Photo Friday: Cavalcade of Color Edition (1958-1962)

Good morning!

Well, I lived through my headache yesterday (and didn't even have to get a skull-to-skull transplant, though I thought I might at one point). In celebration of my continued life, I'm here today on this gloomy, rainy Friday to infuse some color in your end-of-the-work-week day! This flickr user has hands down the coolest set of color photographs of their family in various states of formal attire, and you know I'm just ready and rarin' to show them to you!

Let the show begin: 

This photo was the one that really caught my eye out of the whole flickr stream. How this woman's dress torments me. Bateau neck, flared skirt, and that delicate gold print over pink organza...plus her general aura of looking like a healthy Judy at Carnegie Judy....I am jealous. Let's just leave it at that. Can you see how all the detail of the dress would have been lost entirely if this photo was in black and white? Notice, too, that the pink marble coffee-table with silk flowers, and the little step up to the next level of the house. Ever since I went and saw that dream house off Murfreesboro Pike, I'm stuck on the idea of living in some kind of midcentury  split level...I hope some day my prince(ss house) will come! This photo is date 1961. Bid time return!

A year earlier, these cuties posed before a high school dance in front of the mantle in that same room (see the roses?). I think the gal in blue is the pink-dress woman's daughter. I like seeing the younger siblings' toys squirreled under the arm chair and laying out in the open, as if they were just scooted out of frame in time for the picture to get snapped. The black sequins and inky hem of that blue dress is KILLER, though I wouldn't object to wearing the powder blue, flower-brocade one, either.

And the dresses keep coming! Here, a floor length number with elbow length white gloves AND corsage. That shawl collar tuxedo jacket on her beau isn't anything to sniff at either, what a cute little couple they make! Is he the same bespectacled guy from the year before? I can't tell!

If I were looking back on these beautiful high school photos of myself, I would be thanking my parents for investing in a color camera. LOOK. AT THIS DRESS. All that mottled, modern print and the big flower applique would once again be lost in greys

Yellow: a popular color in the late fifties'/early sixties'. This corsage is CRUSHING all the other corsages, doesn't it really make the dress. I like the insubstantial, dreamy little wrap and the dream of a tulip skirt here.

The other set of photos from this photo stream mainly come from Easters with the same daughters and mother looking dressed to beat the band for church services. I do love how perfect and prosaic and pastel these photos are. While these girls are only in their early teens, look how grown up they are with their somber handbags and perfectly matched coat-to-dress-to-hat ensembles. "I'm doing pink this year, what color are you doing?" I can hear the one saying to the other. Look at the cut of these wide brimmed, flower trimmed hats, the shape of their handbags, and the uniform length of their dress coats.

THAT BROOCH AT THE NECK OF THIS BLOUSE IS EVERYTHING. How pretty are the delicate little details of this outfit?

Here, the relative on the left is serving Jackie Kennedy realness-- the dainty hat! The checked coat and skirt! The pearls and gloves! The floral print on the other girl's coat is nice, but I place second runner up squarely on the shoulders of the mother, along with that gorgeous dark sable, and the subtle flowers-on-navy hat.

Last but not least, this suit looks super simple but I am really interested in how the bow at her neck and the hat changes the whole dynamic of the suit. I have a handful of sixties' sack coats like this, with or without a matching skirt, that I am realizing would look SO much more chic with maybe a big black bow at the neck on top of the print pattern of the jacket. Thank you, Mrs. Easter 1962, for opening up a world of possibilities here.

I gotta get back to the grind...only two more hours until I'm free! FREE! And then it's the weekend. Praise the Lord. How about you? Any crazy plans or sales I need to know about? Which of these 1950's/60's ensembles are you the most broken up about? Been inspired by any vintage photos lately? Let's talk!

That's all for this week, but I will see you right back here next week with even more vintage craziness. Have a great weekend! Til then.

Photo Friday: It Pays to Be Frugal, Florida Edition

 Good morning!

You may have noticed if you've been following Photo Friday with any regularity that Doris and Ray took a lo-o-o-o-ot of vacations with friends and family throughout the years. Today's find is another trip with Doris's sister Ruth and her husband Robert, this time down to Florida in 1968. And it wouldn't be a set of vacation snaps without a picture of the group packing the car!

