire truck complete with all the accessories! No other Christmas seemed to top that one afterwards. Once again, tterrace, your gift of taking interesting, insightful & clever photographs has me strolling down memory lane. Thanks for posting all your photos. I truly enjoy them, every one! N.B.Good shot. Nice "bokeh." Can we see the other one as well please? Not so very smallI have a small crush on tterrace. HandkerchiefsI would love to see the handkerchief picture. If it is as exciting as the vase (pronounced voz), I just won't know what to think. I mean a vase is used to sit on a table and hold flowers until they die, but handkerchiefs, now that is something you can use over and over doing such things as blowing your nose, cleaning your ears, wiping crud off your spectacles, etc. Please, oh, please let us see the excitement in your brother's face! He oughta be in picturesI have sort of a crush on tterrace. His pics are always a joy to see. And he was such a little cutie patootie in all those 1950's and 60's pics. I can see his mother's sheer criss-crossed curtains right now! And Dad on the back deck reading the paper. And Grandma's black telephone, and the comparison shots of him in front of that red brick building then and now and ... and ... [The lady with the black telephone was someone else's grandma. - Dave] Thanks for sharingThanks for sharing, glad to see the man behind the site. Identity crisisI'm thinking of referring to myself in the third person in my captions from now on. As for the Burning Question about the "little gold spot" at the top of the vase, that's a foil paper sticker identifying the maker. My sister informs me that the present whereabouts of the vase are unknown. Oh goodI thought I was losing it. I was pretty certain 'Dave' != 'tterrace' [Hey, I just work here. - Dave] The Tinsel SecretI thought I was the only one that had a father that hung tinsel on the cardboard for reuse year after year. I bet he got 15 years of use out of it. And I got to be very adapt at hanging it beautifully. It was his job to watch. Early Christmas MemoryI remember Xmas '62. I thought: "I've got only six more months in this cramped womb and then I'm gonna get me some birthday presents!" Same as Marion Cunningham's!I'd kill for those drapes! Hello FuturiansWell, you could have pretended to be wrapping it, but I'm pretty sure you didn't foresee where this picture would end up! Multi-Balanced 3D Sensor Matrix Fill-Flash etcSo what was the procedure for bounce flash in those days? I'm used to just letting the camera work it out, or checking the exposure on the LCD screen; 1962 was way before that and as far as I know even before the kind of automatic flashes that had a sensor in them (such as the Vivitar 285). I assume a lot of maths were involved, but did you just guess and take lots of pictures? Balancing a wide aperture with bounce flash in such a way that the lights in the background are bright enough to be obviously lights, but not so bright that they're just white blobs, must have been very hard. Pb TinselWasn't tinsel back then made of lead? It was really heavy, unlike the flyaway silvered plastic of today. Hmm! Answered my own question. Just searched for lead tinsel and found a site that sells unused old stock. They're selling it from $10-15 per package. They even have green tinsel left. Two packages for $29, the most expensive on the site. Manual bounce-flash exposureMy trusty Kodak Master Photoguide had tables and calculation dials to arrive at the proper exposure for a specified film speed at a given distance for direct flash. Somewhere I came across another table that translated the direct flash distance factor into a bounce flash factor for 9-1/2 ft white ceilings and taped that onto the "owner's notes" page of the Photoguide. How do I know that? Well, I still have it. Anyway, the formulas all worked, first time; I didn't have any failed shots. Don't be so hard on yourself!You're hot, very Buddy x (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Christmas, tterrapix)
Clam Chowder Today: 1905
... and canceled all motion-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908. Perhaps that's why he was not encouraged to run for ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2012 - 2:37pm -

New York City circa 1905. "Exterior of tenement." The longer you look at this, the more you'll see. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Time for some road repairWow, that's a nasty bit of road in front of that building. HauntingBest face-in-a-window shot in a long time. Looks like a painting, and speaks of timeless solitude across a century. 308Who'll be the first to post a Street View? S&H Green StampsAnd here I thought they were a product of the 1950s, or earlier. ["Earlier" would seem to be correct. - Dave] Pop. 2So far I see two people in this photo. Not counting George McClellan. I wanna buy that mason a beer!Those are the coolest headers I've ever seen! There's probably a term for that style, for all I know. The cobblestones on the street are another story. No doubt a mosquito plague after every rain. DeepI think I lost a truck in that pothole. Scared the bejesus out of me!The shadowy lady in the doorway! And the pensive woman in the window looks so lost in thought. The people in this photo are the best part! Down in flamesHmmm, fire escapes that go nowhere. Maybe notI was thinking of swiping something out of that tool chest, then I read the label! Loafer DeterrentThose sharp triangles on the top of the railings look to be very effective at keeping people from sitting on them. [Also effective for loafing pigeons -- note that they're also on the lower rung. - Dave] Trading stampsThat S&H Green Stamp sign would be quite a collectible now. Sperry & Hutchinson began in 1896. They're still around, just virtual. Give the man a steak to go with the beer!The brickwork is fantastic. Look at the fancy work above the second floor windows and the double diamondwork up the walls. I have never seen diamondwork in brick before. It does not survive.308 East 40th Street (courtesy of the 1915 city directory). View Larger Map Chillin at the windowI count two windowsill milk bottles. Plus some paper-wrapped packages, maybe meat or butter. I just figured it outWhy do vintage street lamps always those two arms sticking out? To support a ladder for maintenance! Thank you!Clicking on these photos to get the full-size view is like opening gifts! I'm thrilled every time. Thank you. Tudor City308 East 40th Street in Manhattan is just off Second Avenue on the south side of the street and just a few doors away from the Tudor City apartment and park complex. Back in the 1980's, there were some terrific restaurants in that immediate area. Tenement?In New York City a "tenement" is considered to be a small (under five story with no elevator) overcrowded run-down building. The houses on the Lower East Side in the early 1900s were tenements. 308 East 40th Street does not fit that description. [Meanings change over time. Strictly speaking, a tenement is any tenanted building, i.e. apartment house. Below, NYC real-estate listings from 1905. - Dave] GaslightThe lamplighter would lean his ladder against those arms. It's a gas!I see that H. Kino the Tailor still uses gaslights (in the front window) -- but seeing as how this building was a "tenement," I suppose electrification was a low priority. Fire EscapesThe two "Fire Escapes" I guess are not balconies but have no apparent way to get down to street and away from the conflagration. The only thing I can figure is the NYFD would come and raise a ladder to them. We can't tell how tall the building is but I imagine no more than four or five stories [Actually, seven. - Dave]. The fire escapes for the floors above must be on the sides and rear of the building. I am having trouble identifying the metal bracket affixed to the wall between the tailor shop window and it's door. It looks like it could have held a hanging sign but appears to be too low. Morning scrubbingThe lady in at the doorway seems to be scrubbing the floors. You can see the water dripping down the front step. Graffiti If you zoom in you can see initials chalked on the bricks. JuniorIn spite of the apparent distaste someone in this neighborhood had for George B. McClellan, he won his mayoral campaign. The name sounds familiar, of course, and the man on the poster is the son of Civil War General George B. McClellan. He served as mayor of New York City from 1904 to 1909 (he was elected first for a two-year term, and then for a four-year term). Apparently he was a little moralistic, and canceled all motion-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908. Perhaps that's why he was not encouraged to run for reelection for the 1910 term. Once, tenements were even respectableLovely curtains, with lace or bobbles or fringe, at every window. No broken glass. Well-kept and middle-class. Jacob Riis had shown New York tenements as nothing but degrading slums. "How The Other Half Lives" was only 15 years old when this photograph was made. But there was always a strong sense of middle-class values that resided in the people who lived in the "better" tenements. They embraced the Settlement House movement, strove to present a "decent" face to the world, and certainly didn't want to be tarred with the same label as those dirty, disreputable slum-dwellers downtown. What an amazing image. There's so much we've forgotten. Thank you for reminding us. George B. McClellan JrMayor of New York 1904-1909. Born in Dresden, Germany, and son of Gen. McClellan of Civil War blundering. Elmer's GantryOn the wall above the cellar stairs, there's a triangular rig for hoisting stuff up out of the basement. Where'd the cart go?There are two other photos of this tenement in the Library of Congress collection. They look much more inhabited and show how this image might have been manipulated for effect -- the other images show the address number (curiously missing here), the awning down, and a cart of produce in front of the building, a much more inviting view. [Nothing was "manipulated." You can't see the address numbers because they're on the front doors, which are both open in this view. - Dave] Lace Curtain IrishIf this is chowda, it must be Friday. When I was a kid, every Friday was meatless and during that era, the better-off Irish were referred to as titled. Likewise the Polish people who were "comfortable" were "silk stocking Poles" and my father used to call us cotton stocking Poles. Both ethnicities were Catholic and Friday always meant seafood, (Irish were also referred to as "mackerel snappers) and odors of frying fish, tuna salad and chowda permeated the neighborhoods. My mom made three kinds of chowda, New England with a creamy, white base, Manhattan with a tomato base and lots of vegetables and Rhode Island which was a lighter version of the N.E. kind but with added broth. I love them all but also miss the smell of everybody's tuna and onion sandwiches at school lunch and fish frying aromas wafting through our town at supper time. I do remember that fresh mackerel was ten cents a pound and almost everyone could afford it. Thanks for the great nostalgic picture, the despairing lady in the window seems trapped and scared, there has to be a story there. Windowsill gardenI love the window with all the plants in it! Hard to tell what they are, though it looks like one may be an orchid. I wonder if they were purely ornamental or if some were herbs for cooking. Either way, you've got to cram as many as you can into your available sunny spaces! Francie is gazing out the windowIt could be Francie. It could. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn was my favorite book as a young adult and this detailed photograph brings a better understanding of the novel. Almost "Norman Rockwell"Imagine a 5000-piece picture puzzle with this photo as the topic! I LEARN so much from the comments!This is one of my favorite sites for resting my weary eyes during work breaks. And while I certainly savor the photos, so many layers are added by the comments. Thank you, everyone, for sharing your knowledge. Holy horse dung!Having lived in Manhattan for 12 (yes, only 12) years and having moved away, this photo leaves me speechless. The detail of the photographic process is amazing and the subtle (and somewhat hidden) joys on view here make me wanna head back for any chowder--even the famous Gowanus Canal Chow. All the sights, smells and sounds of the greatest city on earth come back to me. Many thanks. I now live on this spotOr possibly right next to it. I live in the Churchill, a 33-story apartment building at 300 East 40th Street - it takes up the entire block between 39th and 40th Street, and 2nd Avenue and Tunnel Entrance Street. 308 was either torn down to make room for the Churchill (built 1968) or possibly during the building of the Midtown tunnel and its approaches (1936-40). What am I missing?Just wondering how "swein" determined that this was E. 40th; might I be enlightened on this "1915 directory"? I'm half-cringing in anticipation of a "duh" moment but I've looked over the pic & the comments -- and I'm not getting it. [Swein consulted the 1915 Manhattan City Directory for Wm. Inwood, Grocer, and found a listing that matched the 308 address in the window. - Dave] Do You Supposethe Sicilian Asphalt Company also offered a line of concrete shoes? (The Gallery, DPC, NYC, Stores & Markets)
Just Up: 1905
... at the Calumet and Hecla Mining Co. went on strike. On Christmas Eve of that year the striking miners and their families gathered on ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/29/2012 - 6:13pm -

