From Funoldhag Fashion Friday

(As I start posting again to Pieces of the Past, I am continuing to feature old family pictures that I used each Friday on my blog, Funoldhag.  I don't think most of these made it to this blog;  but, if they did, it will be fun to  see them again.)_

 

Today our sweet little models are Nan and Nelle Pearce, my mom and my aunt, when they were very young little girls back in the late 1890's.  I have this picture in a pretty old antique frame hanging by my fireplace in a group of other old photos.  This is so sweet.  Nan is wearing a dark long dress with a lace trimmed collar.  Nelle wears a lighter colored dress with a double ruffle feature around the neck and shoulder line.  Both little girls appear to be in awe of the camera - do you suppose it was one of those that the photographer went under a dark cover when the picture was being taken?  

The Big Four

 

Billing themselves as '800 pounds of harmony,' Chillicothe, Illinois' Big Four became Sweet Adelines Quartette Champs in 1953. Fine singers and entertainers, they appeared on tv with Jack Paar, Steve Allen, Arthur Godfrey and Dave Garraway of the 'Today Show' to name just a few. The Big Four are Bertha Bradley, bass, Sarah LeMaster, baritone, Inez 'Junior' Thompson, lead, and Lucille Miller and Mary Waters sharing the tenor duties.   By the pound or by any other measure, this is Entertainment!

What fun these four ladies must have had traveling and singing!

Sarah, the lady standing in the middle of the picture, was the mother of a boy in my class in high school.  Dick LeMaster was a very talented fellow and made a name for himself in the world of carving duck decoys.  He wrote at least one book that I know of.  Dick drew illustrations for our high school newspaper and it was fascinating to watch him draw.  I had a cute little furry skunk pin that I wore on my coat.  He drew that on my notebook cover and named it Stinky - and thereafter his family called me Stinky anytime they saw me.  Silly little story, but the kind of thing that sticks in your memory over the years.

 
  

Postcard Friendship Friday

It has been a long, long time since I did a post on Pieces of the Past.  I really should work on this blog more although I have about exhausted the old pictures that I have.  Maybe I can find a different direction to go. Would love to have you visit my blog  Funoldhag  anytime!

This postcard is to wish a Happy Anniversary to Beth and her husband!!  May they have many, many more. 

Postcard Friendship Friday

Getting close!  I love vintage Halloween cards!   Here is a very cute one but no message on the back.  So I looked further and found another--

 Another cute card which does not have a message either, but it does have something very interesting--

 

This looks like it is being used for a dance card - and it looks like S. King is the

one who has asked for the most dances!  Doesn't it make you wonder where the party was, who S. King was and who was the girl who had her dance card filled?

Sweet.  Happy PFF and thank you, Beth.  Go to http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/
and check out the other postcards for today.  Have a great weekend.

Fred and Ginger

Here is a Piece of the Past that will set your feet tapping!  Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers swing dancing most likely in the thirties.  You can find the greatest stuff on YouTube!  Make it full screen and enjoy! 

Encore Run of Injun Summer

For some reason or other, I got to thinking about something I used to see in a newspaper every year when I was a little girl back in Rome, Illinois. We took the Peoria paper, but on Sunday Dad usually went "uptown" to Chillicothe and bought a copy of the Chicago Tribune which had marvelous funnies. The Katzenjammer Kids, Fritzy Ritz, and Brenda Starr. Wow, a bonanza. (Brenda may have been in the Peoria paper, but that's neither here nor there. I loved her especially when there were paper dolls!!) I could recall seeing in a supplement to the paper a cartoonlike picture of a cornfield in the moonlight with dreamlike visions but couldn'temember exactly what it was like. I knew it was very fallish and sweet.

So, a little while ago I decided you can find anything on the internet - and started putting phrases in the search box. I tried "cornfield in the moonlight", etc., and did get some pictures that did fit the description but not the one I remembered. Then a phrase popped into my head - Indian Summer - and lo and behold up came the top picture with the address of a blog my-over-the-fence.blogspot.com/2010/09/injun-summer.html and I went there to find "Injun Summer", my picture - two of them - that I remembered from so long ago. This really is a "piece of my past" and conjurs up memories of the fall in Rome (Illinois, that is) in a much simpler time. There was an orchard behind our old house and I can still remember the smell of apples that were frozen on the trees and how wet the long grass was when you walked through the orchard. Read more about Injun Summer on My Over the Fence blog.

(I did this post originally in November of 2010 -  thought it might be a good time of year to bring it forward)

Postcard Friendship Friday

Here in the part of Michigan where I live,  it seems as if autumn came rushing in the door early this week.  All of a sudden the leaves are really turning, the weather is lovely and my favorite time of the year is here.  I love the colors, the temperatures and even rainy fall days.  It has been ever thus with me.  So thought I would find a postcard that says "Autumn" and this little card  with the cute squirrels gobbling the acorns seems to fill the bill perfectly.

The back of the card from Roger Day (I think) - what do you suppose it means in the lower left corner?  Why shouldn't Arla and Frank write?  Don't you love the little messages on the cards?  Gives you food for thought.

Happy PFF and Happy Autumn.  Thank you Beth for hosting.  Stop by her blog http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/ and check out the other postcards on this Friday.