Proof

Last year when my main computer needed to be replaced, the new box came with Windows 7, which I like.  One problem, the Cannon scanner software doesn't communicate with the new system.  I considered upgrading the scanner software, but have decided to move it to my other computer instead, which is still using Windows XP.

Which means it's about time to pack away the old HP scanner, which is slow, noisy, sometimes balky, and not that user friendly.  I'd have jettisoned it long ago, except that:

A.  It still works, and
B.  It has a transparency adapter so I can scan in 35mm negatives and 2" x 2" slides.

All that preamble to tell you that I've started a massive project to scan all my slides.  I'm not very far into the project; I'm up to about 1956.  I had a rather exciting "Aha moment" when I noticed something in this slide, for the first time yesterday; and I've seen it many times over the years.  This is from my first birthday.

On or near November 12, 1954, and appropriate to this blog, this was in Grandma and Poppy's kitchen.  Left to right, my Uncle Bud, me, and my sister Connie (I'm not sure why she's staring at the wallpaper).  Now Cousin Mike, see if you notice anything...interesting about this picture.  I'll give you a few moments...

Hint:  I've mentioned this here before (paragraphs 17 & 18), it's an old family story.

What we have here is photographic proof of waaaaaay back when I started out as a lefty, before my dad trained me out of that, and made me mixed-handed.  Before yesterday, I didn't realize there was any evidence.  It's neat the things I discover when I look through old stuff.

Oh, and another bit of trivia.  The windowpanes slid into the walls, and you'll notice the one on the right side is open.  I'm sure this wasn't too late in the evening, but it was already dark.  And though this was in southern Missouri, November evenings are usually cool there.  But this was 1954, an unusually hot year, or so they tell me.

While I'm in the mood, here's a few more pictures from that evening.

This one was actually taken just before the one at the top.  I don't know if Connie's trying to get my attention or Bud's.  And I don't know if Bud just sampled some of the cake, or if he was prompting me what to do next.  Well, we can see the story, even if we don't know the dialog.  This next image I cropped...seemed to improve it, I think.

I hope you enjoyed those!



  

A glimpse from 66 years ago

I still have Photoshop issues, but my scanner does still work and I have another program I can use to make images into .jpg files.

I found this photo finishing envelope while going through a box of old pictures, and thought it would make a good scan to post here. My dad got his pilot's license when he was 16, which would either have been late 1936 or early 1937. He and his family lived in Detroit, Michigan at the time, and in the late 1930's he gave flying lessons at the Detroit City Airport. Apparently you could drop off film to be developed by Hite Photo Service, at Baker's News Stand at the airport.



It's a neat image, but I haven't decided what's most interesting...the reminder that they were using rolls of Verichrome 620 film back then, or the lady's hair style of the day, or the old camera she's holding, or...that on January 16, 1942 it cost a grand total of 70 cents for developing and printing 12 prints!

On the back...




Hey! Didja know you could take pictures at night now? Don't forget your photo lamps and Kodak Handy Reflectors. Don't forget additional prints to share...and your favorites can be enlarged at a moderate price.

Don't get me wrong, I love the ease of modern digital photography; I can take so many more pictures now. I am still considering buying a new, quality film camera, that is, before they stop making them. The SLR still appeals to me, in that I can change lenses and capture images that are still difficult for my digital camera...subjects moving fast, sharp closeups, astrophotographs, that kind of thing.

Flashbulbs now, I think I'm safe in saying that's in the past. A grand old technology that worked well for decades, though.

The return of The Evening Rambler

Every so often I think of something I want to write here. Short stuff usually, a little of this and a bit of that. Of course I don't always have time right then to blog...and so I don't forget (ahem), I'll word process a list of titles or short descriptions.

An outline without the Roman numerals, capital letters, or indentations.
A grocery list without the food.
Yeah, I can hear you all now, "But Bob, a list is no good if you Can't Find It!"
So I guess I'll have to wing it...

Where are they now?

Last November I had a job assignment through a local temp agency, at a big insurance company with their North American headquarters in the metro. My task was to enter data into a secure database for the Salvage department; mostly account numbers and vehicle identification numbers. The paper file folders included photographs...some of the cars / trucks / etc. looked barely wrinkled, but were a total loss anyway. Others were barely recognizable as cars. Most were somewhere in between.

As I went along I noticed something interesting. Most of the vehicles were made in the 1990's or 2000's. Part of the reason was there were claims for entire car dealers with huge losses due to floods, hurricanes, etc...that, and attrition. There's just more of the "recently" made cars still on the roads...more that could be involved in accidents at any given time. There were quite a few cars from the mid and late 1980's.

Some days into the project and hundreds of listings later, I noticed I hadn't seen anything older than 1978, so I started keeping a mental list. Eventually I noticed some older cars, a handful from 1974 - 1976, and a very few from the early to mid 1960's, say, 1963 - 1965. Just two or three days before the end of the month long assignment I finally found one 1957 Chevy. Got me to thinking back...it doesn't seem all that many years ago that you'd still see lots of cars from the sixties and seventies on the road, and cars from the late fifties weren't all that rare. Not like they are now.

I did see one beauty of a classic, maybe six or eight weeks ago. It was either a 1955 or 1956 Chevy Bel Aire...in motion and just far enough away that I'm not sure which year. (And not that I'm a car expert - but I can recognize a few.) This car looked to have been restored, with a really nice dark blue and white paint job. I'd like to see it again.

So, my question for the evening...what old cars have you seen lately?

Logos! Get your logos!

Cousin Mike has been adding some eye catching logos to his blog (scroll down a bit an start looking in the column on the right). Mostly these are professional sports teams, and it's a neat assortment. I'd like to do something similar here, but right now I seem to be drawn more to scans of nostalgic stuff that has gone away...old pop bottle caps, old gas station signs, a stack of 45 rpm records...stuff like that.

So I need to figure out how I want to go about that. One thing I've thought of, a scan of the week "feature" might be fun. Something that would be in the same location on this page, just the image would change from time to time. I wonder if besides the Blog Archive I could set up a second "Scan Archive" for the older images. I'll have to read up on that.

In the meantime, I've started collecting images. A few days ago I got to thinking of old electron tubes. I have some from my dad's collection still in boxes, but I wanted to go online to see what else I could find. One thing I clicked on was a wall chart of tubes. This was in a photo stream called Diagram Diaries, on a site of charts and graphs...lots of creative ways to show data. I started clicking on the photos to see what else was there. I stopped when I saw something really different...which leads to the following...

Fun stuff...you've got to see this.

Check this out...click here.

I've got to admire artists who can work at that scale and keep that perspective all in their head.

September 18th

Happy birthday, Sis! I'll see you soon.

September 19th

Shiver me timbers, it's that time again!

Ahoy, mateys! Everybody be practicin' yer "Arrghs" and "Landlubbers" fer tomorrow!