Calumet, Michigan, circa 1905. "Just up, Hecla Shaft No. 2." Copper miners topside. 8x10 inch dry glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Six Flags Over CalumetIt looks like the start/stop point of the Unhappy Log Flume. E ticket ride.That looks like one heck of a steep ride. Even if these guys averaged 150 pounds each, that would be over two tons of meat heading down that hole on every trip. Splash MountainShouldn't someone be playing chess? Back at the StationThe guy all the way to the left is saying, "Please keep your hands, feet and arms inside the car until the ride has come to a complete stop. Please exit the ride by using either stairway. Enjoy the rest of your day at Hecla World." These guys look pretty happyMore smiles here than in 90 percent of most old photos. Considering what they do for a living that's rather remarkable! Time to play hookyI love this photo so much that I am going to take the afternoon off work just to look at it. Thank heavens for self-employment! Shining FacesIf these cheerful guys were just coming up from their shift, deep copper mining must have been a lot cleaner than deep coal mining, even if not more safe. Two granddadsThis photo brings to mind my two grandfathers, both from Poland around the turn of the century. One became a coal miner in Pennsylvania doing this same kind of hazardous, back-breaking labor and had both legs broken in a mine explosion but did eventually return to work the same job. One worked in a copper foundry in Ct. and died at work on a horrendously torrid July afternoon in 1925. Like these men pictured, they never complained but did what they felt they had to do to support their families and become Americans. Their children met in N.Y.C. and the rest is history, but none of their grandchildren ever had to work as hard as they did. I suspect we are all beneficiaries of our ancestors willingness to give all they had for our better lives. Be thankful for the sacrifices made by your ancestors and give them a grateful thought occasionally. Obviously a management spyThe guy at the right of row 6 seems to be the only one missing the obligatory mine worker mustache. I willnever complain about working again and this was the best part of the day! Kilroy is thereLook at the guy peeking over the hat 2nd row from the top and far right seat. WHAT A RIDEThe man off to the side looks like Tom Edison and the lever next to him looks like the lever to start an old roller coaster, boy are those guys in for a ride. On a more serious note the miners are wearing oil lamps on their helmets, this picture is pre carbide lamp which was a heck of a lot brighter. Also that appears to be a speaking tube next to the standing gent, probably used to talk to the engine operator who could not see the mine car as it came up. Clever NicknameI'll bet that huge guy in the third row was known as Tiny. Big John"And now there's only one left down there to save." Middle row, third up from the bottom. 'StachedMustache, mustache, mustache! Your mustacheMust be this wide to go on this ride. Who's your daddyIt would be really difficult for family members coming down to the mine exit to find the correct husband, father or brother to pick up since nearly everyone there has such similar facial hair, clothing and accessories. Cans?What are they carrying in their cans or buckets? Is this an authorized lunch container or some device related to their work? [Those are lunch pails. -Dave] Eight years laterOn July 23rd, 1913 the miners at the Calumet and Hecla Mining Co. went on strike. On Christmas Eve of that year the striking miners and their families gathered on the second floor of the Italian Hall in Calumet to attend a party sponsored by the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Western Federation of Mineworkers. Somebody yelled "Fire!" In the ensuing panic, seventy-three people died, including fifty-nine children. There was no fire. They never found out who yelled "fire" but it was commonly believed that it was an anti-union provocateur who wanted to disrupt the party. The strike was not settled until April 1914. Lunch BucketI'll bet every one of those lunch pails has a Cornish Pasty in it. I can't help itI keep imagining the feller on the left has a voice like Walter Brennan. "Aww, get on with it an' take the pitcher already! We got work ta do here ya know!" I reckon it must beMovember! Clone WarsThe early years. Middle row, sixth from bottom, see me after your shift!We got us a wise guy here. Inside the Dinner PailWould likely be a pasty -- a staple in the U.P. Pasties have a flaky-type pie crust filled with a mixture of ground meat (usually beef) with carrots, potatoes, onion and rutabaga. They were wrapped in newspaper to keep them warm. If you ever visit the U.P. make sure to sample a pasty! Lunch Buckets, etc.The buckets are similar to the one I carried in the mines and still have. There is a tray that fits into the top of the larger bottom can. The miners carried their lunch (usually a "Pasty" meat pie) in the tray. The bottom held tea. The miners would take several nails and drive them into a timber or lagging board in a ring pattern, put a candle stub in the center, and sit the bucket atop the ring of nails to warm up their tea. I am betting the shift is getting ready to go below, not just coming up .... they are pretty clean. Even hard-rock mines result in dirty miners! Hoist signals were sent by electricity to the hoist room. Great photo! Skip (former miner and hoistman) Where's the Gipper?Calumet is where the great Notre Dame football star Ron, er, George Gipp was born and is buried. PastiesMost likely the lunch pails contain some pasties. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasty The pasty remains a very popular U.P. staple, though I'm sure the fellows in the photo enjoyed pasties too. U.P.?You need to explain what U.P. is to us non-Americans. [As well as non-Yoopers. - Dave] The PastyThe Pasty (pronounced with a short "a" like "pass" rather than like "paste") has an interesting history. It is the national dish of Cornwall, and a standard in the diet of Cornish miners. The copper country of Michigan's Upper Peninsula had an influx of Cornish miners in the 1860s followed by a small wave of Finnish miners. The Finns adopted the Pasty as their standard meal so that when a larger wave of Finnish migration arrived in the 1890s, they found pastys as the standard dish for their Finnish brethren. Last Train to FarkvilleFarked again! The UPThe UP is on the south shore of Lake Superior. It is part of Michigan, sometimes to the irritation of its inhabitants, who are known as Yoopers. There have been movements for statehood since the Peninsula became a mining and timber bonanza in the mid 1850's; this was not long after the local Ojibwa showed early explorers where the iron was. I remember tee shirts with "The State of Superior" on them in the 1960's! The Mackinac Bridge connects us with the rest of Michigan. The UP has Lake Michigan to the south and the big lake (Superior) to the north.The peninsula is about 300+ miles long, east and west with smaller peninsulas on both coasts that jut out into their respective Great Lake. The Keweenaw Peninsula, where this photo was taken, is on the Lake Superior side and it is about 100 miles to Copper Harbor on its northern most point from the main Peninsula. US-41 runs from Copper Harbor, Michigan to Miami, Florida. (The Gallery, DPC, Farked, Mining)
Red Ryder: 1940
... Security Administration. View full size. Same old Christmas Story "No, Ralphie. You'll shoot your eye out." Like Christmas Story He'll shoot his eye out! Red Ryder Cowboy Carbine ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/19/2018 - 12:31pm -

December 1940. Corpus Christi, Texas. "Small boy, son of carpenter from Hobbs, New Mexico, reading funny papers in corner of room in tourist court. Lack of adequate closet space is evident." Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Same old Christmas Story"No, Ralphie. You'll shoot your eye out." Like Christmas StoryHe'll shoot his eye out! Red Ryder Cowboy Carbine As Seen in "A Christmas Story"You'll shoot your eye out, kid. Shooting your eye outI have a sad shoot-your-eye-out story. The son of a guy I know shot his eye out with a BB gun and, as though that wasn’t bad enough, he received an insurance settlement which his parents gave to him, which made him rich in the short term, but messed up his ability to know the value of work and money, so really set him back in terms of being an employable adult. Fake NewsI still have my Red Ryder Carbine and haven't put my eye out yet. (The Gallery, Kids, Russell Lee)
Vibrator Sale To-Day: 1921
... ago. My son bought me a nice Waterman fountain pen for Christmas not too long ago. Remedies for Men. And Women! More remedies ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/29/2012 - 8:47pm -

