Army Cooks

 

The pandemic has really cut into my income, so I'm getting out and about far less, and spending less money on everything, including my old photo collections.  Despite all of my money problems, I managed to get out to Joshua Tree for New Year and made a stop in some of the antique malls I pass on the way home.  Anyway, I found about a dozen or so photos of these gentlemen but limited myself to one, and I chose it because this one had the best shots of the buildings in the background.  With their chef's hats, it's pretty clear that they are cooks, but where?  The buildings look like they could be barracks on a military base, so I'm guessing these men are military cooks.  

A Boy and His Horse

 

Taking lessons, or does he already know how to ride? 

The Imperial Oak

  

There are some squiggly lines written on the back of the print that I assume are words, but they're so indistinct that I'm not even going to try and translate.  There is, however, a printer's stamp that's quite easy to understand. "Foto-Thiele m h922 a.d. Kaisereiche" And not one, but two dates.  The handwritten one, "6-7-55."  And the stamped one, "24.6.55" So, processed June 24, 1955, but dated July 6, 1955?  It makes me think this woman might be an American living in Germany.  The stamp is in the European style, with the date before the month, while the handwritten date, in the American style, so actually June 6, 1955, the date the photo was actually taken.  In 1955 there was still a lot of American military and diplomatic personnel living in Germany.   So, why the title?  Well, I assumed that Kaisereiche was a street somewhere in Germany.  I did a quick internet search and discovered that it's a district in Berlin named for an oak tree planted by German nobility that still survives to this day. 

I Like!

 

Written on the back, "This is the life.  I like!"  She does look content. 

Geisha

  

As a rule, I don't post the backs of postcards, but I deiced it was too much to type out.  Too, my computer doesn't type Cyrillic script.  Anyway, there was a time when people could buy postcard stock and print their own cards.  I don't know if this is a privately made image or if it was commercially printed.   However, take a look at that jawline.  I'm moderately certain that the sitter for this photograph is a man and probably made for more private use. 

On the Porch

  

I only paid 50 cents for this photo and there's a stamp on the back that reads "ASK FOR (VELVET SHEEN FINISH)" that's kind of interesting to someone like me who spent decades working in photo labs. 

At Home

 

Just started digging in the box of loose photos when I found this old postcard.  Believe it or not, it's part of the longest-running collection on The New Found Photography.  The very first image dates back to 2013.  This will be number 41 in the series.  There are also some images that are based on drawings rather than photographs and are posted on my Fair Use blog.  They're all under Flirtation in labels at the bottom of the post.  The person who sold these postcards to me called them his flirtation collection.  At first, I thought it was just a name he used to help in selling, but there was an episode of The Murdoch Mysteries that was built around flirtation cards, given out as a means to attract the opposite sex, so it looks like flirtation cards were a real thing, if not one hell of a coincidence.  

So, written on the back, "Dear Sister, how are you all and all the friends.  I am here in dreary land and have got a terrible cold write soon Love you all sister Brie.  38 Ervin St."  I've noticed that friends is a word that's often used in these cards, so I've always thought that there were a lot of Quakers sending the cards in this collection.  The card was mailed to "Mrs Arthur G. Brown, 547 West 164 St., New York City."  The postmark, "NORWALK CONN, SEP 21, 5-PM 1908." 

Obviously, click on Flirtation in labels to bring up the other cards in this collection. 

Disco Queen

 

I've always thought the disco era was a reaction to the whole hippie back to the earth ethos of the sixties.  

Cowboys

  

Literally, boys, though I don't see any cattle around.   From an age when farm kids were expected to ride horses.