Waiting For Snow, Not Godot

Those of us in sunny southern California are waiting for a big winter storm that should bring between two to three inches of rain in L.A., and two to three feet of snow in the local mountains.  Not anywhere near as much as central California and the high Sierra will get, but hey, we'll take what we can get.  I don't know how well this photo will read on people's computers, but take a look at the building on the right.  It looks like the snow is up to the roof, and that these two people might be standing 15 feet above the ground.  Now that's what we need to break the drought, at least for a year.  I'm always amazed that Cal doesn't have water use restrictions in wet years.  We can, after all, pump surplus water into our depleted water tables.

Dated, "Feb 25, 1931."

The Waterbury Paper Box Co. Wedding Album 3

Again, bridesmaids or not?  There are so many explanations it's not practical to list them all.  The photographer clearly liked to use flowers as a prop.  And were these taken in a studio or on location?  The top photo looks like it has a painted backdrop.  The second photo, probably, though it might be a painted wall in a house.

Click on Waterbury Box Co. Album in the labels section at the bottom of the post to see all posts from the album.

The Waterbury Paper Box Co. Wedding Album 2

Are these two ladies  bridesmaids?  Not all of the photos in this album are of weddings, so it's not possible to tell.  I know the person who assembled this album didn't need labels, but I could use them.

Click on Waterbury Box Co. Album in labels to see everything....at least everything already posted.

The Waterbury Paper Box Co. Wedding Album 1

I'm getting a backlog on photo albums, so I guess it's time to start another one.  I'll be following my usual practice.  Each post will be of a single album page, if there's more than one photo per page, I'll scan the page first, to show position, then each individual photograph.  If there's only one photo, I won't bother.

This album is too big to fit an entire page on the scanner.  Despite that limitation, I haven't had to break up any pages into sections.  Most of the photos in this album are 8x10 contact prints, so most of the album pages only have one photo. The majority of the pictures look like they're from the 1920s. but there are a few that aren't of that period.  Many of the photos have slight indentations around the edge of the print, indicating, that at one time they were in frames.  I suspect that this album was put together at a date well after all the photos were taken, which accounts for the mixed eras.  While some of the photos were glued to pages, most use photo corners.  A couple of pages don't have photos, but do have corners.  Weather those photos fell out, or were removed, I haven't a clue.  

There are enough pages in this album, that I won't be posting them one right after the other.  I'll post a few, move onto other things, then at some point in the future I'll put up a few more.  As far as the title of the album goes, as cheap Carny fortune tellers like to say, "In time, all will be revealed."  Really, the title of this album comes from a couple of prints near the end of the album, so be patient.  It is a virtue, as they say.

All posts will be tagged, Waterbury Box Co. Album in the labels section at the bottom of the post.  

Too Many Twins

One, two, three sets of twins.  Perhaps, one set of fraternal twins as well.  Let's hope that twins ran in this family, and there are a few cousins going on here.  I know there are women out there who are still having ten or more children, but the era of really big families seems to be fading.  It's just too expensive to raise large families these days, and most women want lives that go beyond full time, multi-decade child rearing.

It's Square Format Thursday!

Alright, to start with, there's no such thing as square format Thursday.  Fact is, after 1300+ posts, it's getting harder to think up good titles.

 My first thought, when I saw the old woman's head resting on the man's shoulder, was The Incredible Two Headed Bi-Gender Monster.  But after I scanned it into the computer and blew it up, I noticed her hand on his waist and figured they were probably a couple that had been together for fifty years, and that didn't seem so monstrous.   And that big, blown out, white blob in the second photo, well, I'm not sure, but I'm thinking a cake, so The Office Party seemed like a safe, though, boring title.  What to do?  Collecting old photos is easy, titles are hard.  Much like death and comedy.

One Big Happy Family

I don't know about other collectors of old photos, but I always have doubts about what I'm told by the people who sell them.  When I get a lot like this, I ask if all the photos are from the same source.   The dealers, of course, can intuit that I'm interested in buying images from the same family, so they tell me that, of course, all the same big family.  I know that sometimes they're telling me the truth.  I also know that sometimes they're just telling me what they know I want to hear.  I think I see a family resemblance, and at least one man who's in two photos, but that could be wishful thinking.