Buy Me Some Peanuts...

I LOVE Saturday mornings.  I get to sleep in as late as I want, or at least until Mr. Right shows up at my house and pounces on me.  (I made it all the way to 7:30 this morning, which is pretty good!)  And I usually have time to knit a bit and scan some of the Picture Pile of Doom.  What's not to love?

This week in  honor of opening weekend (that's the start of baseball season for those of you who aren't in the states, or just don't care about such trivial stuff), I decided to share some photos of my uncle Donald.  Donald was my grandmother's baby brother, and the Unknown Soldier of my picture pile.  Apparently, he was also an avid baseball player...



I'm guessing this was taken around 1940, when Donald would've been 15.  It's a pretty cool shot, but not nearly as fun as this one...



He's totally safe, by the way.  Pretty close call, though.  These were a fun find, especially since by the time I met him, Donald was an old guy with two grown kids and a huge, slobbery St. Bernard named Rosie.  It's nice to know he took some time to go play outside.  Which, coincidentally, is exactly what I'm about to do.  But when I get back, I'm going to go check out lots of other fun vintage photos over at Sepia Saturday.  Go visit if you get the chance!

Home on the Range?

A few weeks ago, I learned that I can scan more than one picture at a time on my fancy dancy scanner.  Yep, that's right folks.  I's a smart one.  Anyway, as someone who's faced with eleventy billion family photos, this little factoid has pretty much changed my life.

So today, I've been scanning.  And sifting through the mystery pile.  I try and do it every month or so, and can usually find a home for at least one or two more pictures each time.  There are some mystery pics though, that I don't think I'll ever have an answer for.  They seem to be of friends rather than family, and have no markings at all.  But some of them are really cool.

Last week, I found 3 pictures from a set of these two ladies...

I've no idea who they are, or more importantly, *where* they are, but I absolutely love these photos...

They seem so out of sync with what you'd expect for the time (I'm thinking 20s - 30s, but feel free to correct me!). 

These shots came out of my great grandmother's box, so they must've been friends or distant relatives of hers, but that's about all I can come up with.  Neither of them seem to appear in any other photos, and my family wasn't exactly "outdoorsy".  So I'll just chalk these up to a cool mystery, and dive back into the scanning pile, right after I check out all of the other Sepia Saturday posts...



Vintage Family Photos

I think I mentioned last week that, just before Christmas, in a mad frenzy to find my roll of plaid ribbon, I unearthed 2 more boxes of ancient family photos that I had forgotten about and have been safely stowed in the craft room closet since we moved here from California.

Looking through them, it seems as though the bulk of these belonged to my great grandmother, aka Nana.  I have no idea who the majority of the folks are in these pictures, but many of them were taken between the turn of the century and the late 1920s.  And they are super cool.  So I thought I'd share a couple today, just for fun, and link up to the Sepia Saturday group - who you should totally check out if antique photos are your thing.  Just saying.

Anyway, I LOVE the tricycles in this one, and the showdown that seems to be going on.  I wonder who won?

I don't recognize any of the folks in this other picture, either, but the clothing is all kinds of awesome.  I love the "beach" attire...

Seriously fun.  If I find out who any of these folks are, I'll speak up.  For the moment, I'm going to wade back into the piles and see what other treasures are lurking.

Happy Weekend!

Merry Christmas!

My mom, in her very proper picture with Santa, circa 1950...

I, on the other hand, was slightly more suspicious of the big guy when my turn came 25 or so years later...

Apparently, we all keep Christmas in our own ways.  And however you keep it, I wish you all the merriest of Christmases!

ps.  Check out Sepia Saturday for more good, old fashioned Christmas cheer!

Without a Trace

I've mentioned before that my biological grandfather (Mom's dad) is somewhat of a mystery.  Supposedly he and my grandmother divorced when my mom was very young.  As the story goes, he was a bad guy, involved in organized crime.  I never met him.  Around the time I graduated from high school, Mom said she called the Los Angeles police department to check up on him.  She said they told her he was still actively being a bad guy.  She wouldn't elaborate, and that's the last I ever heard of him.

So if all this is true, how come I can't find anything about him online?  No birth record.  No death record.  No census records.  No marriage records.  No criminal record.  No military record, though he's wearing a uniform in this picture of him and my mom ...


Also missing?  My mom's birth certificate, which would have at least some information about him that I could track down.  He doesn't look like a bad guy.  But then this is the only picture of him that I know of. 

So, Mr. Frank Hermans... Who the heck are you?  And where and who did you come from?  Inquiring minds are at a loss...

While you're pondering that, go check out Sepia Saturday for loads of other vintage photos!

Saturday Night Fever

We've been out and about for the last several Saturdays, either goofing off (fun), running errands (less fun) or, in the case of last Saturday, fixing my fence (way, way not fun).  Regardless, I haven't been able to participate in Sepia Saturday for a while and I've been missing it.  Mostly because a few weeks ago, I found this:



There's an album in my pile which, from the looks of it, whas put together some time in the 60s by my Grandma Ruby Day for my dad.  It's an odd mixture of his baby pictures, his grandparents on both sides and his children.  Some are marked, but most, like this one, aren't. What a shame.  I think, judging from other photos, that the gentleman with the worried look on his face (2nd from left) might be my great-grandfather.  Here's hoping he was a really good bluffer and that his hand isn't quite as bad as his face makes it look.

Regardless, I love this shot -- the liquor strewn over the table, the tipped hand that you can see belonging to the guy who's been cut out of the picture, the utter concentration.  It's all pretty much awesome.  This is what I expect your typical Saturday night might've looked like in Kansas farm country way back when (1910 or so?).  If anyone can better place the period based on the clothing or scenery, I'd love to hear about it.

Party on!

(and check out Sepia Saturday for tons of other cool vintage photos)

A Day to Remember

A couple of weeks ago, someone who stumbled across this blog invited me to participate in a meme called Sepia Saturday.  The idea is to post vintage pictures.  As it happens, I have approximately eleventy billion vintage pictures.  And, since this is the first Saturday that I was able to participate, I sat down to pick through them and find a few to share.  I'm thinking that this being September 11 and all, it would be good to honor the folks in my family who've fought to protect their country.  Here they are...

This is my brother,  who served during the Vietnam war.  According to family legend, he was the only survivor from his squad.  I don't know if this is actually true, because as far as I know, he never spoke about his time there. 

This is my dad, who served as an aircraft mechanic during WWII.  He was fresh out of high school at the time.  I love how much alike they look in these photos, taken  at least 25 years apart.

And this is my grandpa (on Mom's side, no relation to the guys above).  He's the scrawny little guy on the front left.  As far as I can tell, he was a tank gunner during WWII -- probably because he fit.

Thankfully, all 3 of them made it home safely -- unlike many of their friends and fellow soldiers.  So today, just a moment of thanks for Dad, Grandpa and my brother, all of the soldiers who fought by their sides, those who came before them, and those who followed in their footsteps.  May their sacrifices never be in vain.