Victorian Pizza Party?

 I picked up this photo in a box of postcards at a sale recently.  I would date the photo to around the turn of the 20th century.  Frankly, the image baffled me.  This jovial group appears to be dining on pizza.  

For Amber Waves of Grain

More photos from the lot.  These two young ladies appear to be embracing shocks of wheat.

Planes, Sleighs and Automobiles (Sorry, No Trains)

Well, the last time I posted, Summer was just about to begin, now it's already in its final 1/3.  Time gets away from me these days.  I thought I'd try to make up for the lack of posts with a deluge of photos from the same lot as my last post.  First up is this 1930s American Airlines DC-3 "Flagship".

A Girl and her Mule(?)

I recently acquired a large collection of vintage photographs from an estate sale.  The photos date from the 1920's and 30's, so I'm assuming they were not taken by the person whose estate sale it was, but perhaps a parent or other relative.  From reading through them, it appears this person may have been a nurse and the photos are of many different people, perhaps friends and work acquaintances. Most were taken either in Cape Girardeau or St. Louis, Missouri.  The nice thing is, many are labeled with the name of the person in the photo and the date the photo was taken, a very uncommon practice from my own experience with vintage photos.  I plan on posting some of the more interesting ones over the upcoming weeks.  I also plan on attempting to locate relatives of the individuals in the photos to return the pictures or at least provide a scan for them.

Of course, having said that about the labeling of the photos, the first image I offer up has nothing on the back.  Just a girl and her mule(?).  I question that, because honestly, I'm not sure if it's a mule or a horse.  Initially, it looks like a horse, but then the ears look a little large and the mane seems a little tight.  Maybe someone with more horse/mule familiarity can clarify.

The shadowed line in the photo isn't a crease or a shadow on the scan, but rather appears to be a defect in the film.

I'd place this photo in the 1940's given the pants the girl is wearing. I believe these were called "Sailor's Pants".

Of All the Blogs in the World, You had to Walk into Mine

Did you ever have a dream and wake up thinking, "That's a great idea for a blog title!"  No? Maybe it's just me.  But that's how I came up with today's blog title.

I dreamt long-time reader and longer-time friend FrankO had sent me some items he had found and within lay some mystery to solve. All I can remember about the items were they were a gathering of paper; photos, newspaper clippings, etc.  And FrankO wanted me to research and solve something about them.  And so, I wrote a blog about solving the mystery of them and titled the blog as I've done here.  

As I said, I then woke up and thought, "Hey! That's a great idea for a blog title!"  Unfortunately, I didn't have a mystery garage sale find to go with it.  But as I lay there unable to fall back asleep because now my brain was in overdrive, I realized, I kind of DO have a garage sale mystery I recently found.

But first, let's talk about that title.  What does it have to do with mysteries?  At first I thought, well of course, it's a Humphrey Bogart line. I could hear him saying it.  Then I realized, it's a line from "Casablanca" where he is decidedly not a detective.  The actual quote is "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."  But I swear I can visualize a femme fatale walking into a stereotypical detective's office (feet kicked up on the desk) and him uttering a line similar to this.

So where was the detective connection to Humphrey Bogart? Ah yes, "The Maltese Falcon" in which he plays "Sam Spade".  But how did this quote get intertwined with Bogart's portrayal of Dashiell Hammett's private dick? I can only guess that some parody I've seen over the years employed it. Carol Burnett? I know Steve Lawrence played a "Sam Spade" character in "Double Calamity" on her show, but I couldn't find any scene that fit my memory.  Oh well, some mysteries aren't meant to be solved, only accepted.  Now you can see why I have trouble falling back asleep.

Anyway, back to my mystery.

I found this portrait in a box of photographs at a recent sale.

Mary with Santa

 This past summer, I came across this vintage Real Photo Postcard of a young girl with Santa Claus.

How's About a Nice Hawaiian Blog?

Aloha!

I found this Hawaiian cutey at a recent sale.  She's plastic and tin and a wind-up.  She was made in Japan and probably dates to the 1960's.

 

Snapshots in Time

I've been going through my backlog of items for quite a while now and just came across this photo album I picked up at least a year ago.

It's a collection of black and white snapshots of a couple's trip to New York and New Jersey around June of 1944.  I don't know their names, so let's just call them "Alice" and "Stan".

J. H. Waldeck Vienna Bakery & Confectionery

The annual Canterbury Manor subdivision sale was this weekend (always the weekend after Labor Day).  I've been going for at least 15 years and I always find something interesting. This year was no exception. I was at one sale and about leave after having bought a couple books when I noticed a box of old photographs. Looking through the photos, I found a few that piqued my interest.

Ha-cha-cha-chaaaaaaa!

I was at an estate sale this morning rifling through a bunch of old photos and came across this autographed photo of Jimmy Durante.

Sterno for Sale

I have no idea why someone took a picture of a Sterno display window in the 1930's, nor do I know why someone would have saved it for the next 90 years, but I'm glad they did.

This is the history that fascinates me.  What would it have looked like to peer into the front window of a hardware store in the 1930's?  Here it is.  This history, not meant to be remembered, in my opinion is as important as the history we hold academic; normal day-to-day life, not presidents, wars or stock market fluctuations.  It's the history the majority of us live.

$300 in Cash Prizes, the sign in the window promises, but for some reason the cans boast $2,500 in prizes.  I wonder if the store was offering their own lesser prize.  I wonder who won.

Printed by Carna Studio Photo Finishing and given their Red-Seal.  I have no idea who they were nor does the internet.

Korea in Black and White

I found these pictures at the same sale where I found the photo in my previous post. They are of a military base in Korea in the early 1950's.

Wouldn't You Like to be a Pepper Too?

I found this photo at an estate sale last weekend and it immediately reminded me of the cover to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The Old But Not So Grand Opry

I bought a frame at an estate sale this weekend which I intend to use as a record album frame.  These pictures came with it.  They appear to be a tribute to a night (or rather several nights) of fun among friends in my hometown of Oakville, Missouri.  I'm unsure of the year, but I would guess mid 60's.

What's in a Name?

It's not often that I get more mileage out of the same find, but the cache of photographs I found of Shirley White proved even more interesting when I began researching the photographer who took them.

Forgotten Faces

I found these photos in a box of miscellaneous travel brochures from the '60's.  These 2 young girls are Reba and Credithe, as noted on the back.  Not sure which is which.  Your choice.

They stare out at us from more than a century ago.  I would place these two in the 1880's or 90's.

The entire internet knows of only 1 Credithe.  She lived from 1893 to 1974 and is buried in Indiana.  A possibilty, although a slim one.  The most popular Reba on the internet is this one.  I don't think it's her...

There was no label for the next picture.  There's pencil script below right of the picture, but I can't make it out.  Some better photo editing software might be able to enhance it.  She's an attractive young lady and I've decided she was a schoolmarm.  Hey, it's my picture now.

The moral of this story is, label your photos well.  You never know where they may end up a century from now. 

"Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph.  Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you." 
- "Bookends" by Simon and Garfunkel.