On Gault Street 4

In an earlier post, it was determined that it was Eva writing the captions.  Take a close look at the kid on the right in the first photo of the column, and compare him with the little boy in the final picture.  He sure looks like the same to me, perhaps no more than one or two years older.  The print, and the one just above it, however, are far more recent than that.  (Don't ask me how I know, other than twenty plus years of professional experience printing black & white photos.)  Anyway, for those of us old enough to remember life before the digital age, most homes had a box.  Maybe an old shoe box, maybe a large carton, full of old snapshots and negatives.  I think Eva was the one who decided to go through the box, put things in order, get a few new prints made, and write captions before memories faded and the people in the prints were forgotten.  It'll be interesting to see, twenty years from now, if people will go through the old hard drives, looking for images to print, so they can be passed around.

Captions from top to bottom.  "Forrestine, Dale, Norman on Pontiac 1931.  Rear of 1335 Gault St. Cols, O."  "Norman 3 yrs. old on Gault."  "Wertha, Dale, & Norman (on Gault St.)"  "Millie at Thurston"  And finally, a photo without a caption.  Eva, wasn't he worth the memory?

On Gault Street 3

The return of Forrestine!  Weird names, or archaic names, names that were once popular, but have fallen out of favor? Just for the hell of it, I entered Forrestine, Evealie, and Wertha into a search engine.  According  to the white pages website, as of February 2011, there were 115 Forrestines in their listings, 23 in Tennessee, 2 Evealies, both in Oregon, and no Werthas.  I did find an article about an astronomer named Wertha Pendleton Cole, but that Wertha was a man.

Captions from top to bottom.  "Lucille, friend, Laura, & Otis"  "Otis & Clarence"  "Clarence, Otis, Jud  & the boy who drove Jud's car"  "Forrestine & Dale, Shelter house Lancaster, O, Rising Park, 1931"  Lancaster is a small city in Ohio, and Rising Park is it's main park.  And finally,  "Eva Anthony, Marie Fisher, Elsie Anthony, & Forrestine Kristol in George's ice wagon"  Another quick note on names.  Eva's handwriting isn't the best in the world.  Forrestine's last name sometimes appears to be  Kristol, sometinmes Krostol, or Krostel.  I've chosen Kristol as the most likely for no other reason that I've run across the name before.

On Gault Street 2

Take a look at the second picture in the column.  This is something I've seen before.  A girl who isn't yet a full grown adult, but is also well beyond small child, wearing ringlets or the big hair bows, most often associated with little girls.  Is it me, or do others find it a bit perverse.  It doesn't help, that she looks like she might be pregnant.

Alright then, captions from top to bottom.  "Oscar's Mother second from right and her 3 cousins (sisters and brother) from Ada, Ohio."   A bit of confusion?  Siblings or cousins?  "Steve, Marion, Breece, Marie, Eva, J.J., Dalton & Otis (rear)"  More strange names.  "Millie's side door.  Snow on ground."  Well, every collection has a few dull photos.  "Forrestine, Mrs. Moehl, Billy Moehl, Arlene Moehl, & their cousin."
 "(Eva wrote this) Eva, Dalton, Laura, and Evealie with the youngest of all who is Mamma."  As I noted in the last post, all the captions are written in the same hand, and now we know it's Eva.  "Oscar's Mother, Columbus."

On Gault Street 1

I've picked up a small collection of photos that I'll be putting up in five separate posts.  Most look to have been printed when the pictures were taken, though there are also a couple of reprints in the group.  Some have captions that reference Gault Street and Columbus, Ohio, though some were printed in Texas.  All of the captions are written in the same hand.

Written on the prints, top to bottom.  "1924  X Grandma Kristol X Forrestine, 3 yrs."  "Laura Shaheen taken on Gault St. in early thirties"  There is also a stamp on the back of this one, "THIS IS A SKILLTONE PRINT  SKILEEN'S SEP. 20, 1937  FINISHED IN OUR MODERN LAB" The first of the reprints.  "Elsie Sharp & Forrestine, Gault St."  "Werthe & Oscar Berry pickers"  "Dalton on porch of his home.  Jud, Evealie & Marion on the side."

What a great bunch of names.

On the 40th Anniversary of Watergate

Forty years ago, today, a group of semi incompetent burglars broke into Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.  The were employees of CREEP, The Committee to Re-Elect the President.  Their capture lead to a scandal that would force the newly re-elected president to resign in disgrace.

I was born during the Eisenhower administration, have clear memories of both the Kennedy and Johnson years, but it was Richard Nixon's administration that was the  presidency of my youth.  I can remember the Watergate investigation, the press coverage, and the congressional hearings that, had Nixon not quit in disgrace, would have resulted in his impeachment, conviction, and removal from office.

The caption on the back of this postcard, "AMERICA'S FIRST FAMILY  President Richard M. Nixon and Mrs. Nixon are shown with their two daughters Patricia (Tricia) and Mrs. Julie Eisenhower and her husband, David.  It's evident that they're enjoying the President's piano playing."  The card was never mailed, Published by "Scenic AMERICA Postcards, BESSEMER, ALA. 35020."

School Days

Just a reminder.  There was a time, in the United States, when we put a higher priority on education than low taxes.  There isn't a date on the  postcard of the New High School, Springfield, Ohio, but I was able to find a similar one on one of my favorite research sites, EBay, postmarked 1913.  Judging by the clothes on the people, I'd say that the hand colored photo was taken some time around 1900.  The population of Springfield in 1900 was 38,253.  Not a big city, but a small one by the standards of 1900.  At a time when schools were paid for by local taxes, the people of Springfield decided to build a large stone building with a cupola.   The Pleasant Home High School of Andalusia, Alabama, dated 1942-44, is a lot more modest, expected from a small town of 6,886 people, (That's from the 1940 census.) but it's still well built and maintained.  (And yes, I do know that a decade before Brown vs Board of Education,  that this would have been an all white school, and that the local black population attended a far less impressive institution.)

I meet a lot of young people in my work, and while they are well versed in modern technology, I'm surprised at how little they've read, and how little they know about government and current events.  I know I'm sounding like the classic old fogy complaining about kids these days, but I went to what was considered a sub standard high school, and our school had a mandatory reading list, and classes in government and current events.  With cuts in funding for education, schools are less likely to educate for the well rounded citizen and more likely to go for job skills.  I'm sure many people think that's a good thing.  I'm not one of them.

Standing In Snow

Yes, I know.  It's summer.  That doesn't mean I can't post a photo of a guy standing in snow.  Now, give this man a pair of those round, horn rimmed glasses, and a pipe and tell me he wouldn't look like Jean-Paul Sartre. Hey, I read.