The Original Blog Post
This is a very special post, resulting from my purchase of a vintage slide projector at a St. Petersburg thrift store.
The 501st Legion’s Florida and Excelsior Garrisons have been helping with research, to try to discover who these families could be. All of us would like to see that these wonderful images be returned to the families’ descendants.
You can help! If you recognize anyone or any places in these pictures, or have any clues, please e-mail me at magnumarts1@gmail.com.
This is the father, name unknown. He’s very proud of his 1951 Chevrolet, made possible, along with his house in a suburban working class neighborhood, because of a good paying job, probably in a machine parts factory. At the end of each working day he drives his Chevrolet home to his wife and kids, and on the weekends he putters around the house, goes bowling with his pals in the bowling league. His job allows him to take two vacations a year and put food on the table for his family.
His stoicism can perhaps be explained by his time fighting in the war that just ended, or his upbringing in a home where a man showing emotions was something that was simply not done. Like most men of this era, he provided for his family the socially acceptable way, by giving them a good home in a nice neighborhood.
On this quiet Sunday afternoon, there is a lawnmower droning somewhere nearby, as another home owner pushes his Briggs & Stratton over his piece of the American dream.
Later, when the mower stops, you can hear the occasional dog barking, and a passing car every once in awhile. When he wakes up, it’ll be time to snap on the radio to find out who won the game.
This little boy has a sad, worried expression on his face, as if he didn’t feel like posing for a picture at that particular moment.
This is the man’s son, who like most boys in the 1950s, has a fascination with cowboys and lawmen. Notice the yellow STOP sign in the background, before the Department of Transportation was created in 1957 and mandated the stop signs all be red. The man lived on or near an intersection; this is most probably his front yard, and the boy is playing on the sidewalk in front of his house.
The house in the background is the same house as in the picture at right, taken after an early evening rain. Also, the car behind the Chevrolet (mostly off frame, and hidden behind the tree) might be the same car in a picture that comes later in this blog post; below is a close-up of both:
Life is good…the war is finally over, factories have stopped making tanks and weapons and have reverted back to making brand new cars, and America is entering a new age of prosperity. Harry Truman is in the White House, and the next year, 1951, cost-to-coast television is introduced through a speech by Truman himself that documents Japan’s surrener after World War 2. Another war just started, however; the North Korean Communist forces invaded South Korea in 1950. But that seems a world away these days.
There is something haunting about this child’s expression, an expression that seems older than his years.
Below are various snapshots of life at home, most probably taken on weekends. By the time Dad gets home from work, taking pictures is the last thing on his mind. All he wants to do is throw some cheese on some crackers until dinner’s ready, crack open a cold beer and read the afternoon paper.
Below: this might be the same house, #96, in the below pictures, but with new siding on it. The steps look similar, and both pictures show a covered porch on the right, probably in the same neighborhood.
The family’s last name begins with the letter F. They don’t have a lot of money but they are a close family, and the mother does everything in her power for them. Being a good mother is the most important thing in the world to her.
I imagine long, deep conversations between a worried younger mother and the strong, reassuring words of advice from her mother, at the kitchen table when the kids are asleep, or playing in the back yard.
Is she a single mother? Did her husband not come back from the war? In the 1940s, young men dropped everything – careers, families, their life plans – to go overseas and fight because their country needed them. Tom Brokaw was right; it was truly the greatest generation, and our nation is free because of their sacrifices. There was no facet of this country that was unaffected by the war effort.
A Request: if you happen to discover the location of this house, I ask that you please do not put the address on-line. The owner quite understandably wishes to avoid people driving by and stopping in front of her house taking pictures. Let’s respect her family’s privacy. If she consents to letting me put a picture on this blog of the house as it looks today, I will of course do so, but I wish to honor her wishes for anonymity.
Here are some more pictures taken at this house:
Here’s the little sheriff in his new duds, with a cowboy hat and toy guns, being gushed over by the mother, while the sister looks on inside.
The father may have been a Shriner; that could be a possible clue
A winter picture of the house
Carol and the girl below (who is on the boat in the pictures below) are very good friends, maybe best friends, and grew up together in the same neighborhood, going to the same school together. I wonder if they maintained contact as they grew older or they lost touch with each other?
Joey Two Hats, a member of the 501st Legion’s Florida Garrison, has a theory that the blonde girl in the Christmas pictures below is the same girl as in the above pictures. He surmises that it may be possible that Carol began wearing the school jacket about six to eight years after the Christmas pictures were taken, when Carol was a freshman.
This is the same side of the house where the picture of Carol was taken, although she may not have necessarily lived there.
Notice Carol’s friend, the pretty, all-American girl on the right, standing up. She is in several pictures. What a beautiful, radiant smile she has!
