The wonderfully imperfect world of old photos


I just love looking at old photos, especially the ones that feel as if I could step into them, like this one I just found on the Duke University  website. There's so much to see, and what I like best is the dents and scratches on the cars.

OK, calm down there, I'm not fascinated by dents and scratches, but I do like to time-travel to a world that has imperfections. If I woke up tomorrow and walked into a street scene that was absolutely pristine, like what you usually see in period movies, I'd figure that I'd woken up on the Universal backlot, or hadn't woken up at all.

This photo, by the way, wasn't taken to show the cars, or the buildings, it was taken to show the billboards. It's how billboard companies could prove that the ads were up and visible. And if that's what catches your attention, I understand, but I'm looking at the cars. And since I've only seen cars like this in movies, or at car shows, I'm fascinated by the wrinkled fenders, and the scratches. This is real life, not something artificial. This is what it would look like to step into Trenton, New Jersey, at State and Broad Streets, in 1935.

When I do go to car shows, and see cars of this vintage, I like to smell the interior. Yes, of course I don't touch them (I hold my hands behind my back) but if the windows are rolled down, and the car is very original inside, there's a distinctive smell. If you know what I mean, you're nodding your head right now.

And here's the billboard, advertising whiskey. Whiskey was pretty popular then, and it still is! I'm no expert on whiskey, but I'm skeptical about naming it "Golden Wedding". I'm sure they meant well, apparently it was America's finest blend, and had the mark of merit, your protection, your assurance of quality in liquor.

Thank you for time-traveling with me!



Image from the Duke University Library Digital Collections.

If you like pictures of old-time Phoenix, please become a member of History Adventuring on Patreon. I share a LOT of cool old photos there, copyright-free, with no advertising. Your support makes it happen! Thank you!

Click here to become a Patron!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the
Read more