Who Were They?

Lost and forgotten photos from the past

The Sepia Saturday prompt for this week is a photo from the 1930s. While the girl in the prompt photo is shearing an angora rabbit, I am taking the decade as my inspiration for this post.

Ok, honestly I was hoping that the prompt would be something to tie into my theme. January 7th is my dad’s (Bert) 80th birthday! He was born in 1932, so the prompt photo conveniently ties in to the time frame.

Hennie & Bert 1932

Here’s the little guy as a newborn. Awwww.

Bert 1932

First portrait, maybe 6 or 8 months old?

Bert maybe 1936

Growing up, maybe three or four years old here. I think this might be at the family farm.

High school graduation

Fast forward to high school! The photo was dated 1949 so this is his senior portrait.

Looking dapper!

There is a whole series of the family dressed in white taken in the 50s. My dad was the oldest of three, with a younger sister and brother behind him. To this day, he is still very close with his siblings even though they live 3000 miles away. Before email and free long distance, they made ways to stay close to one another and that is a family trait I think my sister and I are keeping up with.

Bert & Alice engagement

Bert & Alice August 25, 1956

He and my mom have been married for 55 years and through that time they have been an example to me and others of making a marriage work. My dad travelled a lot for his job, but he never missed our birthdays or holidays, and when I was in sports he was at nearly every game. Now that he has retired, he still likes to fish and golf (two four letter words if I ever heard one!), and in recent years has been completely captivated by his granddaughter – can you say wrapped right ’round the little finger? He still helps us with our Civil War reenactment set ups and if we had only found that hobby 20 years ago, I’m certain he would have been happily “dying on the field of battle” along with the rest of the boys in blue.

  

Here’s Melody and her Papa. It’s a love affair unparalleled by any other.

Happy birthday Daddy!

For more Sepia Saturday, click the button below and jump off from there!

I had intended to post this photo for New Year’s Eve because these couples are dressed to go somewhere, but then looking at the photo and realizing it was taken during the daytime, I wondered instead if they were headed to church or just for an outing. I like how the ladies have on nice dresses and the men are in their suits and hats. Hats are a tradition that really ought to come back into style because they make a man look finished, polished, topped off, so to speak.

Based on the dresses, I’m thinking the 40s for this snapshot. I found it with a few other photos of African American subjects at the big antique mall near where I live. There wasn’t anything written on the back so I don’t even have a clue of where the photo was taken.

This is a great snapshot of a pretty young black woman, maybe in her late teens. She is wearing a lovely white dress with three ruffled tiers on the skirt, which only comes to her knees. She has white tights and white shoes. You can see her necklace but cannot quite tell what it looks like. Moreover, her hair is dressed in finger waves. I learned recently that the finger wave hairstyle is difficult to achieve on the most compliant of hair. This girl’s hair is all the more impressive to me because black hair is harder to work with. Having naturally curly hair myself, I know what it is like to fight it, so my hat is off to the stylist who worked this lady’s hair so nicely. Perhaps this photograph was taken before a dance or formal occasion of some kind.

This AZO real photo postcard shows us a father and daughter at a faux well. You can see very plainly that the well itself is just a prop with a rope and bucket attached to it. The little girl seems to be saying “I am not buying this” and the father looks like he wants to jump down that well. This is an odd image to me.

This AZO real photo postcard has such a beautiful image of a mother and child that while it is not a Christmas card, it evokes the traditional Madonna and Child images of yore. There was no identification on the back, so this mother and her baby will remain unnamed and unknown.