Below, the boat is docked at Trenton Cold Storage, which is located in Ontario, Canada. So wherever this family lived, it was either in Canada or in New York, near the border (in one picture, there’s a bottle of Genessee beer, which was brewed in New York).
Below is a small photo of Trenton Cold Storage pulled from their website; the buildings are undeniably identical.
A sailboat on Lake Ontario, seen either on the way to or from the marina.
Here, hold the jack-o-lantern you spent so much time carving!
I think not!
Is it only nostalgia which makes people look back on Christmas in the 1950s with such fondness and longing? Our society today is so jaded, cynical and filled with a sense of entitlement, that this era in American history seems magical.
Note the period wall hangings above the black and white TV (fourteen million TV sets are sold in 1950). The little boy has his lawman hat and his pair of six shooters, just what he wanted from Santa. His sister got ice skates, a new doll and what looks like a make-up case. Life is good this December twenty-fifth. After years of sacrifice and a lack of goods to buy during the war, America went on a spending spree in the 1950s, and subsequently became one of the most powerful economies in the world.
Above: the red box behind the boy is a Lasso ‘Em Bill cowboy costume, made by the Kenton hardware Company, which went out of business in 1952, which puts this picture between 1950-51 (because of the 1951 Chevrolet in a lot of the pictures). Some of these slides are from different years, it looks like. Whoever owned this projector selected these images to be kept available for future viewing. It seems ironic they were forgotten about when the projector was donated to the thrift store.
One season dies, so that another can be born. A day that passes can never be re-lived.
The Genessee beer puts this location in New York, probably upstate, close to the Canadian border.
A visit from a cousin, perhaps? One that rode a motorcycle (probably a Harley Davidson, or if he had money, an Indian). There were no imported cars or motorcycles back then. Everything was made in America.
The jacket could be an Air Force jacket; in another picture a little boy has a T-shirt indicating that a brother serves in the Air Force.
The two women in the above picture are the two women in the picture below. I would love to hear the background story of these two pictures; all we have is a snapshot of time. Obviously a special occasion; maybe a church service, or maybe even a funeral, or a big family reunion. The man (her brother maybe?) has a pensive expression, as if he would rather be somewhere else, or is troubled by something. I wonder what was going through his mind when the picture was taken.
The little boy in his finest, wearing a hat just like daddy’s. The picture was taken at the same time as the picture above; note the side of the car on the right. It’s the same car behind the pensive man in the picture above.
What would a childhood be without a visit to Grandmom’s house? A bad one, that’s what.
I think this house is the same one as in the above two pictures, on the same street, taken at a different day or year. The house siding is identical, so we have a view now of what the other side of the street looked like.
The young woman in the pink dress above is in the picture at right and below.
She has a heart of gold, and cares about people’s needs, always seeing the best in people, and situations.
But behind those expressive eyes is a hint of sadness, or anxiety, perhaps of the future, or a secret insecurity. Sometimes the world just seems too cruel and unfair.
Another picture taken in front of this awning
I love the 1950s clothes in this picture. The shorter man on the left might be the pensive man in the above picture, and the one wearing the black leather jacket. They are standing in the driveway in front of a 1950 Pontiac. The driveway is in several pictures
Same man? What do you think?
Below is a picture of the 1950 Pontiac, the same car in the driveway of the summer backyard party above. Back then General Motors had a car for every part of your life. When you were just starting out, you bought a Chevrolet. Later, you moved up to a Pontiac. When you were doing really well, you stepped up to a Buick. By the time you bought a Cadillac, you were ready to announce to the world that you have truly made it.
This is probably an uncle of the little boy, after a day of hunting with two dead deer strapped to the hood of his Hudson.
A close up of the Hudson with the deer on it. The deer heads will probably be stuffed and mounted in the basement rumpus room or the den.
This looks like a basement rumpus room during an evening when relatives get together, slap each other on the back and ask how they are doing. Children’s cheeks are being pinched, and promises are being made that everyone will see each other more often, a promise renewed the next time everyone does, which is usually next year.
A day of baseball, probably with a father, introducing his son to the sport.
Three girls playing on a weekend afternoon, while dad is either golfing or puttering around the house, or, watching the game. Mom is inside working on dinner, or talking with her friend on the phone. There were no video games back then, no PCs or smart phones. Back then kids went outside and played, using their imaginations.
Today? Not so much.
I have no idea what the occasion was for this gathering, but I’ll bet there is a good story behind it.
A small town parade featuring the high school marching band makes its way down the street on an idyllic Sunday afternoon…
A reader said that Charlotte High School had those colors, so the parade could be from there
At some point our camera owner took some pictures of cows crossing a dirt road somewhere.
This boat looks hand made, or a modified boat and is most probably on the Genessee River.
This is the most recent picture; the houses are newer and the car in the driveway is a 1965 Chevrolet Impala