Looking over these pictures reminds me that a) I don't document near enough of any special travels Bab and I have taken-- we're usually so busy running around and trying to see all we can see that I totally forget to photograph any of it! and b) the pictures I take need to be more editorial, like these! You've got a natural progression from "Oh, RUTH, REALLY, we can't take ALL these suitcases!" to the ladies of the party getting into the car with their massive thermos-es (plural? how?). See Ruth's natty little pink suit and her extra long cigarette.

That picture takes us to one more of Doris and Ruth getting into the car, and Bob enjoying the fruit of their labors as he sips Thermos coffee from the cap of one of those. Something about Bob's head, sunglasses, and expression, always makes him look like early Eastwood to me.

The group crosses the Florida state line! The red older model sedan has pulled over to take a picture, but not our group! I think dashboard pictures from this era are so exciting. Notice the lack of those over-the-whole-highway-signs! When did we start having those?

 Some worse-for-wear looking ducks and a great, modular hotel. Don't sixties' buildings like this look like something Soviet Russia would put on the moon? I love how distinct and "apart" buildings with balconies like this look from the rest of the landscape. And each room its own private balcony!

Two interesting things about the next two pictures: one, Doris and Ray have bought matching kimono-esque robes, and are super excited about them; two, look at the little makeshift buffet the sisters have set up in their hotel room! Was there no cha-cha-y hotel bar and restaurant at this place? Between that and the thermoses, Doris and Ray and Co. are going very thrifty with this vacation. It looks like they're having cold cuts and pretty good time on the right there. Check out the crazy wall light fixture and mark me down for two, thanks.

I told you they were crazy about their robes! Doris goes all Revlon model in this one:

Return of the striped one-piece Doris favored for most of the sixties'...how cute is her sister Ruth's bandeau bikini top? I like how Bob's like "Nah, I'll be keeping my shirt on, I think." Notice in the far background of the picture on the left, you can see the indoor pool on the beach-front hotel. I like to have choice! You can either brave the saltwater and whatever lives in it for real ocean swimming, or enjoy chlorinated freshwater in a heated, indoor setting. Either way though, you're going to have sand.

There must be another fifty of these little envelopes, all from about 1967- 1980, each with between fifteen and twenty little snaps in a packet of a particular trip. I'll keep going through them and let you know what I find!

Any big plans for the weekend? I just remembered the Flea Market is today, Saturday, and Sunday. I guess that means I know what I'm doing tomorrow morning, now!

Have a great weekend, I'll see you guys on Monday!

Photo Friday: Just Kids Edition

Good afternoon! It's Friday and you know that means two things-- I'm super late with a post because I was at estate sales, and I've got more vintage photos for your viewing pleasure. Let's focus on the latter half of that sentence, because these are some real cuties.

 Though a lot of the Doris and Ray photo archives focus on the post Doris-and-Ray getting married era of Doris's life, there's one large scrapbook with the familiar black construction paper pages of a pre-sticky with clear plastic albums era. I had to kind of carefully wrangle with the HP to get the pages in without crinkling or damaging the originals, but then a lot of the photos were blurry to begin with, so we're working with raw stock here, folks. What makes up for the quality is definitely the subject matter-- almost all of the album is from the mid to late 1940's, and most of the pictures are of Doris's son, Sonny, and his cousins, Ruth's children. Take a look:

Look how sharp the boy at left looks in his best white flannels, a white button up shirt, and a black tie, doing his best Benny Goodman impersonation! I was always disappointed that I had to take up flute (all apologies to Ian Anderson, but come on) as my dad's all-consuming love of big bands made me aware at an early age of the magic of the clarinet, or the trombone, or (instrument of instruments, and what he played in high school) the trumpet. The little looker on the right is dressed in my favorite of 1940's children's clothing, "little tiny versions of clothes your grand-dad would wear". Sharp as a tack! Notice the to-the-shoulder collar span, highwaisted pants, beanie, and cardigan. I could die. I think these were both taken in front of Ruth's house in Georgia, so they're probably Ruth's boys.

