Badminton was one of those things that were part of small town and suburban 50s and 60s America. People had money, and leisure time so why not a backyard net and a game or two before dinner. Note the woman in the background is playing in a skirt. Not a tennis skirt, just an ordinary, everyday wear skirt.
I buy a fair number of photos as lots. I'll buy an envelope, usually to get two or three prints, and while many of them are interesting, I wouldn't buy them as a stand-alone purchase. Anyway, I have a few faded prints that have been sitting in boxes, and not in the queue for publication. What fascinates me about fading prints is the symbolism of people and history disappearing in plain sight.
I'm a lifelong atheist, but as a child I was forced to go to church. Back then, people wore what was known as Sunday best, clothing that wasn't worn any other day of the week.
I like the lady on the left. She has chosen style over winter warmth. Now that's commitment.
There's bad weather over most of the United States. Is the man in white trying to blend in? A hunter, perhaps. I feel sorry for the cat that's following him through the snow. Dogs will go anywhere, but the poor cat was probably wondering why he wasn't inside, curled up somewhere warm.
Good Germans between the wars? I have no idea where this photo was taken, but it's printed on Gevaert Ridax paper, manufactured in Belgium from 1905 to 1959.
It occurs to me that there are those out there who don't understand old-fashioned film photography. That bar at the top of the print is where the film didn't advance far enough in the camera.
This slim photo has been cut down from a larger photo. There is some writing on the back, but like the picture itself, some of it has been lost to the scissors. "Dec. 20/4." So, from the 1940s. And, "Taken in Ge." Perhaps Germany and a soldier on occupation duty. Or, then again, maybe Georgia, though there isn't that much snow in Georgia.
Time to return to the Random Japanese Snapshot Collection. As I mentioned in part 1, I purchased an envelope of small snapshots from an eBay seller in Japan. I really have no idea how random they actually are. For all I know they all came from the same family, or maybe they have no relationship to each other. So far, there aren't that many to see, but click on Random Japanese Snapshots Collection in labels to see what's what. I'm just guessing, but I'm thinking pre-World War 2.
Let's start with a bit of info on the whole collection. Click on The Los Angeles Indiana Collection in labels to see everything posted so far, and there's still more to come.
Anyway, sometimes album pages can be quite informative. The person who put the album together writes captions, or when it's possible to remove a photo that's held in place with photo corners, there's something written on the back of the print. That's not really true of this collection. There's a printer's logo on the back of the top print, but it's so faded that it can't be read. On the back of the middle print, there is a lab stamp, "Kodak Printing, J.H. Ward, Lamar, Colo." I don't know whether this family was well traveled or if it's the album itself that's made it to so many places.
It's been so hot out just lately, that I thought I'd put something up that's a reminder of winter and cold weather. Anyway, I'm thinking that these two are on a glacier rather than a snow-covered mountain. There's something written on the back of the print that I think is "Hilie n o Larff." with a line over the "O." I think they are names, but just in case I ran it through Google Translate which came up as Icelandic detected but offered no actual translation.
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.
Is it even possible for me to express how much I hate eBay and antique dealers who cut up photo albums for resale? I doubt it. Anyway, I bought this page from the same eBay seller in Indiana as another page that I've referred to as The Los Angeles Indiana Collection in labels, and why I call it that is explained in the very first post in the series. So, click away to find out why and to see the other images in this series. As usual, when I put up an album page, I'll start with the whole page to show position, and then follow up with individual photos. Once again, I'm not sure how I'll lay things out, and I won't be putting them up uninterrupted, so be patient.
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?
I haven't lost interest in this blog, nor have I stopped collecting old photos, but I have been very short of money for a while, hence the big gaps in posts. Anyway, there's a Christmas tree in the background, and we are about three weeks out, so I thought I put this picture up.
Written on the back, "Palm Springs 1946." The man looks like he's about the right age to have been a World War 2 veteran, and Palm Springs would have been a nice place for a romantic reunion after being released from service. Before blowing up the print, I actually thought he was wearing a military uniform, but now I don't think so.
Like yesterday's post, one man, two women. I think we can tell which woman is with the man. I hope the photographer handed off the camera and got a shot of himself with his girlfriend.
I'd be surprised if this wasn't taken during World War 2. But where? Family visiting San Diego before their son or brother went to sea, or a couple of women the sailor met in Hawaii? When there's one man and two women, the photo is almost always taken by the boyfriend of one of the ladies, so girlfriends are probably the better of two explanations.
There's some Italian writing on the back of the print and after running it through Google Translate, I've come up with a meaning, though there was one word I had trouble working out. So, after trying dozens of possibilities, I'm going with the only wording that makes sense. "Jo and Lucy collect the balls and Tesy on the porch takes them." Bocci ball? It's like lawn bowling. I grew up in a small rural town that had an Italian-American Club that was about a hundred or so yards from my back door. The old men who always seemed to have a game going would chase me away when I stopped to watch.