1921 or 1922. "People's Drug Store, 7th and K." On the table: a nice assortment of Star vibrators. This is a new version of a photo originally posted Aug. 15, 2007. In what counts as an exciting curatorial development here at Shorpy, the glass negative is now available for this image (a.k.a. "the vibrator photo"), as opposed to the previous version made from the scan of a print. The new version is a lot sharper, and shows more of the store. The caption info also gives the address, which we didn't have last year. National Photo glass negative. View full size. Not sure what is in thoseNot sure what is in those boxes but they must be impervious to heat as they are on a table over the radiator. Liver?Liver is ok, However.....the item "Hypo Cod"...hmmm....many images, none all that pleasant. dss Love the display!Wish I had that display knack every month when I try to come up with cheap, creative bulletin boards at school... You can tell this is a really old photoby the Beta tapes stacked below the "cough and cold" sign on the right. Well, they look like Beta tapes. The guyThe guy with his hands in his pockets looks like he is "gonna rob da joint" Henry Fonda?Rob the joint? NEVER!! Kewpie DollThe large Kewpie Doll in the back next to the sale sign might be a good clue. In those boxes>Not sure what is in those boxes but they must be impervious >to heat as they are on a table over the radiator. Looks like electric heat clamps for curlers. [They're Star electric massage vibrators. Supposedly a beauty aid. See below. - Dave] Um...If the vibrators are for reducing wrinkles, then what are the "French Tickling Rings" for? (Look just under the word "Fountain", between the nail clippers and the um, chains.) [They're for babies to chomp on. Teething, not "tickling." And necklaces ("Job's Tears"), not chains. - Dave] Listen ya mugs...Does anyone know where in DC this Peoples Drug was located? Could it been the one at DuPont Circle, now a CVS? [This was at Seventh and K. In researching your question, I found a different and better version of photo, which I just posted. Thanks! - Dave] People's Drugstore - 1912Just did a search for "Nutra Vin" and found this January 1912 newspaper ad for this very People's Drugstore at 7th and K. (Click to enlarge.) Waterman Fountain PensStill in business, at least a few years ago. My son bought me a nice Waterman fountain pen for Christmas not too long ago. Remedies for Men. And Women!More remedies from the pages of the Washington Post, 1912. One Word: PlasticsPyralin was Du Pont's trademark for a nitrocellulose pyroxylin plastic that was an early substitute for ivory in the manufacture of toilet articles like combs. It was also used to make automobile side curtains. Between Constipation and Nutra VinIt looks like a beginner set of X-acto knives. Yes? No? Tiny BoxesI'd hate to have to do inventory on this place! Would anyone care to guess what's in the numbered boxes up near the ceiling? And what's behind the back wall? It's obvious that the space goes much farther than that wall. Bzzzzzzzzz.....Bet there was a real buzz in the neighborhood over this sale. GladAdvertisements like the ones posted by Diane and Dave make me extremely glad that I was born in the latter part of the 20th century. Especially interesting in Diane's photo is the Melorose Beauty Cream, which "does not grow hair or turn rancid, and has a very dainty odor." This would mean that other, lesser quality beauty creams of the day did have that unfortunate side effect, I reckon. I'm also not sure if the words "dainty" and "odor" were the best descriptors, either. Use As DirectedAs long as both ends of these devices are plugged in where they are supposed to be, everyone's happy. Just RightHaving the vibrators right on top of the radiator means they're toasty warm when you get them home. Just the thing for "facial wrinkles," no doubt! RootsSeveral years ago my widowed grandmother showed me one of these "vibrators" and told me that my grandpa had gotten it because he had heard they could restore one's hair. She said that he was very disappointed when it didn't do the trick. My grandpa was bald by the age of 23 or so and my grandmother refused to marry him unless he wore a toupee. This he did -- but only on his wedding day and the thing never rested on his head again. WatermanI was reading just last night in a 1957 edition of Popular Sceince, that Lewis Waterman was credited with inventing the first workable fountain pen in the late 1800's. Pyralin IvoryI found this page about pyralin ivory hair receivers and pictures of well groomed ladies of the Victorian age. MopsyWhat is that mop-like thing in the upper right? Is it some kind of light bulb cover? [It's a lampshade. - Dave] X-acto knives or ...They look like cuticle care instruments to me, but they are pretty fuzzy. I too noticed the French Teething Rings and anachronistically grew suspicious that they were really something else. Waterman & Parker (& Peoples)Yes, Lewis Waterman is popularly supposed to have invented the fountain pen, although it might be more accurate to say that he invented the fountain pen advertising campaign, since although he was the first big international success, there had been other pens before his. Parker was one of his archrivals; ironically, both companies are now essentially foreign operations (Parker in the UK, Waterman in France) under the control of the same parent (Newell Rubbermaid). I can make out some steel dip points, which is what you would have used had you been unable to afford the relatively expensive new fountain pen. Finally, as a native of the DC area, I can recall "going to Peoples" to pick up drugs & sundries. A couple decades back they were purchased by CVS, which promptly got rid of the name (and the cool neon signage on many of the stores). I still can't understand throwing away a name with nearly a century of goodwill behind it. No Plastic !If you notice, everything is either in a box, glass or some type of metal because plastic really wasn't invented yet. [Actually, it had been. -tterrace] (The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo, PDS, Stores & Markets)
Cigarettes: 1965
... but I am really enjoying these comments today. Merry Christmas I'm old enough to remember when a perfectly appropriate and very ... carton = 10 packs = 200 cigarettes) of Kent cigarettes for Christmas 1967. $3.25 was a lot of money for an eight year old back then. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/13/2016 - 11:58am -

April 20, 1965. "Vending Machines, Cigarettes." 35mm negative by Marion S. Trikosko for U.S. News & World Report. View full size. At that priceYou can't afford NOT to smoke! The bar I used to frequent (up until a few months ago) has a modern cigarette machine. It's really just a snack vending machine with packs of cigarettes in the little coils where chips normally would be. It only takes credit/debit cards and if I recall they were $6 and $7 per pack depending on the brand. I remember the ones in the picture too. As I recall, they would also drop a book of matches along with your smokes. Kent cigarettesMy grandmother loved Kents! Once I started driving at 15 I would pick a carton at the A&P every week. For about $6.00 a carton. My dad knew the drawbacks of smoking and starting when I was 5 years old he would promise me every year growing up that if I didn't smoke at the age of 21 he would give me a diamond wristwatch. At 21 I was smoke free but dad reneged on the watch - he said my health was more important than the watch. Also knew he could afford it, but at 62 I'm still a non-smoker! Like someone said here also, riding in a closed car with 4 smoking adults in the winter was torture. Student Center at CollegeLots of nostalgia here on this pic! I remember there being two machines in the Student Center at College in Louisiana in the late '70s. Seems like smokes were about 90 cents at the time. I still remember the firm tug on the knob and the soft "thud" as the pack hit the stainless steel pan in the bottom of the machine. I put 'em down years ago, but I am really enjoying these comments today. Merry ChristmasI'm old enough to remember when a perfectly appropriate and very welcome holiday gift for every adult on your list was a carton of cigarettes and/or a bottle of hootch. I can't remember anyone ever being offended by them either. Quit timeUsed to smoke about three packs a day. Camel filters were my poison of choice, started when I was eleven. Quit at about the age of twenty five by promising my self I could have one in five minutes. At the end of five minutes would do it again. It took a year to work up to 10 minutes. I just kept working up the time. That was in 1977. I didn't actually say I quit until about 5 years ago. Yes the machines were nice, but the product was a horrible price to pay. "They're for my father"I remember buying my father a carton (1 carton = 10 packs = 200 cigarettes) of Kent cigarettes for Christmas 1967. $3.25 was a lot of money for an eight year old back then. I answered the funny look from the sales clerk with : "They're for my father". Try that today, kids. We'll sell it to ya, BUT . . .When I was in the 10th grade or so, living in Naples, there was a fellow working in a convenience store out on the East Trail who knew I was underage, but would sell me wine and ciggies. Only catch was, he would only sell me the most horrible examples of each. He told me, "I know you'll find some place to buy this stuff. I'll sell them to you, but maybe you'll learn to hate it if I only sell you the worst examples of each." So I could only buy Between the Acts little cigars and Bali Hai wine. 26 will get you 20The first cigarettes I ever bought from a machine cost me $0.26/pack. You fed the machine a quarter and a penny, puĺled the knob, and out came your cigs. This was c. 1971, and I've never seen it since. Off BrandThe only one I don't recognize is ALPINE. [Nice. He looks like Martin Sheen] Pick your poisonSo many choices, so little time. Two or three for price of oneWhile I no longer indulge, as a teen in the early '70s I always looked for this type of machine because if you pulled the knob just right you could trick the machine into give you an extra pack or two. 30 cents back in 1965 is about 2 bucks today but I think smokes are running closer to $6 a pack now. An unhealthy price for the body and the wallet. Adaptive re-useIf it's lucky, this cigarette machine has been converted to an Art-O-Mat. http://www.artomat.org/ Minors are forbiddenFirst time I saw one of these is when I came to the US for school. I was fifteen and, unfortunately, a smoker (folks did not know). My dad and I had just checked into a hotel in Honolulu after a 10+ hour flight and a couple of hours of getting thru customs\immigration. My dad, a non-smoker so I couldn't steal any smokes from him, went to take a nap. Left to my own devices, I went wandering around wishing I had some smokes. Saw the machine... went up to it... had the proper US coins... saw the "Minors are forbidden..." and did not buy a pack. Back home I would automatically ignore that kind of sign. But in a strange and foreign land, well, it took me awhile to rationalize that if no one is looking... who's to know? And if someone did see me... run! Snuck back, bought the smokes. Twenty years later is when I finally quit. Easier than 28 centsCharging the nice & even amount of 30 cents made it a lot easier on the vending machine's owner. My father told me about buying cigarettes from machines when the price was 28 cents. You'd insert 30, and taped to the cigarette package were two pennies change. I remember those machines. My mom would send my brother or I to the gas station to pick her up a pack of Raleigh 100s. My wife and I had dinner at a retro themed restaurant a while back. They had one of them along with a few other old pop and candy machines that used tokens. I'd thought they'd been banned outright for selling cigarettes, but apparently, if the owner restricts access, they're legal. Legal in Vegas Cigarette machines still exist in Sin City, but state law only allows them in places where minors are not allowed to loiter, i.e. casinos and brothels. The ones I've seen only accept folding money, since it would take a ton of nickels to buy a pack these days. Big sellersL&M, Philip Morris, Raleigh, and the legendary Luckies. Never a cigarette smoker, I nevertheless remember all these brands. Advertising Blurbs !Show Us Your Lark Pack ! I'd Rather Fight than Switch ! (Taryton) One Silly Millimeter Longer ( Benson & Hedges ?) Tons more... 27 years later I quit. Yeesh. /RZ Glad I quit. Back in '65 I was smoking Chesterfield Kings. At 2 packs a day I'm sure glad I quit shortly afterwords. If I didn't I'm sure I wouldn't be here today. My dishwasher daysWhen I was a wee lad of 13, I was in the gainful employ of one Tony Lipari of Lipari's Family Restaurant. As soon as you came through the front door, there lived the cigarette machine. Being the crafty little fart I was, I discovered that a butter knife combined with my skinny arm, could relieve the machine of 2 or 3 packs at a time. Once word made it back to the kitchen, all the smokers coerced me to do the same for them, due to me being the only one with arms that skinny. I too managed to kick the habit 6 June 2002. The comments on this pic have been the best! DadI suppose my dad's history is pretty typical. Born 1916, started smoking as a teen, shot up to 2 packs a day during WWII in Pacific (free Lucy Strikes, as I recall). Varied his brands somewhat when I was a kid: L&M, Winston, Luckies, Pall Mall (pronounced "...and a pack o' Pellmells" in RI where I grew up), but mostly Camel non filters. Which eventually killed him in 1969 at the ripe old age of 53. It's strange to be 62 and know that I have outlived my father by nine years. JinglesIf you are at least of a certain age, commercial songs or ad phrases instantly pop when you scan each slot's cigarette offering. Mad Men cleaned up in tobacco times. Somehow they never nabbed me, probably due to the cloudy multi-pack habits of the four adults in our home. I have never touched one. By age 3 I was actively anti-smoking, to the point I never once saw one parent light up, while years later I learned my friends saw it endlessly. That still strikes me as odd. It's a kid who sneaks smokes. But I liked some of the catchier ads. Smoke 'Em If You Got 'EmButts were a quarter from the machines in a Marine barracks back in 1965. A carton went for $1.90 at the PX. In Vietnam free smokes (I remember Luckies) came in your C-Rations. At the golf courseI remember them being 65 cents in the machine at my dad club, 1974-75 era. Sneaky SmokingI was the youngest in our family by many years and after I reached my teens it was just me and my parents at home. Mom was a smoker and in the late 60s/early '70s I would sneak her cigs when I was around 14-15 and learned to like it. We would go on vacation and do the traditional car trip once or twice a year for a week or two, staying in motels. I would usually be given my own room so the parents could have privacy - sometimes with a connecting door, sometimes not. When that happened, I would scout out the location of the cigarette machine and when the coast was clear, feed my quarters into it to buy a pack that I could secretly smoke in my (locked) room while watching TV. Secretly using the machine was a thrill and meant I got to try different brands. My first pack of Salem 100s came from a machine and resulted in me smoking those for many years. Have been quit for a long time now but if it was harmless I would still smoke. I loved everything about it except the consequences. Smoking YouthSpent 3rd thru 8th grades near Winston-Salem, NC (guess what is made there!) and was a pack-a-day smoker when I was 12. A little dairy store beside the junior high would open a pack of Winstons and sell them to us for a penny apiece. Quit when I was 32-without question the hardest thing I've ever done...packs had just reached a dollar a pack in the machines. Military in the 60'sA 3 count of smokes came in every C-Rat along with a mini-book of matches. 6 matches in the little pack. I can recall Winston, Lucky Strikes Pall Mall's and a menthol brand. Filtered smokes were in demand. Military got you hooked on cigarettes and alcohol. Wisely gave up both. Cigarettes and Vietnam era soldiersMy most vivid memory of cigarette machines is a little different. At age 14, like most kids, I wanted to try smoking, to see what my parents saw in it. This was 1968 and my dad was stationed with the Army at Fort Knox, KY, America's biggest Armor base. At that time, the Vietnam conflict and the draft were in full swing, and the post was filled with young men in uniform. They were everywhere, and there wasn't much for them to do with their free time. The cafeteria by the PX was a favorite hangout spot for GIs and teenaged military brats, a like. There was one cigarette machine, which usually had a line in front of it. Cigarettes were a quarter. My friends and I would watch until there was a lull in the activity in front of it and then one of us would run to the machine, quarter ready, and quickly get a pack of Salems. My smoking career didn't last very long, but I've never forgotten the GIs. I knew that most of them would be in Vietnam,in the near future, and wondered which would come back with wounds, and which wouldn't come back at all. Cigarette machines in restaurantsI recall cigarette machine such as this circa early 1970s which was in my dad's restaurant near Gramercy Park. Sometimes minors would come in and say they're buying a pack for the father, which maybe they were and maybe they weren't. Around 1972 I remember when a man showed up to alter the machine so that the price was 60 cents, up from 55 cents. It's incredible that a pack of cigarettes in 2016 is now $12 and up in NYC. National 222That machine was a National 222, one of the best / most reliable cigarette vending machines on the market. Totally mechanical, unfortunately with cigarettes costing so much they were hard pressed to handle so many coins to add up to several dollars. Plus the fact that many fewer people smoke. I myself gave up the habit over 15 years ago. (Technology, The Gallery)
Gifted: 1951
... E.S. - Dec 25 1951." It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in this latest episode of Minnesota Kodachromes . Photo by Hubert ... this photo is so uplifting and all I can add is Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Romania to all Shorpy fans all over the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/21/2014 - 9:54am -

