Uncle Charlie

Away from the cars for a bit. I'll come back to them as I have a lot of car pics. No date but written on the bottom is Uncle Charlie so at least we know this dapper looking gents name. Looks to be professionally done although there is no photographers stamp on it. It has the postcard back which was pretty common back around the turn of the century for family photos. A lot of black backing stuck to it so it was in a family album at some point.

Home Racing cars

I have a few pics like this one, cars made into racers usually situated on a farm somewhere

Must have been a popular pastime. Again I don't know the original model but this seems to me to be a former family car that was chopped and reformed into something to rip around in. You can again see the crank on the front of this and I can't in this one but usually the gas tank is behind the persons head or under the seat.

51 Plymouth

Not so vintage as most of the pictures I have posted but a nice picture of a neat car. It's the front of a postcard I think sent out by the dealers as an advertisement, maybe furnished by the dealers to thier customers. At least it's one I can identify.

Got some good pictures in the mail today, some of cars. Nice lady I buy from on Ebay sent a couple of extra which I always appreciate. She checks in here now and then so I'll use this space for a big Thank You. Ebay is a good place to look for vintage photo's so long as you have some idea of what your doing, looking for and how much your willing to spend. Like anything else you need to be careful, a few sellers misrepresenting what they have or other tricky things but you can't go wrong with this seller.

Girls and Car

Three girls hanging around the family car, maybe waiting for thier guy friends to come and go somewhere. This was one of a couple of pics from an album and in one of the others it showed one of the girls getting ready to crank the car up, crank should

be visable in enlargement of this (click for big size).

Vintage Car and neat coat

As too often I don't have any information on this photo, neato old car and I like the guys coat although it's not for me, just couildn't pull it off. I see the license plate ends with NJ but don't no if thats just part of the registration number or maybe stands for New Jersey? The tires are bald but I think I remember reading that some tires were made like that, don't remember why though. As always I welcome anyone that can fill in the blanks for me.

My plan is to stick with cars for a couple of days although I reserve the right to change my mind, wouldn't want to do anything silly like go with a theme, jumping around is more my style.

No post on my other blog today, working on something large and got involved in it but I didn't see the hawk today. Did see a couple of robins, the first I have noticed although I have heard that they do not fly south for the winter, that they are around all the time. I don't see them in the winter though so if that's true they must lay pretty low.

The fun part of vintage automobiles

I do have an obvious facination with the "olden days", sometimes even thinking to myself that I was born at the wrong time in history. I am especially fond of the early automobiles and my collection of vintage photos includes many. It's not hard to see though that the grass isn't always greener on the other side or the other time for that matter. No CD, MP3 players, no radio or heat and the roads weren't quite what they are today. ( well maybe not in places other then Illinois). Tires didn't have 30,000 or 40,000 mile quarentees either. I have a couple series of pictures like this in my collection and have an idea it was a pretty familiar sight along the roads in the early 1900's. I've seen more then one picture where the car was packing not one but two or more spares. From the looks of it it was a good workout changing one too.

Lewis Gun?

I had said I would stay off the soldiers for awhile but as we have a new friend that has some knowledge I made an effort and found the picture I was talking about with the machine gun.

I believe it to be a Lewis but could be wrong. I know a little about some things but a lot about little. Hopefuly Dan will check back and let me know what this is. This is a detail of the complete photo and also a much better picture of the soldier although I see no collar insignia or anything else that would identify him. He is certainly squared away, maybe an officer?

Vintage Cheesecake

I think this is a sexy pic. The girl on the beach here is pretty and the pose is sexy. The obvious about it is of course how little flesh she has exposed.

I went to the 7-11 about an hour ago and where you check out they have magazines displayed, mens and womens and all with some young thing on the cover wearing little more then a strip here and another there. Showing up on a public beach like that when this girl was around would have gotten a young lady ushered off to the slammer. I sure don't have anything against the girls on the magazines. I'm at the age where I don't get too excited about it but what was nice to look at when I was twenty still is nice to look at but when I see a picture like this one that gives the same reaction I wonder if they haven't gone too far.

Soldiers again

Three more pics today of world war one era soldiers and I'll leave them alone for awhile anyway.

Two are of the same man, the one standing by the tent and the one in the vehicle. There was a third, the best of the bunch of the man with a lewis machine gun but I can't find it now. I don't actually have the standing or the lewis picture anymore, having sold them to buy more pictures but still have them stored on my puter somewhere. The other with the ladies in the trenches was obviously taken here in the US, actually I think they all were, like yesterday before they shipped out. The one not here with the Lewis gun was probably before the war as all the Lewis machine guns were taken away from the infantry to be mounted on airplanes, another new weapon turning up during that war.

WW I Postcards

Two postcards from the Great War era. One is trying to get us to buy Liberty Bonds to keep the howitzers thundering at the Huns. They must have been issued to the soldiers as the back says overseas post card and where the stamp goes it says "soldiers mail free". It was never mailed, maybe traveled in some doughboys gear home, it's in pretty rough shape I'm afraid.

The other card is in better shape and also was never used. The one with the tanks was apparently published by the Chicago Daily News, War Postal Card Department.

Tanks were a big "improvement" in warfare that came along during that war and sure have changed in the time since.

