The Tent Dinner Party

 

This is another photo that I picked up from an eBay seller in Japan, but no, it's not part of the Random Japanese Snapshot Collection.  Anyway, I'm thinking that this photo is from post-war Japan.  It looks like there are a handful of non-Asian faces in the crowd, not to mention the Rainer Beer bottles on the tables.  There's a book out there called Embracing Defeat which is about how Japan and the Japanese accepted that they had lost the war, rejected militarism, and got on with their lives as best they could, which was the foundation of the post-war Japanese economic miracle.  When I saw this photo, I suspected that it's an illustration of that concept. 

Krystal Gloss Prints 2

  

There are only a few photos in this collection that I would have wanted if they hadn't been in this little photo booklet, and the second one in the column is one of them.  Since Bear Photo Service was headquartered in California, I'm guessing these photos must have been taken somewhere in the state.  But where?  The footbridge should give a clue.  Is it on the upper Kern River?  The Truckee?  So far, my research hasn't come up with an answer.  Click on The Krystal Gloss Collection in labels to see the rest. 

Krystal Gloss Prints 1

 

If you're old enough, and I am, you'll have memories of taking a roll of black and white film to the local drug store and coming back a week later for a little booklet of pictures.  The cover usually had the name of the service, the lab's name, and sometimes the name of the local store that took in your film.   I'm not quite sure how I'm going to put up the twelve prints in this booklet, and I'm more interested in the booklet itself than in the prints, which seem to be from a camping trip of some kind.  Click on The Krystal Gloss Collection to bring up the rest of the prints. 

L.A. Family Photos 3

   

I've been calling this the L.A. Family Photo collection because I've got photos from Topanga Canyon and Los Angles itself.  White Oak Lodge, very likely from Tehachapi, a not very long drive from L.A., and now, the top photo in the column labeled "Camp 7 Yosemite."  Again, California, though a lot farther north.  But we also have the bottom photo in the column labeled "Toledo, Ohio."  Interesting two dates, May 1929, and June 1930.  Somewhat between those two dates is September 4, 1929, and the beginning of the great depression.  Were Ralph and Joy visitors to California who lived full time in Toledo, or were they making a visit to see family back home in Ohio?  I bought these photos in an L.A. area antique store, so I'd say that somehow or another, Ralph and Joy ended up as Californians.  

Click on LA Family Collection in labels to see the full and completed collection. 

She Loves Her Beer

I was born in 1955 and even back then people went to the army surplus store, bought a really big cabin tent, and headed off for a two week vacation in a state or national park.  My father traveled for work and when he got time off, he would not go back on the road.  Very disappointing.  I think that's a Miller label.