Sepia Saturday #157 - Christmases Past (My First)

There is nothing forgotten about the faces or place in this photograph, but  I felt it was a good picture to share for this week's Sepia Saturday.  It is a picture taken of me and my grandfather Diamond Milton Smith on Christmas 1955 in Mt. Vernon, IL when I was two months old.  I have always loved and cherished this photo as I  have always been told  how proud and excited he was of his first grandchild.   

Grandpa would have been in his 40's in this photo and it's hard to believe that he was younger than I am today.  I was fortunate to have him for so many years and he died in August of 1997.  He was not a man to share his feelings, but I always knew he loved me.  (And yes, now you can figure out exactly how old I am!)  Happy Holidays!  

For more wonderful Christmas tales please join us over at Sepia Saturday!

Sepia Saturday #145 - Boys (and Ladies, too) with Boxing Gloves

This week's Sepia Saturday theme is supposed to center around feet, shoes, football boots, cows, etc. I couldn't find anything that fit that theme just right and I just kept coming back to this one particular photograph and then I realized why. The theme was saying to me "pairs," pairs of things, leather things and since I really like this photo I just decided to go with it.

I don't have any information about the people or location of this picture, it's just one I picked up somewhere, but my guess is that it is probably from the 1940's.  It looks like it is autumn from the lack of leaves on the trees or perhaps even Christmas and the young man has received these boxing gloves as a Christmas present.  It's such a fun photo and if you click on it to enlarge you will see that he has the most devilish little grin.  All I know is he looks like he is immensely enjoying himself and hopefully found a worthy sparring partner!

For more fun and games head over to Sepia Saturday!

Sepia Saturday #121 - Flight from Coffeyville?

I didn't have any idea what I was going to use for this week's theme at Sepia Saturday "Flight".  As far as I know no one in my family ever had any aviation history, no war time aviators, no pilots, no stewardesses, no airplane stories gone bad.  However, I do have this one orphan picture I picked up somewhere that I can share.  It shows five people, three men and two women in front of a small plane.  There is no identification of the people or location and if I had to guess I would date it to be in the 1940 - 50's.  It appears to say on the plane perhaps, "Coffeyville Airways Corp or Co."  There is a Coffeyville, Kansas Municipal Airport so perhaps it is from this area.  Wherever it was these people look happy to and ready to fly!

Please soar on over to Sepia Saturday and check out the other great "Flight" stories from this week!

Military Monday - Five WWII Sailors on Leave?

This snapshot of five WWII sailors from the US Navy is dated 1945 - there is no location, but there are last names and ranks on the back.  Were they on leave or was this at the end of the war?  L-R , Mowery - CMOMM ( Chief Motor Machinists Mate), Goodrow - FIC (EM) (Fleet Intelligence Center Electricians Mate), Nugent - QMI/C (Quartermaster 1st Class, Busch - EM3C (Electicians Mate 3rd Class, and Bork? -EM2C (Electricians Mate 2nd Class.  I wish I knew more about them, but they seem very happy and appear to have been good wartime friends.