Since we’re about to celebrate Independence Day, July 4th, in the U.S., I thought today I would share another handful of images from my vintage 1940s photo album. These are all black-and-white prints, with many of them professionally shot and sold as souvenirs. That’s the case with the pictures I’ve chosen for today; along with a few general views of […]
Last Monday, March 20, those of us in the Northern Hemisphere celebrated the first day of spring, also known as the vernal equinox — even though it may not feel a whole lot like spring, depending on where you are! The vernal equinox also marks the start of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. The first event of this annual celebration […]
One of the best things about Huell Howser was his enthusiasm for learning about the various cultures that make up California’s population. Three weeks ago we looked at the Serbian New Year celebrations, and in this episode of Visiting, Huell explores how the Vietnamese community in Orange County celebrates the Lunar New Year, which this year is occurring this weekend, […]
Happy New Year to everyone a couple of days (or weeks, or months) early! Huell did some episodes of his show Visiting that focused on the New Year celebrations of a few different Southern California cultural communities; these don’t always fall on January 1, but at least the Serbian New Year is observed in the month of January! This episode […]
My apologies if it seems that lately I have been constantly jumping from one topic to another, but the fact is I just got my hands on a fantastic vintage photo album that I’m quite excited about. And, given the fact that today in the US we’re observing Independence Day, I thought it was quite appropriate to share a few of these images this week. While I have pages and pages of similar vintage photos (some measuring a mere 2.5 x 1.5 inches/6.3 x 3.8 cm) to share at some point in the future, I promise that next week I will be returning to the tour of South America. One reason I’m so pleased with these photos is that on my one and only trip to Washington, D.C. (back in January 1986) I kept very busy running around seeing as many things as possible — but I completely failed to shoot any pictures of my own. I have only postcards to remember that trip by, along with a few notes in a travel journal. I don’t know a whole lot about this particular photo album except that the images date from the mid 1940s and include some professionally shot and labeled photos as well as shots by an amateur photographer documenting a class trip to the nation’s capital. I really appreciate seeing these black-and-white images of the famous landmarks in DC, and it’s intriguing to see how much some of […]
I picked up a stack of photo albums over the weekend and was very excited to start sharing them, but now I’m having second (and third) thoughts. These were rescued from a storage locker, so apparently abandoned?? And I still have a lot of unanswered questions about where and when many of the photos were shot. But the more I […]
On this Easter Sunday, I planned to dig into my archives and share a few vintage images of my sisters and I posing with the spoils of our morning Easter Egg hunt — like this one: But of course, I waited until the last minute to start looking for the photo files. I’m certain I have them tucked away safely […]
Spring may have arrived, but it doesn’t look too much like spring when I look out my window this morning! We’ve got a winter-type storm moving through, with gusty winds, gray skies, and cold rain. To be honest, I’m enjoying the break from the record high temps we had at the end of last week — especially since I’ve been […]
Easter is coming up very quickly now (a week from next Sunday, by the Western calendar) and the holiday means a lot of different things to different people. This week’s photos celebrate the rather more commercial side of things — but also a natural side: Springtime, with the earth coming back to life after a long winter’s sleep. I’ve tried […]