Here, Sonny takes main stage, in a big way:

Yes, he is wearing what appears to be a butterfly costume at left, but let's disregard the questionability of the costume in terms of whether-or-not-he'll-be-teased-at-school-for-being-a-butterfly with how cute vintage children's costumes were. Do you need a vinyl print reproduction of the exact pattern of a Monarch butterfly? Heck no! Paint some spots and stripes on one of our old capes and let's move along! Don't foget to take a moment to ponder the little antennae cap on his head. At right, Sonny stands, bashfully, in front of A REALLY COOL PLANE. Tip for time traveling photographers of a bygone era-- add cars, planes, and other modes of transportation to the list of things that look cool to stand in front of (hotels, bodies of water, and signs were already on there, FYI). I promise they will look much more significant and of interest to future viewers than that rosebush or prize winning hedge in the front yard of which you're so proud.

I think this little girl is Ruth's daughter:

Is she a girl scout? A tiny little WAC? I don't know, but I love it. See her genuine salute and Rita Hayworth worthy hair. I would put her on a recruitment poster in nothing flat! At right, she shows a more maternal side, caring for a baby doll in the exact matching print of her own long-dress outfit. See the little bows in her hair? You're killing me, kid.

These pictures were just as blurry in the original, but here you have some cowboys and a little cowgirl (or possible civilian toddler, female, no affiliation to the cattle herding business) and Sonny cooking a hot plate breakfast in what looks like someone's backyard. The cooking picture reminds me of how cool it would be to cook food at a hotplate on a bar cart next to a table, Benihana's or Trader Vic's style, as your delighted dinner guest gaze upon you. Note to self, buy the long-suffering bab a white serving coat and toque hat for this purpose.

A vintage duck picture? Sure! Why not! Look at his expressionless expression!

Last but not least, a picture-perfect snap of the first day of school. Sonny's the one who looks like a lab assistant in that all white coat and hat get up, the boy next to him is unidentified but towheaded and adorable...I think my favorite features of this photo are the background, however. Do you see the one boy sucking on a popsicle just behind the boy on the left? Or the one kid, a little to the right of him, going "What?". Pigtails up front is similarly uninterested in the fact that a photo is about to be taken that will be seen by complete strangers, seventy years later, with a good amount of amusement. See the girls' tiny, short dresses in the far background as they file into the school building? Adorable.

Well, that's it for this week! Which little kid gets your vote for "Most Personality"? Do you have any pictures of your grandparents or parents that make it hard to believe they were ever that small and yet so grownup? Tell, tell!

See you on the other side! Find great things and I'll talk to you on Monday.

Photo Friday: Diamond Jim's Nevada Club Edition

Good morning!

Doing my regular Doris and Ray rounds, I ran across these four photos from a Las Vegas gambling establishment called "Diamond Jim's Nevada Club", taken in the wild, as Doris and Ray vacationed with Ruth and her husband Robert. That's a lot of R's for one group, but there you go. I love on-the-spot professional photography like this because there's no time to go "Ugh, why was I wincing like that? Do I always look like that? Take one more where I look human", because you don't get to see the finished product until you pass the photo-man's kiosk and claim your souvenir. Which is probably why these photos look so weird and solemn! There would definitely be retakes if any of this was digital.

Doris actually fairs the best out of the lot:

At first, being used to touch screen casino machines, I thought she was actually gambling when this picture was taken, but as you see the arm lever to the right, turns out she's just placing her hand on the wheel for some weird reason as the picture was snapped. I like her crazy-paisley blouse and her hair and the expression like "Whaaa...?" Even better than that though, check out the wood paneling in the gambling room and the chips attendant in the background, who probably doesn't even realize she's inadvertently in many people's souvenir scrapbook of their trip to Vegas.

Now, look at Robert:

Does he not look like he's waiting for you to say ONE MORE thing so he can clock you? I think it's the buttoned-up-to-there polo combined with the Clint Eastwood hair cut and sunglasses indoors, but he looks tough as nails! Also, notice that the blonde in back of him, next to the big wheel, looks like she is not wearing a shirt. I think the sepia tone drowns out a lot of background detail and she is, probably, in all fairness clothed, but it made me do a double take!

Did he cheer up any later? Nope.

