Why Is This Man Showing Leg?

I have a confession to make. I'm 56 years old and I've never been bowling. I've never even been in a bowling alley. I've seen people bowl on television and in the movies, which allowed me to recognize the bowling score card the man is holding, but I have no idea how to keep score. So why is this man showing leg? Is it part of a bowling ritual? Does the loser have to show off a shapely calf? Or maybe it's the winner that has to flaunt a little skin. Or maybe he rolled a zero and was trying to make an excuse. "Look, I hurt my knee on the back swing, and that's why I didn't hit anything." Written on the back, "Roy Scocu 1/20/53"

The Missing Limey-The Baker Family 5

Okay, just for the record, I happen to like the winter scene, even though it's out of focus and not well exposed. Once again, we have a reference that may tie the Bakers to England, even though the actual photo is no longer there. "Another Limey" indeed. My mother was a war bride from England and she hated the term limey. Of course, she also thought the Irish were too stupid to govern themselves, the French were all sexual perverts, and we Americans were crude people who didn't deserve independence. And yes, she became an American citizen. I promise, the pictures will get better before the Baker Family collection is done.

One Page, One Photo, One Loose Photo-The Baker Family 4

I think of these as the Baker family collection because the seller told me they came from a photo album owned by someone named Baker. This page has the only reference to the Bakers, a caption for a missing photo. "THE OLD BUS. Baker's Pride-the Driver." The little girl is Janet Sturrock, a relative? I know a lot of people don't understand my practice of publishing everything from a collection. After all, the loose photo is so out of focus as to be almost unrecognizable, but something is written on the back that, at least to me, is interesting. "Canton 1925." Eventually there will be pictures from Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, Brighton, perhaps New York, but just as likely Brighton, England. There will be references to another Limey, and an aunt from Australia. These people got around, which makes me wonder. Is that Canton, Ohio or Canton, China? Canton, China had a large European community, and within it's gated communities, Europe was recreated. A picture taken there would look just like one taken in England. Sure, the odds are overwhelming that the blurred final image is from Ohio, but when the English are involved, when the empire was still somewhat intact, one can never be certain.

Doug and Bill Out of Focus-The Baker Family 3

Even though Doug and Bill are out of focus, the wagon they're playing with is still quite a sight to see. I'm glad I don't collect old toys, as this photo would send me off in search of old wagons. I can't afford storage anymore, and I'm running out of room.

Defining Things-The Baker Family 2

How would I categorize this collection? Well, I've got some loose pages from a trashed photo album, so photo album, of course. I've got photos labeled Brighton, possibly Brighton, New York, but having been there, I'm thinking Brighton, England. I've got other images of Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, so immigration, vacation, maybe multi-national. But the real telling thing for me is that some images are dated from the mid twenties and others from the mid-thirties. Boom times to great depression. What drives me crazy as a collector is that those utterly devastated by the great depression didn't take pictures because they no longer owned cameras. This is one time when snapshots don't really tell a good story. Looking at photos from the great crash to World War 2, one would think that everything was right as rain. That there were no bread lines, shanty towns, or homeless teenagers wandering the roads of America.

What Kind Of Collector Are You?-The Baker Family 1

.

.

I once met a man who only collected photographs that included the photographer's shadow. I've also met collectors that limited themselves to complete albums, and strangest of all, a woman who would only own 100 vintage postcards at one time. If she found something she had to have, and it was number 101, something had to go from the collection to stay at that magic number. While I'll collect just about any type of photographic image or any subject matter, I'm always looking for context. Can I relate it to some period of history, or are there enough images, grouped together, that I can imagine some sort of story, even if I know that my suppositions are very likely wrong. Too, and this is the sickness, I'm the sort of collector who worries that if I don't preserve some odd insignificant image, no one else will, and it will be lost forever.

Times Square

I always like a bit of validation. I know that many of the old linen postcards had a photographic base, but it's only when there is an actual photo credit that I can be 100% sure that the image belongs on a photo blog. Ewing Galloway was a Kentucky lawyer who became bored with his profession, turned to journalism, and eventually ended up as the photo editor at Collier's Magazine. In 1920, he opened his own photo agency. It was successful enough that by 1928, he had offices in New York, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, and Amsterdam. Galloway himself, was not a photographer. The Ewing Galloway credit on the bottom margin of this card refers to the agency. Because the agency did not keep detailed records of who took what picture, we'll never actually know the name of the photographer who took the picture that was the basis for this card. A portion of the Ewing Agency collection ended up at Syracuse University. For more detailed info go to www.library.syr.edu/digital/guides/g/galloway_e.htm No photos available there, but there are lots of commercial galleries selling Galloway images that can be found on line. As far as the back of the card goes. I scanned it in so I could blow it up and try and decipher some of the mess. Mailed to Cincinnati from the Grand Central Annex. Not much, but it allowed me to make a guess that there is a reference for getting home some time today. Too, I think there is a reference to having gone up in something. Perhaps the Akron, a military airship. And of course it is signed Winifred something. Maybe Blowfind. I'll bet the colorist added the airplane.