Vintage Photo Friday

This is the photo that started my interest in restoration. About 10 years ago I was in my grandmother's basement looking at things and thinking what is there that I would like to have at my house.  I opened an old trunk and found it basically empty except for a couple small shells, buttons and a tiny photo about the size of a postage stamp.

The little photo was of my grandmother, her older brother, mother and father.  Her younger brother had not been born yet.  The tiny photo was not in good condition.  There was a crack going from top to bottom and through my grandmother's face.  The corners were also cracked and damaged.

No one in the family had ever seen this photo before.  I took the trunk home with me, and the photo.  As soon as I got home, I took the photo to a local camera/print shop.  They told me that they could repair the photo for me (actually they had to send it to the lab in Atlanta).  The charge was $45 for the repair, the photo on a disk, and a couple 5x7 prints.  A very reasonable price for what needed to be done.  But I started thinking.  I had a digital camera and did very limited editing on the computer --I could purchase a program that did more for less than the price of having two photos repaired and I could do it myself.  So from that point on -- I did it myself.

This photo shows my grandmother's mother and father.  Aunt Anna (last week's VPF) was her sister -- remember sisters married to brothers.  Trying to date this photo -- I am looking at my grandmother for help.  She was born in 1916.  In this photo she appears 2 or maybe a little younger -- so the photo is from 1917 or 1918.  I wish it was clearer so you could see the clothing better.  I have other photos of these great grandparents wearing very fancy clothing.  The photos were most likely taken at a studio on Washington, D.C. around the turn of the century.  I do have a little dress that was my grandmother's that I believe is the same dress she is wearing in this photo.

Granddaddy King

Last week I began "Vintage Photo Friday" with a photo of one of my grandfathers.  I began with him since his birthday was that week.  Well, as it turned out, my other grandfather's birthday was exactly a week from his.  They were even born in the same year.  The photo today features George King sitting on the back steps at their house.  The house is no longer there -- development has replaced it.

This photo of him shows a bit of hair.  I remember him as bald.  He did have some hair that would grow on the sides of his head -- but he shaved it.  He once told me that if he could not have hair all over his head, he did not want it at all.  George was the youngest child of George and Doritha King.  At the time my grandfather was born; his father was 69 years old.  At his birth, my granddaddy had adult brothers.

Granddaddy tended a garden -- heading out early in the mornings before it got too hot.  He drove an old black Comet -- slowly.  He would sit in the car while grandma would go into the store to get groceries.  When I was along, I would sit in the car with him.  I think this is when my love of snarkiness was born -- he used to make the best comments.

When I was in elementary school, I would catch the bus at his house.  My mother would drop me off on her way to work.  Granddaddy would stand at the stop with me; it was on the side road (dirt road) along the side of his property.  I was the only one at that stop.  Every morning we would stand there and wait for Mervin to arrive with the school bus.  While we waited, he would give me a weather report based on the clouds and wind patterns.  

Granddaddy always called me "Peter."  I will never know why.  He would let me follow him around while he did things in the old dirt floor garage.  He would tell me to always look out for Number 1 (good advice).  He had a little room in the garage with a recliner and magazines -- I guess that was his 'office.'  In that room he had some jars on a shelf labeled "cotter pins" that actually held money.  When I was very little, I would spend the night on Saturdays.  On Sunday mornings, I would sit on his lap in his recliner while he would read the Sunday comics to me.  He liked Dennis the Menace, Henry, Gasoline Alley, Nancy, Lil' Abner, and Peanuts.  I remember seeing the scythe he used hanging in his garage.  He would tell me about using it, working all day, eating lunch from a bucket, and earning a dollar for that hard work.  I have the scythe at my house now.

When I was little I remember spending time with him sitting on the front porch in rocking chairs watching the cars go by.  It was shaded in the afternoon and a good way to spend some time on a hot summer day.