The North Texas State Normal College Album 12

More group shots.  One from the farm and  two from the school house.  Click on NTSNC in the labels section at the bottom of the post to bring up the whole lot.

The North Texas State Normal College Album 11

No, I hadn't forgot about this album.  It's just such a pain to take the album apart and put it back together every time, I have a tendency to put the updates off.  Click on NTSNC in the labels section at the bottom of the post to bring up the whole collection.

Driving In Germany

Alright, I admit it.  I'm not sure it's from Germany. but it's printed on Agfa paper and it's a Mercedes Benz 220 SE  "Fintail" Saloon Series 111.

So why the number?  In an effort to rebuild it's brand, after the war, Mercedes began sponsoring road rallies.  Rally sports go back to the beginnings of the automotive industry.  Basically, a bunch of car enthusiasts get together and see who can get from point A to point B in the least amount of time. Some rallies are one day affairs, others run multiple days and legs.  In 1908, there was even a New York to Paris rally, across North America to Nome, Alaska, a ships crossing to East Cape, Siberia and then on to Paris.  The rally was won by an American team driving a 1907 Thomas Flyer.

 There are rally associations that have rules for every race  they sponsor.  If the leg is 500 miles and the speed limit is 50 mph for the whole length, arriving in under 10 hours might add time to the total.  The rules might involve staying on a set route or merely hitting certain way points.  Of course, an informal rally might be nothing more than a few friends or a local club getting from San Francisco to Chicago.  First one wins.

71 Years Ago Today, Pearl Harbor

All I know about these photos is that they were taken in Hawaii in 1942.  I've written about this before, and it's time to bring it up again.  My father believed that the great depression and World War 2 were good for the average American.  Not the New Deal or the money of a booming war economy, but how the disruption of those two great catastrophes forced Americans to move from their small towns or the old neighborhood, to go out and mix with people not like them, to go out into a greater world.  I doubt the men in these photos would have ever seen Hawaii if it hadn't been for the war.  Many would loose their lives, and that doesn't make for the better life that my father talked about, but for those who survived....it's one of those things that's impossible to prove, but I tend to agree with my father.  

Now, to move on to a bit about Pearl Harbor.  This week, I had a rather one sided discussion with a couple of young men about Pearl Harbor.  One sided because I felt that what I was hearing was so irrational that it was pointless to reply.  And yes, what they told me is something that many Americans believe.  It was that old saw of the Franklin Roosevelt conspiracy to get America into World War 2.  Once again I had someone tell me that FDR new all about the coming attack and let it happen so that he could get a reluctant America into a pointless war for personal gain.  In the past I used to point out that a failed attack by the Japanese would have been just as effective in getting us into the war.  That if Roosevelt knew in advance, surely we would have set a trap for the Japanese fleet.  In the end though, I got tired of people telling me that I was an idiot.  Didn't I know that FDR and his friends made more money rebuilding the fleet?  That's why he wanted all of our ships sunk.  So he could get rich.  Sadly, that's not the stupidest thing I've heard from one of my fellow citizens about the war.  That honor goes to the young man who told me that we and our German allies beat the Russians and the Japanese.  When I tried to tell him who were actually our allies and which countries were our enemies,  I was told that that was my opinion, and that no person's opinion was any more right than any other person's opinion.  And this is what we fought for.

Dead Foxes Ripped Her Flesh

Sorry, I couldn't resist the Frank Zappa reference.  Doesn't the lady in the center look like she's about to add another pelt to her shoulder.  It also looks like she doesn't care whether it's animal or human.  A very mean looking lady, indeed.

Bridge Running

I know it's out of focus and  leaching 80 year old chemistry, but I like it anyway.   I wonder if they were running from something?  A little harmless prank, hurrying away before getting caught, while their less adventuress friend took pictures?

Scalp Treatment

What's a scalp treatment?  What's an oil treatment?  Are these the owners, or customers? Do children need scalp treatments?  Did these people decide they needed a picture of the kids and decide, "Hey, I've got the perfect place for a picture.  Down by the scalp treatment store."  (Or is it salon?)  Written in the print border, "2mo"  Written on the back, "June 9, 1946"