"Bill, Emily & E.S. - Dec 25 1951." It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in this latest episode of Minnesota Kodachromes. Photo by Hubert Tuttle. Full size. Mercury OptionsThis car has the accessory rear-window wiper. A joy of living that transcends decades and continentsAlmost all the Minnesota Kodachromes convey such joy of living! They really make you feel the happiness, which seems to have been preserved in a time capsule. Not so long had passed since the terrible WWII, so I believe people must have been elated at the thought the ordeal was over. Anyway, this photo is so uplifting and all I can add is Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Romania to all Shorpy fans all over the world! Keeping up with the Joneses, er, SwensensA nice 1950 Mercury with sunshade and dual outside mirrors, and fur coats for the wives. James Dean... drove a similar 1949 Mercury in "Rebel Without a Cause." His was a two-door. This one has accessory fender skirts and sun visor. Letters on the wheelcovers and rounded rear window mark this as a '49. '50s had smooth wheelcovers and '51s had a larger rear window. Christmas casserolesI'll bet that's a covered dish of some kind, that she has covered with that brown paper bag! Scalloped potatoes, or baked beans? I wonder! Ringgenbergs of AlgonaThese are likely Bill and Emily Ringgenberg and their only daughter, Emma Ringgenberg Lighter, all of Algona, Iowa (the next county seat south of Blue Earth). Ms. William Ringgenberg was identified in a 1960 Kossuth County Advance as a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Abe Tuttle of Blue Earth, who were then celebrating their 59th wedding anniversary. This would make her one of Hubert's sisters. The 1940 census provides her first name (Emily), and identifies her husband as Willard, and their fifteen-year-old daughter as Emma. Bill died in 1973, but Emily would see another half-century before her death in 2002, at age 96. Hot Dishis what Minnesootans call dem casserole thingies, ya know? FootwearI'm amazed that the young lady is wearing heels while walking in the snow. What we women go through for fashion's sake! Ringgenberg?Algona, Iowa, you say? Now you're getting close to home. I went to high school there, but it was in the '60s and I didn't know any Ringgenbergs. The snow, the elm-lined streets, the style of houses - all very familiar to me from that part of the country. Actually a '50Yes, it has '49 wheelcovers, but the side trim with the "MERCURY" lettering over the front wheel opening, and the rear windows that wraps into the C-pillar show it to be a '50 model. The side trim on the '49 is plainer, and the "MERCURY" lettering is at the front of the trim. Muskrat, the other minkMy bet is the ladies are sporting muskrat coats which were very popular at that time. Muskrat could be trimmed and dyed to mimic mink. My mother had one about the same time period with a matching hat and muff. In the early 60's my father purchased her a black Persian lamb jacket which replaced the muskrat. As a kid my sister and I would love to stroke the muskrat to fulfill our "Lenny" urges. Happy Holidays to all the Shorpy fans. Oh fun photos even for one living in MNThe rain killed what we should have as in the photo but the joy is still here because of greetings from far away from Micaela! Merry Christmas and Cheers all. Happy even in the snow!Love this photo! The classy car with suicide doors and the sun visor and fender skirts. Wonderful coats and hats on all three persons and they are happy. Merry Christmas! YummyAnd I'll bet the white bag with the round container holds a tin of home made Christmas baking, maybe cookies. Merry Christmas to Shorpy and fans! Thanks, Micaelafor your happy greetings across the Atlantic. Greets, love and light to you. Ya, surestuart51, green bean casserole's in the bag, and jello salad in the bag. jsmakbkr, thanks for the update on this charming Minnesota family. Merry Christmas Shorpy fans, far and wide What is the correct model year?The rear window on a 1950 Mercury has one piece of glass. The '49 has a three piece window with chrome dividers. This photo clearly shows those chrome dividers. [And yet it also has the 1950 front fender trim; a mystery. -tterrace] 1949 MercuryThe car has 1949 Mercury wheel covers, and the '49 also had Mercury written on the fender trim. [Compare the lettering style and position between 1949 and 1950 - taken from Mercury brochures - and our car. -tterrace] What a guy!Bill stands with his hands in his pockets while the girls cart in all the stuff. I am glad to see, however, that he had the sense to BACK into the driveway so the women could get out in the cleared path. I bet Emily suggested it, though. Makes you feelWarm and cold at the same time. Brings back nice memories of living in the North, and how the ladies in my family always wore lovely long coats, and until I was big enough the way I found my mom in a store was by the coat she wore. Mercury MysteryThe door handles are the pull type, early 1949. The split rear window is 1949 Why the front fender trim is 1950 is a mystery. Maybe replaced due to damage? The sun visor is an aftermarket Fulton. Cut Bill A BreakBenefitsspecialist complained about Bill just standing there like a bump on a log. There is a good possibility he spent some cold time cleaning snow off of the car and had the heater going so when it was time to back into the driveway the ladies were presented with a clean and warm car. Even if he only went out to warm the car and back it into position he deserved a cup of hot coffee with maybe a wee shot of Seagram's 7. (Cars, Trucks, Buses, Christmas, Minnesota Kodachromes)
Better Watch Out: 1921
"Secretary Davis, Christmas tree, 1921." James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor in the Harding, ... Collection glass negative. View full size. Father Christmas Wonderful variety of ornaments. But especially sweet is the ... decorate their trees until after the kids went to bed on Christmas Eve. Try to imagine setting up a tree in the stand, decorating it ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/13/2012 - 5:34pm -

"Secretary Davis, Christmas tree, 1921." James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor in the Harding, Coolidge and Hoover administrations, moonlighting as Santa Claus. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. Father ChristmasWonderful variety of ornaments. But especially sweet is the daughter's little hands holding her father's hand. Better Not CryEven when the tree comes toppling down -- I haven't seen such a lopsided extravaganza since the year our family tree tipped sideways thanks to insufficient rocks supporting the trunk. The garland is particularly egregious. The Pullman train car makes up for it, though. Train TechLooks like the trains of the 1920's were not far removed from 1950's models. As far as the timely tags, dry cleaning anyone? TimelyBut, please Dave, what's on time on the doorpost? And let's hope Junior doesn't short the transformer with the Pullman car. More tasteful!I love the dangly silver bead strings - that's more tasteful than the tinsel gobs of the midcentury trees! Of course, it's not QUITE enough to distract the eye from Secretary Davis's elaborate combover, but it's a start. Dollhouse, Army tank, toy car, Indian headdress, tea set: you're all on the bench. Today's game is all about The New Train! Tree CriticsI know from my parents' storty-telling that in the early part of the 20th century most families did not bring in and decorate their trees until after the kids went to bed on Christmas Eve. Try to imagine setting up a tree in the stand, decorating it with all the trimmings, gathering up the toys hidden all over the house and setting them out under the tree all on the night before Christmas. They had no time to choose a decorator's perfect tree, place everything perfectly and make it look like a showplace. Also (even before everyone went "green") the gifts from Santa were never wrapped, just put out. I think the wonder and amazement in the kids' eyes prove they were quite enchanted with it all, so it must have looked pretty special to them. Amazing Array of Glass BaublesI have a large number of ornaments from my grandparents' collection, and peering at the pretty things on this tree, I see several that are exactly what my grandparents have. It's amazing what bits of family history survived upteen Navy moves and the one time Grandmother lost almost everything when the train transporting everything caught fire. I don't care how misshapen the tree is, or the garlands being haphazard, I think it's a charming tree! Trains Don't Run On TimeLooks like the Secretary of Commerce is responsible for disrupting train movements on this line - his foot appears to have pulled the track far enough back that it pulled apart at the switch. Knocked down one of the signals too. Godzilla would be proud but the Interstate Commerce Commission would have questions. There's not just a giant Pullman in this shot, but behind the boy there's a tender and the locomotive to go with it seems to be behind the secretary's child dandling leg. Davis On Time ....Interesting batch of "ON TIME" labels hanging from the hinge of the door. Wonder what they were for, and why collecting them? At least the doll is happyEveryone else looks a bit overwhelmed. And when was the last time you saw child-sized shoes with nails in the soles? Our TreesIn my family we have always waited until Christmas Eve to set up the tree, though at least it wasn't done stealthily. And presents from Santa were never wrapped. Another thing about the tree is that in 1921 most Christmas trees were not the carefully sheared farm-grown specimens of today. Sole TrainThe Pullman car and the tender look to be well played with. There are dents on the end of the Pullman at the boy's right as well as worn paint on it and the tender. As to the soles of the boy's shoes, that's stitching, not nails. Whose TrainThe electric train is for the grown-ups. Everyone knows that! Merry FarkmasFark a la la la. Pre-Martha StewartFrom the days when Christmas trees didn't have to be perfectly symmetrical and Martha Stewart approved. Maybe it was last year's tree. What kind of tree IS thisSo many comments about this tree, but it does not look like a real tree. it's not any pine or spruce or fir that i recognize. Any botanists out there care to ID this tree? [Scraggly blue spruce (Picea pungens Charlie Brownius), I would opine. - Dave] Egads!Charlie Brown called from 1965. He wants his Christmas tree back. Lionel, I believeLionel standardized the electric trains they're still selling with minor modifications around 1906, so I'm guessing that is a Lionel. The Pullman car is a Gauge 1 that preceded O gauge, but was wiped out in the depression. No Gauge 1 tracks are visible as far as I can tell. They were expensive; my dad got a Lionel train that cost about $200 around 1950, and it was either that or carpet in the living room. Grandma and Grandpa did not see eye to eye on that decision. (The Gallery, Christmas, D.C., Farked, Kids, Natl Photo)
Christmas Wedding: 1954
... San Francisco Chronicle that the use of poinsettias in Christmas decor was now looked down upon by many as, if not merely old school, ... year and twelve days later My parents were married on Christmas Eve, 1955, a date which I am given to understand was dictated by my ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 12/03/2011 - 5:51pm -