Here Ruth joins him, holding a cigarette in two fingers and waiting to strike it big at the one-armed-bandit in front of her. A kindly, W.C. Fields type looks over her shoulder. I was so surprised Ray didn't get his picture taken! I looked and looked through the rest of the album for his moment in the impromptu spotlight, but was disappointed when none was to be found. Ah, well. Here's Ruth by herself, again, looking just solemn. Are you guys not taking advantage of the free drinks? Let's get this party started already!

The Nevada Club is actually one of the oldest licensced clubs on the strip, opening in 1932. The club was only known as "Diamond Jim's" from 1962-1969, and it closed in 1969, so these photos are from somewhere in that time frame. You can see more postcards/chips/memorabilia from the casino here. If you're jealous of my photos, you can buy one of your own on ebay! Look, these are all available right now:

1960s Las Vegas Diamond Jim's Nevada Club Real Photo

NV, Las Vegas, Nevada, RPPC, Diamond Jims Nevada Club Slot Machines

Vintage RPPC Diamond Jim's Nevada Club

Have you ever taken home one of these souvenir photos of yourself or do you have any in the family scrapbook? Are subjects required to be so weirdly stoic in these kinds of pictures?

Four more hours and I'm outta work and off to the races...more like estate sales...on this gloomy Friday afternoon. Have a great weekend, and I'll see you on the other side!

Photo Friday (Is It Too Late? Edition)

Hi-ya, there!

Man, was I a busy bee today! Sus and I ran out from Charlotte Ave all the way to Hendersonville and back again! We hit three thrift stores, dealt with some TSU paperwork shenanigans, got my oil changed, I got a flu shot (I sound like a septuagenarian now), and had a lot of fun along the way, but it has me waaaaay behind on 1) eating food and 2) posting about Doris and Ray. Sadly, I put the first option as a priority, but I didn't want you to think I forgot about our favorite midcentury couple. So here's one for the road on a Friday afternoon:

Isn't this a pretty cheesecake shot of Doris? It was taken on their honeymoon to Florida in 1957, I think. What a cute bathing suit, and how great is it the way the black and white makes the sun and the sea and the sand all kind of melt into one another? Makes me wish I was vacation-bound right now, instead of kitchen-stove bound. Lunch is a-callin' me.

Hope you have a great weekend, and I'll see you guys, with more vintage madness, on Monday! Til then!

Photo Friday: Small Frys Edition

Good morning!

Matthew had a show last night at the High Watt and LORD AM I BEAT. On six hours sleep, with a nine hour work day, and two hours of evening classes, I managed to make it through his set, the second out of three bands, and an additional ten or fifteen minutes of breaking down the equipment before I was insisting that if I didn't go to sleep in the next thirty minutes, I would have to crawl out of a grave the following morning to make it in to work. Because even in my undead afterlife, I would apparently still feel compelled to go to work.

At any rate! It is nevertheless Photo Friday and what we have for you today are the nieces and nephews of Doris and Ray. With four sisters and I think two brothers, Doris had a lot of little guys besides Sonny running around her house and her relatives' houses in the fifties' and sixties'! Think about what Christmas must have been like.

Here, a little baby is bottle fed by Doris on a 1940's-ish print couch with Ray close by. See Doris's mother of pearl or maybe iridescent clear plastic necklace and earring set and her pretty red dress? See Ray's square tie? I'm always perplexed by these matching jewlery sets (though it never stops me from buying them) because most of my dresses are either black or wild print-- it seems like you would need a less "statement" outfit to go with a bold necklace choice. I have practically a drawerful of pieces like ones Doris is wearing and yet the only ones I ever wear are three necklaces of black jet glass beads...I have to amend that situation soon!

Here's Doris's mother with a different grand baby. Doesn't she always look so angular, tiny, and tough in her pictures? There aren't any in the whole archive of her as a young girl or newlywed (unless she's in one of the super old pictures I shared before and I didn't recognize her without her hornrims...but I think these pictures just probably went to another of the sister's), so all the pictures I have to reference Mrs. Alex Haynes are of her grandma period. See the Stay-Puft cushions on the back of the sofa and how LOW the back of it is slung. What's the deal?

More baby. He's so tiny!

