halloween party

A few months ago I got this remarkably beautiful and well preserved booklet on Children's Holiday Parties from 1935. Every page looks like these pages. These were sold for 25 cents at the A&P and put out by the A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company, who was best known for corn starch and corn syrup at this time.

These scans are not enhanced. The colors and illustrations are so great. Maybe you will get some ideas for your own Halloween celebration this week!

fall colors

I finally got to see a lot of fall colors this weekend. It was beautiful. I thought this was a good time to post a couple of my favorite autumny postcard.

This postcard is from Europe and has no writing on it. It says it is a Photochromie on the back. Here is a bit of info I just found on that:

Photochromie (Vidal Process) A variation of the photochrom process invented in 1875 by Leon Vidal. It was a hybrid of chromolithography with elements of the photographic reproductive methods used to create woodburytypes. It produced very high quality reproductions but it was a difficult and expensive process and rarely used. Nenke & Ostermaier patented the process in Saxony and used this method to create high quality postcards. The process was later adapted to the offset press.



This mill reminds me of one in Washington that we go to most years. You can see pics of it here.


I wish these linen postcards scanned better. The colors in the linen postcards are so beautiful.

I have a fondness for canoes.



This postcard was sent in Sept 1948 from Saint Cloud Minnesota to Yakima Washington. Dorothy told Marie about the gloomy weather in the mountains and about shopping and having lunch with Elizabeth in town.

accidental ghosts

One of the kinds of photos I collect are double exposure photos. I often call them ghost photos. They are so intriguing and dramatic. They always have this otherworldly feeling and often create a depth that is only made stronger by the fact that it is accidental. This is something that won't happen anymore with people using digital cameras. Sure they can create the effect, but that is not the same as the accidental layers.
I used this imagine in one of my zines. I use a lot of my photos in my zines. I was so happy when I discovered zines and I finally had a place to "use" the photos I had been collecting. The one above I got recently and I really love it.

If you want to get some photos and antique papers for yourself, there is a show coming up Oct 17 and 18th here in Portland. There doesn't seem to be a good website for it, but here is the listing. I think you should go.

eat at moose

I have been really busy trying to get a DVD together of my father's film, Gifts of an Eagle. I have been editing photos, doing layout and have been pretty deep into that for some time.
Just wanted to pop in here for a minute and show you a slide I came across while looking through piles of old slides. This is my mom, my sister and me eating at this outdoor restaurant in the Grand Tetons in Wyoming.



This restaurant is family legend. We were out driving, this must have been around 1971, and kept seeing all these signs EAT AT MOOSE, GOOD FOOD, or something like that. They were laughably simple ads. But once we got there we decided to give it a shot. The food was amazing, cooked "chuckwagon" style, you dished out beans and mashed potatoes from big kettles and ate outside with an amazing view or you could eat in teepees.

I looked for it recently on the internet and it is still around. My sister and mom have been able to visit there since. It has been operating for 62 years!

If you are in Wyoming I recommend it.

from Pinky

Los Angeles , CA Oct 3rd 1941

Next stop L.A. Just mailed loads to the boys in Pasadena
and unloaded Mrs. Jack Benny and Mrs Joe E Brown - 2nd class -
I love you - Pinky

I wonder if they really dropped off the Mrs Jack Benny. I just had to look up Joe E Brown and apparently he was a comedian and movie star and was really quite big in the 20's and 30's. He is best known as the rich guy in "Some Like it Hot".

I am guessing Pinky is joking, but it is fun to wonder.

The Bob Shoppe

A beautiful business card from, I assume, the late 20's. Bob hair styles were first seen during WWI, but became widely popular with the younger generation by 1921.

Because there were no hair salons for women back then, the young women who wanted to chop off their locks had to invade the barbershop and some men's barbershops had long lines outside of young women waiting to get their hair bobbed. The men were not thrilled.



The image here is from this website where you find out more about the history of The Bob.

It looks like The Bob Shoppe was fulfilling a need. I am not sure, but it looks like the Ungar building is either no more or is not called that anymore. Although it could be one of these buildings. I wonder how long The Bob Shoppe was around.

To My Dear Aunt

Being a Aunt, I am very fond of pretty vintage postcards made just for Aunts. I have a few of them. This one is especially pretty and has a curious message. It has no address or stamp and is written in pencil and cursive. It looks like an adults writing.

I know you dont lik me but accept this card for good luck.


And here is another picture postcard sent to an Aunt



Best Wishes to all for a Merry Christmas 815 Grant St

Dear Aunt,

Received your letter. Was glad to hear from you. I am enjoying married life in the nicest way and getting along fine. I have a lovely man and a nice home and he is so good to me. This is our picture. Fannie

To: Mrs Susan Yoder, Middlebury, Ind RR no 1
Postmark: Springfield, Ohio Dec 23 1911

Something I like to do is look up some of the addresses on these old postcards. Many do not have full addresses, but this on does in the return address. If you want to see where Fannie and her new husband lived, click here.