UPHILL BOTH WAYS IN THE SNOW...

Hi Dave,

I came across a site that you might enjoy. I read a newspaper article about a guy up here in Maine that collected undeveloped film from thrift store cameras and then years later developed them. What he ended up with are hundreds of slides from the 1950's [and 60's] era. It's a real hoot. Anyway, here's one of my favorites:

Bert

You young folks, just keep your darn comments to yourselves. Fellow riders on the geezer bus: It's keen.

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Comments

[CJrun]

I have that kitchen table...in Aqua!

[random thunking]

OMG, the long lost pix of pasta nite at my boyhood home. The memories come flooding back... dad swilling martinis, mom putting the moves on the neighbor, my big sister beating the cr@p out of me, me beating the cr@p out of my little sister.

*calls therapist for emergency session*

[Erb's point]

Every single article of clothing in that picture is coming back into style.

By the way, the cola is looking a little flat.

[Aunt Shelley]

I had those cats-eye glasses...in aqua!

[Aunt Shelley]

Please, G0d, noooo pixie cuts.

[Annie Where-but-here]

Aunt Shelley and me, we're like this sometimes.

[Margaritaville]

I had to look at every single one of those pictures. Pretty cool!

[random thunking]

Annie, we know. Siouxie's got pictures to prove it.

[CJrun]

Graduation pic; two girls thinking, "now we can dump these drunken loons!"

Honestly, I hope the families discover these photos.

[pogo]

Everybody had a table like that in some color.

The pics came from an era when people were unsophisticated, knew it, and didn't care.

Today we think we're sophisticated, but wait 20 years.

[Annie Where-but-here]

I saw one where someone was smoking inside. Guess that was before it was illegal.

[CJrun]

I still have that table, as my desk (and love it). I didn't look at every shot, but I saw most. With few exceptions, I think those photos were from the early 70s.

[Siouxie]

Annie's Granny.

[funniegrrl]

I actually think most of these are pretty sweet, and not a few poignant.

Also reminds me of http://www.foundmagazine.com

[CJrun]

Sio's Abuela.

[Glix]

Heh.

[Siouxie]

*snork*

I somehow KNEW you'd find that one, Annie. Looks like our Grannies would have been great pals too, huh?

[Siouxie]

Oops..I thought it was Annie, CJ.

I need a nap.

[Guin]

Oh no, I've been to BOTH Sunken Gardens AND the Parrot Jungle, when I was about six!!!

*hobbles off to wait for the bus*

[judi]

the 70s, cj? seriously? some of 'em, sure, but to me they definitely look like my childhood, i mean, years before i was born, in the 60s.

[CJrun]

Shoot, Guin; I live on the same street as the Sunken Garden, butt that also means I'm a young punk in this 'hood.

[Siouxie]

Same here, judi. WAY before I was born. There are a few that look like 70's but not most.

[Guin]

OMG, this is my aunt at a party, I swear!

[Siouxie]

No sh1t, Guin?? for reals???

[Guin]

1956-1964. Gotta be. Looks EXACTLY like photos of my family when my sister, who was born in 1950, was little.

[CJrun]

I'm not sure how many there are; I looked at 30 or so. I didn't pay much attention to dress, I looked at people, cars, furniture, architecture, and I mostly came away with late 60s early 70s. Some of them after 1975. Just my impression.

[Guin]

LOL, not really, but her clone.

[Margaritaville]

That old film almost makes it seem like the world was made up of completely different colors then.

[judi]

guin, i saw one that i SWEAR could have been my grandma (she was way older than that in the 60s though).

[Annie Where-but-here]

judi's right - they go back before the '70's. Way before my time, probably. ;)

[Guin]

Annie, you're such a whippersnapper.

[Suzy Q]

Wow. These are fabulous. I haven't gotten through them all yet, and yet so many seem so very familiar. Am old.

[Annie Where-but-here]

Not really, Guin. I just play one on this blog. ;)

[eilbeback]

Mom?

[Afkat]

Reminisces about shag carpet (the kind you had to rake), flocked wallpaper and bell bottoms...ohhh, and lets not forget double polyester pants...

*snif*

*boards the geezer bus*

[Schadeboy]

Okay, I haven't gone through all of them, yet, but this one has got to take the cake.

This reminds me of a scene out of Airplane, or something.

[lizvocal]

Strangely compelling, in ways that other people's vacation slides never are.

[slyeyes]

This was obviously stolen from the cutting room floor of Weekend at Bernie's.

I think I understand why Jeff Spicolli didn't show up.

Guy on the right? Serial Killer

[lil rascal]

The 50's and 60's was a great time. I remember a bumper sticker that came out to make notice of cleaning up the environment. Pitch In. My buddy took a marker and proudly fixed it, then diplayed it on his '64 Impala SS. Bitch In!

[emkeane]

I must have been about 8 to 11 year old when these were taken.

[Jeff Carrie's friend Jean]

Being from Maine (as well as the correct era), I am terrified to view these in case there really are any of me and my family . . . although it is nice to know I'm not the only one whose mother cut her bangs so friggin' short.

[morty]

http://www.mangofalls.com/index.php?showimage=96
Is this Dean Martin amd Mike Ditka playing cards?

[Mahatma Kane Jeeves]

I have been scanning old family slides and negatives from the 50s - 70s; some of the slides were almost never viewed when I was growing up (too much trouble to set up the projector). Takes a lot of time though.

[snif]

Not only is it keen...it's swell!

[angel]

These pictures make me miss my grandparents.

[Kathybear]

Damn, Afkat. My house still has shag carpet - red (and I dearly wish I had a rake to get the cat litter out of it...), my 21 year old daughter wears bell bottoms (though now they're "flares and there's double polyester hanging in the closet... Sigh. I would love to move most of this house into the 21st century....

[Tom Urich]

Dave and Fellow Readers,

This has to be partially a joke since the "shelf-life" of photo-chemical film (especially from this era depicted) is less than 2 years! After that, the colors fade rapidly to the red end of the spectrum and eventually to blank. These pix are all doctored, for sure.

[Vinnie]

Tom, I think you're off base there. I sent some old undeveloped film from the 60's off to a remote facility where they still do the kodachrome processing and they colors were just as lush as what is on the Mangofalls site.

I've also shot some slide film that was dated mid 80's and that too came out very well. It all really depends upon how the film was stored and I'd be willing to bet that most of this stuff was in nice cool basements before landing in some store.