In what could be an album cover if you just added some semi automatics (see The Lemonheads' Hate Your Friends...I had this poster but not this album when I was in high school), three little nephews stand in their Sunday best on the front steps of their house. Let's examine. Kids One and Two have matching buzz cuts, red ties, and tie clips. Kid Two has his shirt half untucked and is making a weird "SO WHEN ARE WE GETTING IN THE CAR?" face. Kid Three is what really interests me though...full head of hair and US Army kids outfit. YES! VICTORY! And the hands on the hips. And the red sneakers. He is the coolest of the three.

This family has a thing for matching outfits! Here, two escapees from Christmastown on their brand new trikes. Don't you love peering into the backgrounds of the picture to see what kind of details are lurking behind the subjects of the photos? I love the gift wrapping detritus flotsamming around the floor to the right, and the metronome on the piano (someone was taking lessons!).

Last but not least, this little bean man is wearing a PRETTY cool Mondrian influence jumper (ahead of the curve!), wieling what may be a tennis racket (...?), and standing just feet away from both a turquoise toy jeep and a GREAT tv. Did we mention the indoor cactus, paneled room, green carpet, and fireplace? Junior, put down that raquet!

Which little tyke do you think is the cutest? Are there any details in the background that you noticed which I may have missed? Do tell!

That's all for the week...you guys have a great weekend, and I'll see you on the other side!

Photo Friday: Doris and the Deer Edition

Well, folks, here I am! Just got in from two sales out in West Meade with Eartha and Rae, and boy were they doozies! We'll have to talk some more about the finds (yours, mine, and ours) on Monday because I am tiiiiired and need both lunch and a medicinal dose of Hulu to  round out my afternoon. However, what would a Friday be without a (albeit brief) word from Doris and Ray?

I found these in with some vacation photos, each neatly labeled in Doris's handwriting "Stephen Foster Park, GA March 72":

Isn't that cute? I wish a deer would let ME feed him something he probably doesn't natively eat, but is willing to ingest out of curiosity. I think in the middle one she may be holding the food in her teeth, an entirely bad idea, but please be aware of the deer's expression in said photo:

"Say WHAT?!"

Too cute. Actually can't get over it.

Anyway, I'm off to lunch! Have a great weekend, and I'll see you guys on Monday!

Photo Friday: Sonny and Diane Get Hitched Edition

Good morning! IT'S FRIDAY. I thought this day would never come. The Doris and Ray photo archive offers up a look at Sonny's 1970 Michigan wedding to the same Diane we saw in the "Every Dog Should Be Named Ralph" post. And I have to say, looking at the cover, we are already off to a good start. Big-eyed Goji girl wandering minstrel in pigtails? Sure! Why not? Doris has pencilled in at the top of the album "Sonny & Diane 5/9/70":

 I think my scanning skills are deteriorating! This album folded out in a weird way and it seems like 90% of the pictures I scanned ended up crooked. Ah well. I think you can get the general gist of it. Click any picture for a larger version of the scan. Because of the weird width of these, Blogger made them oddly small.

Here we have the rehearsal dinner at a place called the Red Vest-- if you look closely at the placemats in the photos, you can see the little logo.Note the GORGEOUS pinch pleat drapes (perfect for my living room, which is just a shade darker than the wall color here) and the pretty floral arrangements Ruth and Doris are laying out at the bride and groom's table. I was thinking it might be the reception, but based on the clothes, I'm pretty sure this is a day before the ceremony.

Below, on the left, is Diane with the rest of her family, looking comparatively tiny. How do you like her sherbet-striped dress? The guy to her right is sporting not only a strange haircut, a ghost of a mustache, and a double breasted suit jacket, all the way buttoned, but thinly checked pants. It's the details, folks. To the right, Diane's dad sits next to her, she next to Sonny, and Sonny next to Doris. Can you believe Sonny's straight-from-the-Mod-Squad suit? I TRULY love it.

I was just thinking that, with comparatively few cousins and an engaged but unmarried sister, I've only been to one rehearsal dinner! It was at a Japanese steakhouse in Mt. Juliet, and I have to say for flair, you can't much beat the panache of a hibachi chef. A rehearsal dinner with a little (welcome, not crazy) drama! Do you see in the pictures that there are three whole rows of tables devoted to the wedding party? Instead of renting out the whole restaurant, or having a noisy party of thirty plopped down haphasardly in the middle of the dining floor, I'm thinking that is probably one of those special occasion rooms or banquet hall type situations you used to see in a lot of nice restaurants.