Doughboy

This picture is a "Great War" soldier with his sweatheart, maybe home on leave before heading off to France. The Great War is of course what they called it before WW II came along and now most of us call it WWI

The USA did it's best to stay out of both wars, almost kind of hard to believe that we tried so hard to mind our own business at those times. England in both instances wanted us badly to get involved which of course we finally did. My grandfather was a vetern of World War One, wounded by a chunk of German Artillery I believe before he ever got to the trenches. Probably a good thing as it turned out. He has passed on naturally now and when he was here I had no interest, missing out on the chance to ask him about how it was. He did leave a short diary talking about his trip overseas and some on the way into France but most of what he wrote about was food or the lack of it. Apparently rations were not quite what they are today.

Niagra Falls

Three images today from someones trip to Niagra Falls, 1920's I would guess from the cars in the one picture. I have never been so I have no idea how much it has changed but I'm sure a lot.

I went to the Official website to get a feeling for the history and didn't find much. They did say that the first to go over the falls in a barrel was in 1901, a woman schoolteacher in her sixties?

She did survive. They did say that the history of the falls would leave a history buff "captivated" and mentionedthe importance of the area in the war of 1812 but having said that there was nothing else, leaving me less then captivated. I guess to reach that state requires a little more effort and searching.

Horse and buggy

There's hardly a day that goes by that I don't get in the car and go somewhere, grocery store, drug store or just the 7-11. I suspect had I lived in the day where I had to hitch up the horse to the buggy and then brush him down or whatever they do ( not a horse person but I know you don't ride em hard and put them away wet). Well anyway I suppose that I would organize my trips a little better. I do love looking at, reading about and hearing about the "old days" and there are things that I think were better then but I would have to think hard before I gave up all the modern conveniences and go back there. The horse and buggy pics are great to me though and I almost always save them when I come across one in an album or see one up for sale.

Elgin Illinois 1908

Todays post is a postcard of Elgin Illinois Fountain Square. The card was postally used in 1908. Since half of my known readership is familiar with Elgin I have been looking for things associated with there and had forgotten I had this. Elgin has changed so much it's hard to picture this as being there. Shame too that the photo on the card is small and not the best resolution.

Aviator and Planes

Here are two photo's that came from one album I recently obtained. The album is one of those where they did not unfortunately write in any information as to the people or location so I have no idea who the aviator is. I'm going under the impression he was wwI era and from wealthy people and that he was USA. I did some googling on the names of the two planes and on aviators of that period but so far nothing. The planes look the same but I think one is a biplane and the other a single wing. Niether appear to be military. Guessing that they were the personal planes of the man and his wife. If they lived in the structure to the rear they certainly were wealthy. I'm thinking I should be able to figure out who this was but nothing so far.

see saw

I don't know the date or the location I'm afraid but it came out of an album that was all in the early to mid twenties. It's a great picture to me with the kids and the signage and in the background a ferris wheel.

More Fun Places

Along with the amusement park of yesterday two pictures of families on the beach. The suits of the period were a little different they what you see today, better I think. One of the pictures is dated on the back 1921 and both came from the same album in close proximity so are likely the same year. I don't know the location, lots of beaches but Atlantic City was the most popular spot it seems from pictures I see. The early part of the twentieth century seems to be the time America discovered vacations what with the automobile and maybe more time off for workers.

Sardine Sandwich Anyone?

Two small photo's that came in an album I bought. Love the prices on the sandwiches, a hamburger for a nickel is pretty hard to find anymore. There was nothing in the album to identify the location but if you look there is a pennant on the right side of one that reads Russell Point. Russel Point is a town in Ohio and a little googling tells us that there was near there a Sandy Beach Amusement Park near there at Indian Lake. It was apparently a pretty big deal, nicknamed "Atlantic City of the West" and "Ohios Million Dollar Playground" at one time. It existed from the early 1900's through the seventies. Apparently starting in 1961 there were riots there on July fourth and the problems became a tradition, trouble brewing every year until the park was forced to shut down. I didn't search far enough to find out what the riots were about but it's all too bad.

Knitting

Another larger image, about the same size as the one yesterday. This a group of ladies together for knitting and sewing. posing for this but must have been some kind of group or knitting society that got together regular. My wife knits now and then but do they still have groups like this? There's a candelstick phone on the desk lower left. I like the lighting , the only thing visable from the ceiling. Obviously the photographer brought some of his own but if that was all the ladies had to see by it had to be hard seeing what they were doing.

Vintage Store

A larger picture, about 5X7, of a vintage store interior with the ckerks and maybe a customer posing. Located in Chicago according to the seller although I see nothing to verify that. It's dated 1926 on the back in pencil which looks about right. Nice and clear and under magnification you can read some of the labels.

Farm Life

A vintage photo of a lady with dinner at hand or I suppose it could be a pet but if the latter not much good at playing fetch or anything. Sorry, I was thinking of that book 100 things to do with a dead cat which is horrible as I am a cat lover. I love chickens also but usually fried. I like the photo though, the ladies hat is too cool and the supports on the bard show American improvation at its best?

Houses, folks and auto

This pic isn't one of the best I have seen, probably taken with a "cheaper" camera as the depth of field isn't as all over good as some but I like the picture because it has everything. the old houses are great although I wouldn't have been happy with all the stairs. The people are there, the focus of the picture and of course with what was other then thier house, the prize possession, the family car. No location on this one or a year even although I would think pre 1920 anyway.

Chicago Auto

I have lots of cars, another one here. This one I can identify, a "Chicago" or so says the front of it. I think its a 1926, the only year that came with the kids on the fender option.

Capitol Building

A fairly common view, I have accumulated several over the last few years from different albums. Oddly they all could have been taken at the same time seemingly from the same spot pretty much. I doubt the parking situation is quite the same today.