Trout Fishing In America

Anyone out there remember the rather strange novel by Richard Brautigan?

Click on the image and bring it up in a larger window to see the nice fly fishing rod in our angler's left hand.  And in his right, a cigar.  I purchased this photo at an antique mall in Pasadena, California, and it makes me wonder if this is what Topanga or Malibu Canyon looked like in, let's say, 1910.  Of course, the picture could have been taken anywhere.

Tending Nets

It looks like late nineteenth, early twentieth century, with women readying nets for the two men in the smaller boat.  It's hard to imagine that there was a time when commercial fishermen went to sea in small row boats.  I wonder how many of the women in this photo ended up as widows.

Cat Macrame

I got nothin' on this one.  I mean, who takes a picture of something like this?

The Waterbury Paper Box Co. Wedding Album 24

This one's the only hand tinted image in the album.  From the twenties is my guess.  Click on Waterbury Box Co. Album in labels to see the rest.

The Waterbury Paper Box Co. Wedding Album 23

On one hand, there's something very Woodrow Wilson about this man.   And then there are the diamond tie pin and Rudolph Valentino sideburns.  Kind of half nerd, half gigolo.

Click on Waterbury Box Co. Album in labels to see the rest.

The Waterbury Paper Box Co. Wedding Album 22

There are still more wedding photos to come, but there won't be any in this lot that I'll be putting up.  Take a look at the two faces, they're clearly related.  Most likely mother and son.

Click on Waterbury Co. Album in labels to see other pages.

The Waterbury Paper Box Co. Wedding Album 21

More studio photos with flowers.  Click on Waterbury Box Co. Album to see more.

The Waterbury Paper Box Co. Wedding Album 20

I really am catching up on collections.  Once again, it's time to return to this album.  As usual, a post with a single image means there was only one photo on that particular page.  My guess, from the late twenties through the early thirties.

Click on Waterbury Box Co. Album to see the album, in order.

Views of the World, Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, France

I'd love to know when the original photo was taken.  It's nice to see the horses and carriages, but where are the cars?  When I was at Notre Dame, people were allowed to climb the towers.  I can remember a tight squeeze, lots of steps and a great view.  Don't know if the towers are still open to the public, but I hope so.

Click on Views of the World in labels ro see the rest of the series.

Views of the World, Arch of Triumph, Paris, France

I've been to the Arc de Triomphe, and it's a pretty impressive building.  It was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806, after his victory at the Battle of Austerlitz, and it was meant to honor French victories during the revolution and Napoleonic Wars.  It's 50 meters tall, or for those of us who still measure things in the English mode, 164 feet.  When it was completed in 1836, during the reign of Louis-Philippe I, it was the tallest such arch in the world.  Since then it's fallen to number three.  The tallest is in Mexico City, and number two, Pyongyang, North Korea.  And yes, I wondered about that one, too.

Click on Views of the World in labels to see other cards in the series.

Views of the World, Gal. of Battles, Palace of Versailles, France

The Gallery of Battles was the brain-child of King Louis-Philippe I.  Completed in 1837, the Gallery was carved out of a number of first floor apartments in the Palace of Versailles, and commemorated French military history with a series of massive paintings of French battles ranging from The Battle of Tolbiac, 495 to the Battle of Wagram, 1809.

Click on Views of the World in labels to see other cards in the series.

Views of the World, Milan Cathedral, Italy

Milan Cathedral is the fifth largest church in the world and the largest in Italy.  Believe it or not, construction began in 1386, and wasn't completed until January 6 1965.  For those with bad math skills, that's 579 years.  Truthfully, in this image, I prefer the streetcars.

Click on Views of the World in labels to see other postcards from this series.

Views of the World, Acropolis, Athens, Greece

The nice thing about these on going, from time to time, collections, is that there's always something to fall back on.  Anyway, I've had these tinted postcards for decades, and by clicking on Views of the World in labels, the others can be seen.

The Acropolis is actually the mountain top, not the colonnaded building.  That's the Parthenon.  Construction began on the best known buildings of the Acropolis in the second half of the 5th century B.C. under the leadership of Athenian statesman, Pericles.  The Parthenon was pretty much intact until 1687 when it was damaged during an artillery bombardment during the Morean War between Venice and The Ottoman Empire.  From 1801 to 1812, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin stole many of the marble sculptures from The Acropolis.  He was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, (Greece was part of the empire, at the time.)  and may have had permission to take them.  Nevertheless, I'm sticking with theft as a description.  He sold them to The British Museum.

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."

24 Year Old Female

I've written about this before.  Today, mention cross dressing and we think man in a dress.  Women wearing traditional male attire are now so common, that no one thinks it odd to see a woman in pants. That wasn't always true.  There was a time when a woman in trousers, let alone a full suit, would have been considered scandalous.  My guess is that this photo was taken in the teens or twenties, a time when this young lady, (And yes, I admit this might be a photo of a somewhat effeminate looking man.) would have had people talking.  Who knows, she might even have been arrested.

About the title.  Microsoft has a fun new doodad.  How-Old.net.  Upload a photo and the site will give the age and  gender of the subject.  This one was ID'd as a 24 year old female.  Of course, it's not always accurate.  I checked a couple of photos of myself, both taken about five years ago when I was in my mid-fifties.  One scanned as 41, the other, just a slightly different angle, 57.

Hindu Dancer

This one's labeled, "WINTER 1959-60."  It's cut from a larger picture.  But was it taken in India or is it from a  performance in the United States?  Haven't a clue.

Shadows and Light

This one fascinates me as a printer.  Those areas on the right that are pretty much black...was the paper fogged, is the negative plugged up, printed too hot?  Am I making things too complicated.  It could just be a plain, end of the day, shadow.  And she looks very mysterious, too.

The Photographer's Foot

I'm not even going to try on the translation.  Hell I can't even make out the handwriting.

I've written about this before in other posts but hey why not repeat myself.  I'd love to take an ocean voyage and that's a problem.  The age of trans Atlantic passenger service is pretty much over.  At least the type I'm interested in.  Had I been born about 50 years earlier, I could have booked passage on a nice ship meant to get from point A to point B.  Cabins, shuffle board, and the Captain's table.  Now, it's cruise lines that are this weird hybrid of Las Vegas and floating shopping mall.   The actual Vegas bores me, and my idea of shopping is making a list, buying what I need, and getting out of there as soon as possible.  On a cruise ship, I'm kinda stuck.

I'm thinking the twenties or thirties.

Today's The Day

I slept late today, one of the few benefits of being under employed.  Anyway, I did what I always do when I wake up.  I rolled over and turned the radio to the all news station, and that's when I heard the big story. (At least as far as L.A. and California goes.)  Water  restrictions have begun.  Silly me, I thought they had already become law, but what do I know.  Anyway, those of us who live in L.A. proper have to cut our water usage by 18%, while water wasters in Beverly Hills have a massive 36% target to hit.

There are a lot of people out there who think it's some sort of regional thing.  People in northern California are the big wasters, no it's SoCal that's the problem.  No, let's blame the central valley.  Actually, it's a  rich, middle class, poor thing.  The less money you have, the less water you use.  Sadly, the rich folks in B.H., Newport Beach, and silicon valley, will probably face nothing more severe than fines for their water wastage,  fines that the wealthy can afford.  Personally I'd rip out their lawns and drain their swimming pools.

I did a with and without  the color correction button on this photo, couldn't decide which version to use, so I posted them both.  Written on the back, "Gottlund's 1959."  No idea where it was taken.