Panoramic Photograph MANIA (1940's)

Hi there!

Well, I've been up to the business of buying again, folks. Ugh! Don't I just hate myself in the morning for it, too. I woke up on Sunday like a shot, realizing that the non-buyer's remorse I was going to feel over this panoramic photograph at the flea market might actually kill the heart inside of me, so I woke Matthew up for a "re-do" ("Get up! We have to go back to the flea market!" is a phrase he for some reason meets with grace and dignity rather than flat refusal, which is one of the many reasons we're getting married someday).


Backstory: My dad and I braved the sludgy, overcast cold of Friday early morning to hit the monthly sale and danged if there wasn't bupkiss to buy. I think we got spoiled by going to the October flea, which is deemed "The Big One", and thought the next frosty months were going to be just as fruitful for our spendthrift ways. They were not. I got actually disgusted at one point when I was in one of the antique booths in a building-stall. Spotting a perfect vintage op-art sixties' print maxi-dress, I leaned in for the price tag, and was figuratively slapped in the face by a TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLAR price tag. We're talking Sears Fashion labelled, too-- for that kind of money, it'd better be Pucci! I was sad. The only truly neat thing we found had been a panoramic photograph of Camp Edwards, a military training installation built for WWII outside Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Why should that even be that neat of a find? It so happens, it's the camp my Nashville-born-and-raised grandaddy was assigned to when he signed up to join the army in 1940, and on account of which he met and married my Cape Cod born grandmother. On the base itself!

I managed to convince both of us out of getting it for my mom, who would arguably love to have a keepsake of the place her parents met, because it was a little worse for wear and priced about $10 higher than either one of us cheapskates were willing to give (we're able to be spendthrifts because we never buy anything for more than it's worth!). Le sigh. Fast forward to Sunday morning and the frantic drive back to the fairgrounds as it dawned on me that this was the perfect gift for someone it's practically impossible to buy presents for, whose birthday is coming up on December 10th! (Luckily, she doesn't have the internet and doesn't read my blog-- but if you see her, you'd better keep all this on the QT, hear?!). Of course no one had bought it because, again, for $30 it was little more expensive than I think it should have been, but $30 buys a lot of "the thought that counts" in this case, I think. Plus it'll be neat for my grandma to see, too.

Here's a close up of the camp:

See that church? That's very possibly the one they got married in! I was so glad it was still there I felt physical relief as I ungrudgingly handed over the too-much-money for it. Hurray!

A funny thing about this? This is the second panoramic photo I've bought in as many weeks! I was at a Family Tree sale, actually it might have been three weeks ago, out on the west side of town and picked up this huge, perfect condition photo of a WWII medical hospital grounds and staff (and patients? I'm not sure how there are so many people in uniform or how they're all related...I should probably do some more Googling, but later).

What I'm most interested in, when i see one of these photos, is the idea that someone has possibly done a "pizza run". I can't remember what book I first heard about this in...it was a fiction book and one of the characters did it, but for the life of me the name is elusive...anyway, as described on the Library of Congress's American Memory website (which is awesome browsing material, any time, everytime), a "pizza run" is when you can appear in the same picture twice, on either side of the picture, by running across the back or front of the picture while it's being taken, and standing very still when you arrive at your destination on the other side. They actually have a video of the move in action if you follow that link...when's someone going to ask me to stand in a group picture like this so I can do it! When! :)

Here's a closeup of some of the officers and the seemingly miles of just-put-up buildings:

Isn't it funny to see their individual expressions? How about those ears sticking out from their crew cuts and caps? This picture, bigger and better in my opinion but for the lack of sentimental value, was also thirty dollars. I got worried about if I'd spent too much money on it or not, but seeing other examples in worse condition for more money has assuaged some of my "should I have resisted" feelings that always crop up after a purchase of more than $20. The best moment was when my WWII obsessed, usually nonplussed dad (I've mentioned it before), who's typically with me when I hit the sales, said, "Gee....! That is SHARP! Listen, if you die first, can you will this to me? It could happen. Older people are living longer all the time, you know!" which is his black humor way of expressing approval and esteem in the highest. Thanks, Pappy! (I might give it to him for Christmas...he also doesn't have the internet and also doesn't read my blog, so the secret's safe with you, I hope).

Last but not least, here's a picture I already had in my collection (you can see it hanging on the wall in the background of the early pics, in my little-seen-on-this-page-study-slash-computer-room), which I have no intention of re-gifting. It shows the graduating class of Somewheresville, U.S.A, in what I would guess to be the forties'? I can't even tell if it's a middle school or a high school because we all know how grown up pre-1960 people look at all times, but draw your own conclusions from the pictures. It was one dollar (ONE DOLLAR) at an otherwise woefully understocked sale in Antioch, about two years ago. In the frame and everything!

I've talked before about how I collect photos, and all of them somehow end up in this one room on the wall. The larger, black background pictures are just poster frames lined with construction paper, mounted to which are the favorites of some of my collection. Below, on top of the dvd shelves, are the blue-million cameras that somehow also go with collecting pictures. I've actually called a temporary moratorium on buying any more of them unless they're just something out of the ballpark amazing, but you never know when lightning will strike and I'll end up with another tchotchke on the shelf.

There are some cute people in this picture! Look at the tiny gal on the left, and the glamorous one on the right. The shortest guy in the picture (center) also happens to be wearing the loudest shoes.

Gah! The shoes! They may be my favorite part of the picture. Look at this closeup:

What about your collection? Have any of these oversized photos lurking around the house?  Find any great off-the-beaten-Black-Friday path deals this weekend? Did you go to the flea market? Tell me all about it!

Have a great Monday, and I'll see you guys tomorrow!