Friends on the Couch

 

 It's getting harder and harder to come up with a good title for these posts.  My guess is that this photo is from the 1950s. 

Playing Cards and Couch Potatoes

  

 I find lots of photos like these.  Three people, minus the photographer which would make two couples.  In these two photos, the men are the same, but the women are different.  It looks like the ladies were passing the camera, between them. 

Bow Tie and Glasses Guy

 

I just bought a small envelope of group shots.  This one is the classic two-thirds of a couple of couples shot with the other girlfriend taking the picture.  Is it just me or does the guy wearing the bow tie look ever so slightly demented? 

DeJa'Vu All Over Again

 

Have I done this before?  As I've written in other posts, I didn't start posting my photo collection out of any great desire to share with the world.  Over the years I had accumulated so many old photographs, they were strewn in drawers, envelopes, and who knows where, so I started this blog just so I could look at my collection without having to clean my apartment to find things.  As it turned out, my attempts at getting things organized have, at times, fallen short.  I just have this feeling that I've done this before.  These two images go with another post titled The Family Piano and should have been posted there, but they got separated somehow so I've had to put them up separately.  The thing is, I've got this funny feeling that I made the same mistake before.  Anyway, that post wasn't put up that long ago, so it should be easy enough to scroll back and find it.  Dated "1958."

The Streak

 

So, does she have a blond streak in her hair or is it just lighting?  

The Trumpet Player

 

This is "John"  At least that's what is says on the back of the print.   I doesn't look like he's in the marching band.  Perhaps the high school orchestra.  

Preppie Couple

I'm guessing form somewhere in the mid 50's. 

A Schwinn at Christmas

As a cycling enthusiast, I can assure you that the head badge on that bike is from a Schwinn.  At the very bottom of the oval, you'd read, "Chicago."  Ah, for the good old days when the United States was one of the world's leading bicycle manufactures.  When I was a kid, I longed for a genuine Schwinn bike.  I ended up with a Huffy.  After it was stolen, I got a used Raleigh three speed.  One of the best bikes I've ever owned. 

Another One of the Extras

I've either got to post some of these throw in photographs, the images that came with the photos I actually wanted, or shove then in a drawer somewhere, never to be seen again.

 I'm old enough to remember when owning a fur coat was a pretty big deal.  It was  symbolic of entering a secure middle class.  If the lady, or her husband, could afford to spend so much money on something that was more of a fashion statement than a practical garment, that meant  they didn't have to worry about money anymore.  Think of it as spending a grand on a phone, when a $200 one works just as well.

The Here, There, and Everywhere Collection-Suburban Life

So, I bought an envelope full of photos that the dealer told me came from an estate sale, and are all related.  As I've noted from the first post, I have my doubts.  For more details, click on the Here There and Everywhere Collection in labels for more details, and to see other parts of the collection.

Say suburbia, and most people think of the fifties and the post war housing boom.  I don't have a date on this album page, but forties or fifties is a definite possibility.  Note the Popular Science magazine in the rack next to the couch in the first photo.  The magazine wasn't aimed at scientists, but it's readership was mostly people with a bit better education than the general public.

The Really Big Radio Has To Warm Up

Who out there is old enough to remember when radios had to warm up?   There was a time when radios, record players, televisions, and early tape recorders ran on tubes, turn them on, and until the tubes actually got warm, there was this low level hum that came out of the speakers.  I sometimes think I might have been born in the wrong time.  I like old technology.

Printed "Week of July 7, 1952"

Bric-A-Brac and Books

As I've mentioned before, my mother was British, and as a young girl (age 13 to 20) she was a maid in an English manor house.  She once described her employment as seven years of dusting.  It seems that the high and the mighty of the British aristocracy couldn't resist gathering up everything they saw on their many trips abroad, and all those things they brought home had to be dusted every few days.  Imagine an economy built around killing dust mites.  It looks like someone in this household was emulating his Lordship.

Really taken by the color restoration button on the scanner.  Printed "Week of January 17, 1955."