The happy event itself! As you can see from the invitation Doris saved at the bottom of this post, the wedding took place on May 9, 1970 at the Crestwood UMC in Muskegon, Michigan It's still there! After those heart-wrenching Historic Preservation Trust commercials that superimpose the 16mm footage of people's weddings/class pictures/ etc over "what's there now" (i.e. a gas station, a parking lot), I get worried! What was a Tennessee boy like Sonny doing all the way up north in Michigan? He joined the service at some point after high school, and from what I understand was stationed there in some capacity when he met Diane.

Now, here's a shocker...I had assumed Sonny's father, Harry Senior, had passed away sometime in the forties' or early fifties', as Doris was obviously a single woman in that time period (see the "Meet Sonny" post) leading up to her mid fifties' marriage to Ray. It didn't even OCCUR to me that they'd gotten divorced until I saw this "the new couple with the groom's family" photo in which Doris appears with an older, very fair-colored guy who looks A LOT LIKE SONNY. Jeepers! He lives! I guess they DID get divorced! Compare that guy with the guy in this picture and I'm almost a hundred percent sure they're the same guy. Wow!

In the photo to the right, the receiving line offers up a larger woman in a compilcated paisley pattern dress. It's amazing to me sometimes, when shopping at Goodwill, I stumble across these gorgeous, crazy, op-art looking dresses that are four times too big for me-- sometimes it seems like you were either a modern size two to four in the sixties' and before, or you were a modern size 24W, with NO SIZING IN BETWEEN. I either see stuff that's way too big (like this woman's garment) or way too small (like Diane's rehearsal dress in the first picture). What is the deal, sixties' people?

The bride's family (R) and the bridesmaids. Tell me what you think about the daisies-in-hair AND in bouquets situation going down here because I don't know how to feel about it. While bridesmaids dresses are kind of supposed to be ugly (and I don't care what modern brides say about letting their wedding party choose their own clothes, I demand matchy-matchy, horribly unflattering, monotoned bridal parties or nothing at all), were the cap sleeves really necessary? Maybe if the matching flowers-to-hairpieces had been a different shape? I just don't know.

You thought Ray might have skipped this family event based on the earlier photos, but no way! Here he shows up in a pair of photos with the new couple. Why does Sonny always look so "squished" in these photos? He has the weirdest camera face in spite of demonstrated handsomeness (see high school photos)!

Ah! I don't know what relation the chipmunk-bright little guy on the left is to the family, but GOSH isn't he cute? I can tell from the myriad of early to mid seventies' childhood photos of my cousin Jamie that seventies' little boys clothes aimed to make you look as much like a grown dandy as possible. This kid has on a newsboys cap in matching fabric to his blazer, for goodness sake!

Here's the altar and the newlyweds. Isn't the washed-outness of the Polaroid kind of adorable?

Fellow servicemen, the brother from the earlier picture (he of checked pants) and a guy in a midnight blue blazer, string tie, and sideburns that I would like to retroactively date. He looks like Rory Storm (Beatles-intimate, skiffle heartthrob) from the hair all the way down to the ensemble!!! Also catch that the little boy from earlier is now wearing a collarless nehru style jacket with short pants and black knee socks. I don't even know if that goes together, but I like it.

Now HERE'S the reception; seems like it's onsite at the church from the look of that room:



A kiss for Aunt Ruth, well dressed as usual in powder blue lace. Look at the square tiered cake! And more daisies. And a bit of cake eating from the couple. Ah, it was a pretty wedding, wasn't it?

The aforementioned invitations below. The Muskegon Women's Club still exists, too! Way to go, Michigan.

So what did you think? What's your favorite outfit from the assembled parties? Do you have any seventies' wedding memories that are particularly off-the-wall? Why can't I find more vintage clothes in the size 6-12 range? Where would you have a rehearsal dinner? Let's talk!

Have a great weekend! I'll see you guys on Monday.