December 12, 1954. A quartet of poinsettia-brandishing bridesmaids share a moment of post-ceremony frivolity at my cousin's wedding reception, held at some ritzy country club on the San Francisco peninsula. I was eight at the time and still have some hazy memory of being in awe of this opulent venue, at the time the fanciest place I'd ever been in. More recently, I was taken aback to read in an article in The San Francisco Chronicle that the use of poinsettias in Christmas decor was now looked down upon by many as, if not merely old school, downright passé. Shows you how much I've been paying attention. My brother shot this 120 620 Kodacolor, taking advantage of the professional photographer's electronic flash by opening the shutter of my sister's Kodak Duaflex moments before the flash fired, thus explaining the candle streak at the right. View full size. What a nice touch!Their poinsettias are beautiful, although the lightning bolt on the right side is a bit creepy. I like the color.That is a lovely photo. And good thinking on your brother's part to piggyback on the flash. Kodak DuaflexI received that camera as a gift in 1953 and found it to be a user-friendly, easy to operate, convenient, inexpensive and exemplary camera for the common photographer who just wanted to snap photos without worrying about light meters, exposure times, etc. It used readily available 620 b & w film and every picture I took with it came out surprisingly sharp and detailed. Had a large viewfinder (about 2" x 2") and flash attachment for indoors and I still have all of it, including the two boxes and directions for both pieces. I really liked the results I got with it and was sorry to see it become obsolete. My cousin who gave it to me is almost 90 and is very pleased to see I still treasure it. ColorWithout the poinsettias, this wouldn't have been much of a picture. Film by Kodak - the kingtterrace said his brother shot this on 120 film. Unless I'm mistaken, that means his brother took a roll of 120 film and hand rolled it onto the 620 spool in the Duaflex. And he had to do it by feel in complete darkness because exposing the film to the slightest light would have ruined it. Great twin lens reflex camera. I think mine was a Duaflex II I used in the late 50s or early 60s. It's still around the house somewhere. So many changes in photography since WWII. 120/620 filmThanks to Dutch and OTY for educating me about the 120/620 film situation. Since they're the same film on different spindles, once they're out of the camera there's no telling them apart. All I have are the negatives, and I never explored the Duaflex specs sufficiently. I'm sure what my brother was using was the 620 version. I've amended my caption. Poinsettias are a no-no? Passe?I know why - they don't cost $5,000 and nowadays weddings are supposed to break the bank! I think they look very sharp with the white dresses!!! Great pic, terrace and Dave. Poinsettias & Red Lipstick!Poinsettias and Red Lipstick -- perfect! To think this photo is almost 60 years old and these pretty young ladies are now pushing their 80s. Things change, but Poinsettias and Red Lipstick are always in style! My parents' wedding was just about the same timeMy mother's comment on this photo: > Been there done that--only with red dresses & white flowers AND 6 " of snow. HoweverIt is a marvelous photo and extremely "well shot," but I'd love to know what was so funny for that young lady. It's obviously close to the funniest thing she's ever heard. Thanks, Tterrace. Old SchoolBack in the day, when it was okay for bridesmaids' dresses to be pretty. One year and twelve days laterMy parents were married on Christmas Eve, 1955, a date which I am given to understand was dictated by my grandmother. I don't know whether poinsettias were part of the decor. It certainly made remembering their anniversary a piece of cake. My first ChristmasI was two and half months old when this was taken. I always get a kick out of seeing things from that year. I don't care who says that Poinsettias are passe, I think they are lovely, and these bridesmaid look lovely carrying them, too! (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, tterrapix)
Five and Ten: 1921
... and Ten When I hear "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," I wonder if people under 30 or even 35 know what the term "five and ... I have memories of going to the Kresge's near our house at Christmas time. I "rode" my bicycle through sloppy snow to choose treasures for ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/12/2011 - 10:35am -

Washington, D.C., circa 1921. "Whistle Bottling Works. Woolworth window." An elaborate dime-store window display for Whistle orange soda, "the food drink." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. We miss you, Woolworth'sWoolworth's was part of America's 20th century memories. Who over 50 hasn't bought housewares, pens, books, toys or records at Woolworth's? I still have happy memories going shopping downtown with my mother, and stopping for lunch at the Woolworth's luncheonette. It was (along with the drug store) one of the few places where we ever "ate out." I've got your "food drink"Try dunking a graham cracker in a cup of hot coffee. Quartz for a dime?What is that in the other display window? It almost looks like rocks on display cards. [Jewelry, maybe. Dime-onds. - Dave] ReflectionThere appears to be a reflection of someone, possibly the photographer, under the Whistle sign to the right of the door and also to the far left of the picture. He appears to be wearing large headphones. Why the headphones? Could it be someone inside the store? Did Woolworth's have a record department where people could listen to records? [Those are reflections of the mannequin in the window. He's wearing a radio headset. - Dave] The Big Woolworth'sThe Woolworth's on Hemming Park in downtown Jacksonville Florida was the "Big" Woolworth. Two floors. Upstairs was the candy department with the caramel corn, and downstairs was the toy department with Corgi cars, balsa wood gliders, and bins and bins of rubber lizards, snake, and bugs! Woolworth'sMy dad, who was killed in France in 1944, started at Woolworth's as a window dresser in 1938, and worked his way up to manager. As a kid I sometimes heard my Mother singing It was a lucky April shower, It was a most convenient storm. I found a Million Dollar Baby In the five-and-ten cent store. Thanks again for all the great pics, Dave. eBayThere's a fortune in memorabilia in that window. Battery AcidBattery acid and orange food coloring were the ingredients making up Whistle, at least according to smart schoolkids in St. Louis when I was growing up in the late 40s and 50s. It was drink of choice when consuming White Castle hamburgers! Cincy Caramel CornThe Woolworth store in downtown Cincinnati had one loooong counter at the entrance of the store dedicated to the making of caramel corn. You could smell it all the way down the street. The aroma was heavenly and so very enticing. They left their door open to traffic, which came in droves. Warm butter + popping corn = Woolworth caramel corn. We pleaded to go downtown just for the warm caramel corn. 5 & 10 againWho of us who have some age will ever forget the "five and dime" or "the dime store." Woolworth was of course the biggie, but there were the Ben Franklin stores, G.C. Murphy, and SS Kresge (now Kmart) among them -- some with soda fountains, some not. And 10 for a penny candy. Five and TenWhen I hear "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," I wonder if people under 30 or even 35 know what the term "five and ten" refers to. Take a look at the five and ten Glistening once again With candy canes ... UK WoolworthsAll of the remaining UK "Woolies" are to be closed in the coming months, victims of the times. No thanksWhen I want a food drink, I hoist a pint of Guinness. The 5 & 10I remember Woolworth's and its "5 and 10 cent" motto. Today it would more likely be "5 and 10 DOLLAR" store! :( Hey!Is that a folded dollar bill lying right by the door? You could get 20 Whistles with that. Where's Woolworth's?Any ideas as to where this store was? At the far lower right of the photo is a small sign for the store next door that says "Bee Hive Store 906." 906 was probably the address, but what street? [906 Seventh Street N.W. - Dave] The Five and DimeMany also referred to these popular stores as Five and Dimes. As I learned this term after moving away for college I believe it is another example of colorful regionalized language. [The region there was pretty much the entire United States, once upon a time. Five and Dime might be more generational than geographic. - Dave] Oasis on a rainy dayMy earliest memories of the old five-and-dimes include the smell of old wood -- wooden floors, bins, and counters -- and the buttery warmth of incandescent lights. Woolworth'sOur local Woolworth's in upstate NY was turning a great profit into the '90's, but had to close down when the rest of the chain did. The building is a library now. "Who cares if I drink my lunch? It's the Food Drink!" Grilled cheese & tomatoGrilled cheese & tomato sandwich at the Woolworth's counter - a great delicacy in my mind. More seriously, while we're talking Woolworth's lunch counters, the one in the Smithsonian recalls a bit of bravery in recent American history. MemoriesThat lunch counter In Michigan City, Indiana. Oh yeah. Hot turkey sandwich plates with green gravy. Pistachio, I'd guess. First JobMy first job was sweeping floors at the Woolworth in Hollywood at Hollywood & Vermont (Barnsdall Park) in Dec 1975. I later worked in the kitchen and out on the floor straightening and stocking shelves. I loved the hot dogs from the luncheonette. They had buns that were all attached and when you pulled them apart the sides were uncrusted. They would brown the sides of the buns in butter (ala a grilled cheese sandwich). Delicious! 5-10-15The expression was everywhere. In Longueuil, Quebec, near Montreal, where I used to live in the 50s, we had a Jazzar store, part of a small chain whose signs read "5-10-15." We used to say that we were going to the "cinq-dix-quinze." Were there 5-10-15 stores in the States? (Now, springing up everywhere are the Dollarama stores where everything is. .. a dollar.) WhistleFounded in 1916, Vess Beverage still makes a Whistle brand soda. The company is now owned by Cott. Charles Leiper Grigg invented the flavor. Yesterday 50 years agoWhen I saw this picture this morning the first thing I thought was Oh, how I wish I could walk through those doors one more time! They just don't make stores like that anymore. The smells of wood, of the soda fountain, the candy to be had for a penny a piece, the 10 cent toys. I'm so glad I have those experiences to remember. Kresge KristmasI have memories of going to the Kresge's near our house at Christmas time. I "rode" my bicycle through sloppy snow to choose treasures for Mom, Dad and my sister. I retrieved the glorious pink with white daisies Kleenex box cover and cup I bought on that trip from Mom's last year when we closed out her house. The matching johnny mop holder is lost. I'm happy she got 40 years of use out of them. I also went there with Dad to use the tube tester to ascertain which TV or radio tubes needed to be replaced. Holy crow, am I getting old. Cunningham DrugsWe always thought Cunningham Drugs was an upscale Woolworth's because they had their name tiled in at the front entrance. To this day, when I walk into an old building that used to house a drugstore or five-and-dime, I look for the tiled name. In old towns, I find the names quite often. It's always a little treat (probably also indicates a lifetime lack of big treats). I Found A Million Dollar BabyRob's bittersweet memory of the song, which captured the homey American love affair with five-and-dimes, sent me looking for a recording. This was one of the most popular songs of 1931 and thereafter, and was introduced on Broadway in May, 1931 by Fanny Brice, in the musical revue "Billy Rose's Crazy Quilt." Those who have Real Player on their computers can hear the best-selling 1931 recording of the song (Fred Waring's Orchestra, with vocals by Clare Hanlon and the "Three Girlfriends") at http://www.jazz-on-line.com/a/rama/VIC53080-2.ram Those without this player can find several 1931 recordings of it by visiting http://www.jazz-on-line.com/pageinterrogation.php and entering I Found A Million Dollar Baby on the page's search engine. All That JazzThanks Anonymous Tipster for the link to jazz online. That's really appreciated. If someone has other links to classic/traditional Jazz (New Orleans/Chicago/N.Y. but not Ragtime) please post. Thanks. Red Hot Jazz (history of jazz before 1930) is one of my favorites. I was also glad I found Jazzology. Merry Christmas to you all. The Dime StoreI was born in 1973, but my mom and dad always referred to the Ben Franklin store as the dime store. Nosey Little GirlI would always head for the pet department, candy, and toy sections. The candy counter had a real person who gave me what I wanted without a bar code. I always reported any animals that appeared sick, or dead, to the nearest clerk on duty. Heaven help them if they didn't remove the dead fish right away ! I would tell my mother. I miss dime stores very much. I won't go into Wal Mart. (The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo, Stores & Markets)
Sixth Avenue Shoppers: 1903
... Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Christmas in the Heart The sign in the center of the photo says "___ (Buy? The?) Christmas Dinner/25,000(?) Poor". There is a kettle, a la the Salvation ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/26/2012 - 4:57pm -

Circa 1903. "Shoppers on Sixth Avenue, New York City." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Christmas in the HeartThe sign in the center of the photo says "___ (Buy? The?) Christmas Dinner/25,000(?) Poor". There is a kettle, a la the Salvation Army, hanging just below the sign. Just past that, is a display of wreaths and other greenery. A man, who may be the proprietor of the greenery stand seems to be performing a Ministry of Funny Walks skit, but that's neither here nor there. Silver bells, silver bellsIn response to the first commenter, I think this photo was taken near Christmastime. If I'm not mistaken, there's a Salvation Army bellringer in the center of the frame, with her hanging kettle for donations. KickerI've become a Shorpyholic for a few months now... always interesting and full of potential questions which I've avoided until now... what is our friend, which I've called "Kicker," doing in the center of this wonderful photo? Great site which is a time machine that takes us back to days and people of long ago. UnchangedIsn't it amazing how many of the old structures are still there. Even more shocking is that those buildings look better now, more than a 100 years later, than they looked in 1903. Thanks for the great pix! And nowView Larger Map I was just shopping there this week!Wow, what a wonderful find. I have long wondered what Sixth Avenue looked like when the elevated was there. So funny that I shop the Bed Bath & Beyond and other stores here a few times a month. UptownI think it's looking uptown. The building on the right with the decorative arch looks like the present home of Bed & Bath, Filene's and TJ Maxx. The Kicker is......part of the American version of the Ministry of Silly Walks? Great picture, it seems that no matter what era it is there are still people looking for bargains at Christmas. CountlessLooking at photographs like this, I'm reminded of a passage in Hebrews that says we are "as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the grains of sand on the seashore." MagicJust mention the lack of people in the last photo and presto: a mob! I love it! Got my mom's saucepan thereNot five minutes ago I was discussing with my mother the six-quart saucepan I bought for her birthday while traveling in New York. Then I sat down and saw this picture of the very store where I made that purchase, 106 years later. Funny! Holy cow that's a lot of people.Could these have been Xmas shoppers? Was it like this every day? Ladies' Mile!Wow! Great shot of the "Ladies' Mile" - I see Alexander Shoes at the corner of 19th street -- any idea if this is looking up or downtown? I'm on Sixth Avenue at that spot quite often. No bare heads in 1903!In a "Where's Waldo" kind of challenge, try to find someone, male or female (children don't count) who is not wearing a hat. Siegel CooperCurrently home to Filene's, TJ Maxx and others, this was one massive store in its day. Its grand opening was in 1896: The Times reported that 150,000 people had attended the opening of what they called "a shopping resort." The store was prepared for 190,000 visitors a day, and employed 8,000 clerks and 1,000 drivers and packers. In addition to the usual vast array of merchandise of department stores then and now, Siegel Cooper had a telegraph office, a long-distance telephone office, a foreign-money exchange, stock-trading services, a dentist, and an advertising agency. Another NY Times article here. No wonder there were so many people there on the street! WowI used to work in that building in the mid 1980's before the neighborhood was revived as a shopping area. The building had some offices and smaller stores but the front shown here was empty. Some great architecture detail inside too. They also had a separate house/apartment on the roof. There are still offices apart from the stores. It is a huge building. Most of that area in the mid 80's was a bit abandoned and run down. It was a great idea to make use of all these amazing old buildings. Live right thereI live like right next to the building with the pointy lamps. Currently has a Bed Bath & Beyond in there along with a JC Penney. ModernityWhen we look at this photo, with folks dressed in their Victorian finery, horses and buggies in the street, and not an automobile in sight, we can easily forget that, for these people, a place like Sixth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan was the absolute cutting edge of modernity and cosmopolitanism. It was dazzling! Nothing in history had been anything like it. In the days before radio, TV, etc., if you pulled someone off a potato farm in Aroostook County, Maine, and plunked him down in his overalls in the middle of this street scene, he would have been absolutely dumbstruck beyond comprehension - much more so than is possible today. A railroad train on an overhead track screeching down the middle of a street crowded with hundreds of well-dressed people and lined with buildings 8 and 10 stories high? Stupefying!!! Shorpy tops itself againThis is the perfect example of why I have to visit your site every day (or at least every few days). This is such a fascinating photograph. I'm in that building right nowAs I type this, I'm at work on the 6th floor office in that building on the right --- which was only 6 years old in that picture. The old stairways are great, lots of iron details, as are the lions around the upper cornice. (Beats working in a building designed in Excel.) Dress trainsI like how in this photo you can see clearly -- in almost all the female figures not facing the camera -- the woman's habit of gathering the fabric of the back of the dress with the right hand, and holding it at her side as she walks. (The Gallery, DPC, NYC, Stores & Markets)
Stocking-Stuffer: 1922
... I! I was sad when they went out of production. Merry Christmas and Best Wishes to everyone at Shorpy. My first car was an ... that night. And the rest went down in history.. Merry Christmas to the Shorpy site. You guys are great! Merrye Yes, Lucille ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/24/2012 - 9:56pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1922. "Oldsmobile sales window." Some of us beyond a certain age might remember the Oldsmobile, or even have driven or owned one. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. Magritte's Inspiration?I have always been fascinated by Rene Magritte's Surrealist painting of 1938, "Time Transfixed." I've seen it many times at the Art Institute of Chicago, and I've always wondered where the artist got the idea of making a steam locomotive come puffing out of a fireplace. Now I know the answer! Oil leaksSo this is a brand new car and it has a drip pan underneath it? Olds ForeverI am of that age. My step-father had a '48 when he married my mom and was still driving them until the day he died. Always a plain-jane, no frills model up until he had open heart surgery. His doctor told him it was time he had A/C for his health. The last one he bought was the first he ever owned with any option. I learned to drive on a '56 Rocket 88. He did appreciate that big V8 engine, and so did I! I was sad when they went out of production. Merry Christmas and Best Wishes to everyone at Shorpy. My first carwas an Olds---a 1965 Cutlass. Being young and foolish I didn't realize that maintenance was required. I ran it nearly out of oil, the lifters were making lots of racket. As soon as I gave it it's proper allotment of oil it said "Thank you very much" and we went on our way. Still being foolish, I didn't know to make sure that the antifreeze solution was correct to withstand a Wisconsin winter, and allowed the radiator to freeze nearly solid. Once again, when I put in the proper fluids the car said "Thank you very much" and we went on our merry way. What a great car!! My current car is also an Olds. This time an Alero. Though not as hardy as the Cutlass was, it too, has been great transportation. Not dead yetThis is going to be my favorite surreal window display photo for a long time. My late mother drove a series of Oldsmobile 98s from 1964 until she passed away in 2008. I'm still driving her last car, the 1993 model with a transverse 4.2-litre front end drive, fuel-injected engine that gives me more than 20 mpg in town and 24 mpg on long freeway runs, and it still easily passes the increasingly stringent California smog tests. Its fuel efficiency won't impress many folks these days, but my old Chevy 3/4-ton pickup rarely gave me better than 9 mpg even downhill. I love driving this Olds and can't afford to replace it yet, even though it's getting damned hard to find many parts for it that 1993 Cadillac owners can still take for granted. Dear SantaCould you send one of those down my chimney tonight too? I promise not to have a fire burning in it. If my 12" diameter chimney is too small, just have the reindeer kick on the roof and I'll push the remote button to open the garage door. Santa's Failed Head Lights ExperimentAfter this 1922 failed use of modern head light technology to navigate chimneys, on December 24, 1923 Santa returned to the traditional use of Rudolph, with his nose so bright, to guide his sleigh that night. And the rest went down in history.. Merry Christmas to the Shorpy site. You guys are great! MerryeYes, Lucille is longing for a ride in her Merry Oldsmobile! It's now parked in the back with the Plymouth and the DeSoto and the Edsel and the Mercury. That's a very clever display gimmick. Here's wishing a Merry Oldsmobile to all my fellow Shorpy regulars, and a great New Year with lots of signage, fascinating people of the past, and—as always—a keener sense of history. HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Seasonal OldsmobileThis car must have made one heck of a stocking stuffer. OldsmobubbleMy uncle followed the General Motors path of lifetime GM ownership; starting with Chevy, moving on to Pontiac, then Oldsmobile, then Buick, and finally ending with Cadillac. I think of all those cars, the Oldsmobile Aurora was his favorite, although the Cadillac CTS ranked pretty highly too. It’s difficult to imagine that an automaker such as Oldsmobile, with their 107-year history is gone, but with so much model redundancy I suppose it was inevitable. I want one of those!Now that's what I call a stocking-stuffer! I really like the way they decorated the sales window to look like somebody's living room. And how thoughtful of Santa, to also put a sparkling-clean tray under the car to catch the oil droppings! (I wonder if new cars came with one of those trays as standard equipment back then...) Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year to all our fellow Shorpyites! Nah - can't be.Hey, is that a reflection of tterrace in one of the ornaments on the tree? Only kidding naturally. A very Merry Christmas to everyone in the Shorpy "family", and a special thank you to Dave for providing many enjoyable moments spent on his website this year. It was so nice of Santato leave something to catch the oil drips. And I love that lamp. Christmas CreativityThat is some very creative Christmas advertising! Merry Christmas, Shorpy!!!!! Almost had an OldsI was looking to buy my first car in 1994, and I thought about buying a late 1980's burgundy Olds...I ended up going with a 1986 gold-colored Pontiac Sunbird, instead. Tree Topper NeededI see that there is nothing at the top of the tree but if you know of Yosh and Stan Schmenge, you would remember that their custom is to toss a hat onto the top of their tree. As for Oldsmobiles, when my two oldest sons were ages 2 and 3, we moved next door to neighbors who owned a 1966 sleek powder blue, chrome-embellished loaded Toronado and they both admired and desired that car, even up until today, ages 46 and 47. It was a primo dazzler and they were just beginning to notice sharp vehicles and they still talk about it. It was "the car of the year" in 1966 and the word "toronado" had no meaning but it was pretty slick and my Chevy Impala at that time did not impress them. Merry Christmas and gratitude to all the jolly good producers, contributors and commenters of Shorpy, the best ever website. The first post WW2 factory hot rodWas an Oldsmobile Super88. This was a big Olds OH valve v8 in a Chevy sedan with Olds trim. A lot of fun was had in one of these at the early drag strips. 1951 OldsA Rocket 88 as I recall with the OHV V-8 and 4-speed Hydramatic transmission, owned briefly around 1975. Bought from a genuine Little Old Lady who let the transmission seals dry out and the fluid run dry. It would go for a little while on a couple of quarts, but after pumping a few quarts thru, I re-sold the car to someone who could afford to rebuild the transmission. Never did really care for the "frowny face" grille of that period. Early Nascar champ not forgottenFor 40 years I owned and drove a 1951 Hudson Hornet, the car that could blow the doors off of the Oldsmobiles of its era. Oil leaks? Oh yesAs a proud, long-time owner of several old cars manufactured during the 1920s and 1930s, there are indeed good reasons why drip pans were and are used. Come 'n listen to a story ...Trivia: The Beverly Hillbillies' truck was a 1923 Olds flatbed. Getting crowded back thereYes, Lucille is longing for a ride in her Merry Oldsmobile! It's now parked in the back with the Plymouth and the DeSoto and the Edsel and the Mercury. There's also the Pontiac and the Saturn, not to mention that big Hummer. And a Saab just pulled in. Auto mo-bubbling in my merry Oldsmobile.I had a 1973 Olds Cutlass S 2 door. Blue, with white interior. Clean. 350 Rocket. I wish it had a 455....... Olds and youth...In my youth, I owned a 1968 (maroon) Cutlass, a 1970 (gold) Cutlass, and a new 1976 Cutlass S (silver) in succession...all good cars and all had the 350 4 bbl. I have many fond memories of driving them as well as the other activities (wink-wink) they were used for. I still can't believe this hallowed marque is gone. Cutlass was SupremeThe Olds Cutlass Supreme was the best selling car in America in the mid 1970s. Not too long ago, when I was broke and needed a car, a co-worker sold me his '79 Cutlass Supreme for 200 bucks. I spent 10 bucks on an AM/FM radio out of a junked Buick Regal (same car, really), and, aside from tires, a water pump and an ignition module, drove it every day for two years without a problem. My mechanic neighbor waxed rapturous over its bulletproof small block V8, "You can't kill these things!" If it wasn't for the rusty frame, I might've kept it longer, but I was afraid the trunk was going to fall off in traffic. Oldsmobile, like Pontiac and Saturn, was the victim of an evolving American market, one where GM could no longer expect buyers to stay with the General over a lifetime of car ownership. The same could be said for Mercury and Plymouth. Hummer died because it was an insane product and people finally came to their senses. Now This Was An OldsmobileThe first of my three daughters, Robin, at the wheel of my 1963 Olds Starfire. Kodachrome slide from 1964. My last Yank TankMy last American car, and actually the ONLY new car I owned that was truly an American car, was my 1993 Olds Cutlass Cruiser that I ran for 11 years and 271,000+ miles. It drove great in the snow, and was a faithful vehicle until it was just too run down to keep going. I wish this division had been retained by GM, since it had better quality than its other fellow divisions. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Christmas, D.C., Natl Photo)
Christmas: 1963
This is the same Christmas as seen here . The lady is unknown. View full size. My ... So now we know how Tony's grandma got so pretty! Christmas with Nana This is my grandmother Virginia DeVoe. Being the eldest ... she left it as is. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Christmas, Tonypix) ... 
 
Posted by Tony W. - 09/17/2011 - 8:09pm -

This is the same Christmas as seen here. The lady is unknown. View full size. My present, my carpetSomebody got an Etch-A-Sketch. Maybe this was about the time I got mine. Also, this carpet seems to be channeling our carpet from thenabouts. I also like the The Thinker bookend; can't quite make out if it's one of a pair. Close UpIt is indeed a pair. Contemporary lookIf she changed the specs, this could be today. First the ends, now the booksThanks for the close-up. Now I'm obsessing over the books. The only one I can make out for sure is Elmer Gantry; probably a paperback reprint of Sinclair Lewis's 1926 novel issued to coincide with the 1960 Burt Lancaster film version. The big green textbooky one is driving me nuts, though. Oh, we also see the traditional pine cone with glitter and tiny ornaments glued on. Apparently every house had at least one back then. Some detailsNotice the blood red details in this picture; fingernails, tree light at the top left, the Etch-a-Sketch and the box (?) on the desk. What's with the sparsely decorated tree and the way the tinsel and what seems to be spray snow are clumped in the middle?? "The lady"Tony, This was my grandma on Mom's side. She died when I was very young. The bookend stayed with us for years, as did the statue drawing that my mom drew. Aunt Connie has it now. Love Dad So now we knowhow Tony's grandma got so pretty! Christmas with NanaThis is my grandmother Virginia DeVoe. Being the eldest child, I remember most details of this photo. Her glasses corrected the only thing that masked her younger beauty, slightly crossed eyes. In this photo she had cancer -- she died at age 45. She wanted to be called Nana. The bookends are indeed a pair. My mother, her daughter, left the "thinking man" to me. The other was unfortunately decapitated in some household accident. To this day the latter sits on my fireplace mantel. I don't know what the green book is, but the black one is a Rudyard Kipling collection. The Etch-a-Sketch was a shared treasure. The book was a gift for me. My first. I spent many days and nights reading to my brother and sister. My mom drew the oriental pen and ink which was sadly lost in the late '80s. My Nana could sing like a bird, and sang me to sleep many times. I believe the tinsel was put on quickly because we kids may have decorated the tree with her. Never one to change things, she left it as is. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Christmas, Tonypix)
Santa Baby: 1952
... Next year I could be oh so good If you'd check off my Christmas list Boo doo bee doo Santa honey, I wanna yacht and really ... and hurry down the chimney tonight Come and trim my Christmas tree With some decorations bought at Tiffany's I really do ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/12/2011 - 11:11am -

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. Rest in PeaceThe good ones always go too early. Hurry down the chimney tonightSanta baby, slip a sable under the tree, for me I've been an awful good girl Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight Santa baby, an outer-space convertible too, light blue I'll wait up for you dear Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight Think of all the fun I've missed Think of all the fellas that I haven't kissed Next year I could be oh so good If you'd check off my Christmas list Boo doo bee doo Santa honey, I wanna yacht and really that's Not a lot I've been an angel all year Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight Santa cutie, there's one thing I really do need, the deed To a platinum mine Santa cutie, and hurry down the chimney tonight Santa baby, I'm filling my stocking with a duplex, and checks Sign your 'X' on the line Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight Come and trim my Christmas tree With some decorations bought at Tiffany's I really do believe in you Let's see if you believe in me Boo doo bee doo Santa baby, forgot to mention one little thing, a ring I don't mean a phone Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight Hurry down the chimney tonight Hurry down the chimney tonight. RIP EarthaShe was one of a kind. RIP CatwomanEartha will always be Catwoman to me. The Joker and Catwoman capture Batgirl (video) GiftedThis is a beautiful photo of a gifted woman taken by a gifted man. I'll miss Eartha but am happy to be reminded of the great Gordon Parks. PurrrrrrrrrrrrfectEartha Kitt. Talk about sexy. Sorry to see her go. Santa BabyEartha certainly had a good sense of timing as to what day to take her last bow. What a performer!I had the good fortune of catching her performance in a small club in NYC about 6 years ago. Age did not diminish her love for what she did - and her voice and musical expression were as sure as ever! Santa BabyThe lyrics posted earlier are close but incorrect. These are the correct lyrics which I found here. Sorry couldn't have people thinking she sang about "outer space convertible" LOL! ["Outer-space convertible" (meaning far-out, the very latest thing) was part of the lyrics in later releases of the song. - Dave] How do you delete a comment?How do you delete a comment? (Cats, Gordon Parks, LIFE, Music, NYC)
Christmas Dinner: 1950s
... Thank you, Dave and thanks to fellow Shorpy fans. Merry Christmas to all. Not New England ! This can't be a New England Christmas dinner. No bottles of Moxie on the table! It was a staple at all our ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/25/2013 - 3:08pm -

From the "Linda" Kodachromes, circa 1950s, somewhere in New England. A place at the table, just for you. Gravy, anyone? View full size. Tavern Brand Candles ...... in the centerpiece. From Socony Mobil, home of the Flying Red Horse. We had trees and a large Santa, now lost alas. 5 years, 42 weeksThat's how long I've been a registered Shorpyite, and each day the site seems a gift. Thank you, Dave and thanks to fellow Shorpy fans. Merry Christmas to all. Not New England ! This can't be a New England Christmas dinner. No bottles of Moxie on the table! It was a staple at all our family holiday dinners back in 1950's Massachusetts. Brings back memoriesThis table reminds me of the Christmas and other dinners my Mother in law used to prepare. She was an excellent cook. Years later our grown children talk to me about the meals we spent at her table. That roast and brown gravy, mashed potatoes and peas or carrots and a wonderful salad she always made with her own homemade dressing. All of us around the table like those folks enjoying a better than A+ rated restaurant meal. I always told her she should open a restaurant. Thanks for the pictures Dave and I hope you have enjoyed a very Merry Christmas today. I See The Green ThingysIt seems like no family dinner was complete during the 1950s unless everybody's plate got loaded up with those huge Birdseye frozen peas. I ate millions of them as a boy. Oh, my lost youthThe Christmas dinners of long ago: Turkey, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, green peas, creamed pearl onions ... and ... iced tea? In New England?? Seriously??? Rockwell?Almost looks like a Norman Rockwell painting. I think it's CiderIn response to Marchbanks - I believe that would be cider at the table. Iced tea would have ice in it. Also, growing up in New England we had cider from Oct till Jan It was usually mixed with something that the adults enjoyed. Mismatched glassesare so Fifties! And what's with the glass of milk in the middle of the table? I love the Christmas striped bow tie on "Uncle Fred" and the Christmas corsages on the old ladies, too. Very festive scene! Hand MashedNo smooth ready made mashed potatoes on this table I'll wager. Hand mashed, thick and lumpy is the only way to go. They do love the gravy...and what's with those curtains?! Good Gravy!The nice brown gravy that the head of the table is so joyfully pouring on his turkey and dressing reminds me of my own family. My great-great grandmother was from Alsace-Lorraine. She was a great cook and taught her five daughters to make delicious, brown, roasted meats and gravies. Those daughters taught their daughters, and so on and so forth! In our family, holiday dinners just don't cut it without our wonderful, brown gravy! Four generations?Do we have four generations at this table? That is a gift in itself! Kids Table?I bet there is a card table set up behind the camera that has all the little ones eating by themselves. Just like we did so many years ago Jar candleI think you'll find in the full-sized view that the "glass of milk" in the centerpiece is a jar candle. Since it doesn't match with the other items, maybe it was brought as a gift? (Christmas, Linda Kodachromes)
A Boy and His Toys
... Toy Adding Machine (1940's). It's too late for this Christmas, but you can buy one on eBay for about $15. Deep in (evil) ... Buckshot Corduroy I believe the boy got brand new Christmas pants and they were made of fabric called "buckshot corduroy". I ... 
 
Posted by down_like_silver - 12/27/2008 - 4:20pm -

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. The PhoneThe dial was invented in 1891 and put into use in 1892 when the first exchange was opened. The phone is an Automatic Electric 1A which was in use from 1925 to approximately 1950. The ShirtThat shirt he is wearing says 1940-41. His mother must have forced it on him. In 47-48 I got a similar one in a box of hand-me-downs from my cousins. Do your bestThe Official Flags of the BSA referenced by Gary Faules at 11:57 am, indicates that this is for Den 2 not Pack 2. Dens are subsets of packs and there are usually a number of dens making up a pack. It all adds up.In response to the A.T. question about the thing on the stool, a Google search turned up a Wolverine Toy Adding Machine (1940's). It's too late for this Christmas, but you can buy one on eBay for about $15. Deep in (evil) thoughtPugsley Addams contemplates new and exciting uses for dynamite. Allow Me to Pile OnThe Twenty Game Combination also seems to be from at least the late 1930's: http://www.tias.com/cgi-bin/google.fcgi/itemKey=1923109051 Merry Xmas, keep up the excellent work on the website!! Buckshot CorduroyI believe the boy got brand new Christmas pants and they were made of fabric called "buckshot corduroy". I remember this from the very early 40's (and for about a decade later) and they were extra heavy, thick, bulky and embarrassing because when you walked, it made the sound of someone tearing up cardboard and the faster you walked, the more tearing took place. People could be heard swishing everywhere, even when their shoes were nearly silent and it was an unwelcome attention-getter. Yeah, this kid was hefty, but we can't all be sylph-like and physically perfect. When one plants a McIntosh, one gets a McIntosh. Two rotund parents create a rotund kid, but that is just as God made him. I would guess this was about 1941. Hey Wally! Hey Beav!This is the corner of Wally and Beaver's room that you never got to see. The pendant says "Illinois State House" and I'll presume that the square flag is for Cub Scout Pack #2. That "thing" on the stool looks like an adding machine or some sort of early calculator - but not a ten-key. Beyond that, the picture looks a little stagey to me, not like a "real" boy's room - unless his Mother just spent the day in there cleaning and tidying for the photographer. I can see Dave putting on his white gloves as I type this, but I'll say it anyway: that boy has an awfully FAT ASS for a kid, doesn't he? And now that I've been banned, I'll go for broke and wonder out loud what nasty stuff might be hidden at the bottom of one of those drawers - you know, under his butterfly collection? Merry Christmas, Dave! Dead GiveawayIf you look at the board above his head you will see an image of an automobile. I believe it is a 1937 Chevy. But whatever it is, it is late 1930's or early 1940's. Another year1943 is also a year with a December 31st falling on a Friday. [That's a January 1941 calendar in the photo. - Dave] Wave your flag up highAccording to The Official Flags of the BSA the blue flag is a Cub Scout pack flag. http://www.mninter.net/~blkeagle/flags.htm The Good ScoutThat's Baby New Year and Father Time on the calendar, which would be for January -- 1930, 1936 or 1941. This photo has a mid-30s, early 40s look to it. What a great picture! The plane, the planeJust under the top shelf of the book case below the toy soldiers and the tent at the right in the picture is what seems to be a thin box. If you look carefully at the aircraft that's on the side of the box, you can see that it appears to be of a design that was not made until at least the mid to late 30s. An aircraft expert could help more. Just a swagI'd hazard a guess of 1937. Take a look at the toy truck by the book. Seems to have a decidedly 1930's look to me. That and the lamp and the telephone would make me think the later 1930's. The Phone, The Phone.The telephone is also a giveaway. Although invented in 1919, dial telephone service did not come into popular use until the 1930`s, and this phone is a later model. The truck.That truck under the Christmas tree looks like a more advanced design than any of the other mid 1920-s examples I've seen on Shorpy. Also, that carved elephant is awesome. On my honor I will do my best..."The Boy Scouts to the Rescue" was written by Charles Henry Lerrigo and the hardback with cover was copyrighted in 1920 and there was ony one printing ever published. That one appears to be brand new judging by the condition of it. [That book had a different cover. - Dave] PhoneThat phone looks awfully small for this period; I'd be willing to bet it's a toy. As to the period, everything about it - toys, clothes, furniture, graphics styles - screams late-30s to early-40s to me. A bit before my time, but my brother would have been about this kid's age then, and there was still lots of his stuff around when I was growing up and cohabiting his bedroom. Maybe a little later?I'd probably lean towards the later date, as the boy has a reasonably modern-looking wristwatch. I was under the impression that wristwatches were still "newfangled" and pretty expensive through the 20s. Also, the telephone should be a clue. I don't have any idea when phones made their various changes, but that style tends to make me think newer rather than older. It's also interesting that, if this is the boy's bedroom (and not a corner of the livingroom or den) then having his own phone is pretty noteworthy. Just having an extension was a nontrivial additional cost- this was back when you leased the telephone itself from the phone company. Any experts out there to help? Oh, one more hint I just noticed: See the cars on the feltboard? Those are definitely '30s-and-later designs, and not '20s. Any guesses on the cord coming out of the lamp? I'm assuming the Christmas tree is plugged into that- or possibly the desk lamp itself, which would explain why the tree isn't lit. The house could easily be old enough it has no- or very few- actual outlets. The truck, the truckThe cab and fenders of the truck under the Christmas tree suggest mid to late '30s at the earliest. Far too rounded and aerodynamic-style to be 1926. Looking at the cars pinned to the board above him, I'd venture to say the calendar shows January 1941. Toy SoldiersThe toy soldiers are made by Manoil, so it's gotta be '30s at least. The Pants, The PantsThe boy is wearing long pants, not very likely in 1926. Everything else in the room says late 1930s into the early 1940s, except that combination gas/electric wall sconce. Definitely an older house, but not so very old in 1937 or 1941. I'd go with January 1941, since the calendar art does appear to depict Father Time and the New Year Baby, and Christmas decorations stay up in many homes through Twelfth Night (Epiphany, January 6th). Whatever the date, thanks and Merry Christmas to you Dave, and everyone else, for providing us all with so much innocent merriment year-round. Around or after 1939The book under his little tree gives us a pretty close date... "Boy Scouts to the Rescue" by Leonard K Smith was published by Little, Brown in 1939. The book is not to me mistaken with "THE Boy Scouts to the rescue" by George Durston, published by Saalfield in 1921. If you look at the bottom of the book cover, you can clearly see the letters RD, so it's a pretty safe bet that it's the Leonard K Smith book. Also the Durston book has a very different cover. January 1941The image on the lower calendar is "A Boy Scout Is Helpful," painted by Norman Rockwell for the 1941 Boy Scout Calendar. Happy to be of help, The Art Sleuth Remaining MysteriesWhat do you suppose he's staring at and what is that thing sitting on the stool? Collective wisdomI went off to Christmas activities and came back to read what you all shared - it's overwhelming and I thank you. This picture came from a lot taken by an amateur photographer who lived in my present neighborhood. They span several decades and extended family and friends. Older than Yoda: I always wondered about those horrible pants! Where is "this neighborhood"?I like to add state and city details to the pictures! It's a beautiful day in the neighborhoodMost of the photographs were taken around Macarthur Boulevard in Springfield, Illinois. Dear Gramma...Thanks for the pants... I recognize the stance of a mandatory thank-you letter being written. The picture is just proof that it was done. Good one. Eau de CorduroyTo this day I can still remember the smells of the Shrine Of The Little Flower if by chance it rained on a Friday. The combination of wet corduroy and the egg or fish sandwiches we brown-bagged for lunch would fill the halls of learning with an odor I still remember 60 years later. It was a tough life, my children, when you had to walk uphill to school during driving rainstorms while protecting your homework and lunch. And yes we had to walk uphill going back home, too. Springfield, Illinois?I thought that whole photograph felt awfully familiar. I was born in Springfield in April of 1945, and lived there until 1964. Thanks for the details, folks. Toy soldiersThe toy soldiers on the shelves to the right - my dad passed along to me some that he had when he was a kid. Since Dad was born in 1925, I would guess that they are WWI cast toy soldiers. Very nice collectible. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Christmas)
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