On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
In past years, we have had enough holiday pics for the 10 days before Christmas.
So everybody, please send in your holiday pics from when you were little!
Just Christmas? Nope. All Holidays Matter.
Albatrossity
I noted WaterGirl’s request for pictures of jackal Christmases in the past, and figured I should send some in. Since my dad was a professional photographer, there was always a camera around at Christmas time, and many many pictures of me, my siblings, my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents that I could share. And many of these are Kodachrome slides, thus the colors are still bright and vivid despite the passage of many decades since these were shot. So here are a few of these; no bird pics today, sorry (but you can still find bird pic calendars for sale!). You don’t know any of these people (in fact, some of them are a mystery to me!), but you might still get a kick out of the details of tree decorations, house décor, clothing, presents, facial expressions, etc. Hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane!
My parents were married in the spring of 1948, and my elder sister was born in 1949. So we’ll start with a couple of shots from Christmas 1949, as near as I can tell. But since I wasn’t around yet, your guess is as good as mine!
We often traveled to my Aunt Helen’s house (the eldest of my dad’s 5 sibs) in the tiny town of Montezuma KS on Christmas Day, where my dad’s side of the family would gather, eat a turkey dinner, and open presents. Here is my dad (at left) being gifted with what appears to be a hideous ceramic rooster of some sort, alongside my paternal grandfather (at right) nearly buried in presents. My cousin Duane is halfway in the frame below my grandfather’s haul, and my sister Helen, just about a year old at the time, is at my dad’s feet.
This is my paternal grandmother with one of her favorite presents, again probably 1949.
I arrived on the scene in September 1950, and got to celebrate my first Christmas that year. My sister Helen is clearly in awe of my ginormous head. Don’t worry, I do get cuter.
I think that this is the same Christmas 1950, with a tree that has been be-tinseled within an inch of its life, and various presents. That tiny red table and chair set lasted for most of my childhood; for all I know, my sister still has it!
This may or may not be Christmas 1951, but it does appear that the level of chaos approaches Christmas, at least. My hair is getting curlier and more blonde. The red table and chairs make a cameo appearance in the background.
Christmas 1952. My brother John was born in May of that year, but did not make an appearance in this picture. The record player seems to be quite the attraction. It is sitting on an enormous red hassock, that also followed us around for much of my childhood.
Both John and the record player are in this one; my sister is still in charge of it, and I am looking pretty skeptical about the whole scene.
Christmas 1954. Same tinsel, same curly hair, but new overalls with my name on them! I think I shared this one here in previous years, but I am so damn cute that it deserves to go into re-runs.
More tinsel, yet another kid (my sister Anne), and much more skepticism on my part.
Winter in western KS, probably about 1955 or so. I don’t know who many of these neighbor kids are, but I am the third from the left, in the plaid coat and maroon cap. My sister Anne is also in this one, fourth from the left, as well as part of a green swing set that moved with us at least to the next place we lived.
WaterGirl
Love love love that photo of you in orange. Also loving the walk through time.
Please everybody, send in your holiday pics!
eclare
You are cute in your overalls with your name on them!
OzarkHillbilly
Aaaaaaaaghhhh, cuteness overload. Danger Will Robinson, DANGER!!!
@WaterGirl: I don’t have any.
evodevo
Fellow Kansan here…I was in Topeka for most of those years…long since moved to MN, MD and KY. All the relatives were there, so we went back for holidays and summer vacays…I still have some pics, but it all looks familiar to me – especially that tricycle, the furniture and the tinsel lol. And your sister has The Boss look in that one pic…”I am in charge of this record player – hands off!”
SteveinPHX
Thank you! My dad was an amateur photographer. Liked to develop & print his own B & W prints. I’ve got to dig into that special box!
NotMax
One gets the impression y’all had but that one yellow record.
;)
Albatrossity
@NotMax:
Probably true. I did try to blow up that image to see if I could read the label, but no luck. I should ask my sister!
Betty
These images all look familiar to me as someone born in 1948 in a small town. What an adorable toddler you were. Sorry, Watergirl, no pictures to share.
HinTN
@evodevo: Not a Kansan but a product of 1952. An emphatic YES to the tricycle! That’s a great run through memory lane @Albatrossity:. Yes, there was tinsel in Tennessee. Many thanks!!!
MagdaInBlack
I am in love with your grandmothers wallpaper in #2.. Thank you for these, I love them 🎀🎄🎀
Spanky
Your grandmother is holding a bottle of Old Quaker, which the intertubes tell me shut down in 1920. Interesting.
Albatrossity
@Spanky: Dunno. This site seems to indicate that they were wtill bottling it in the 50s and 60s.
WaterGirl
@SteveinPHX: Yes, please. :-)
WaterGirl
@Albatrossity: Is your sister still in charge? Or think she is? :-)
zhena gogolia
I want a record player I can play yellow records on again!!!
Albatrossity
@MagdaInBlack: Not sure if that is her house or my Aunt Helen’s house. But my paternal grandfather was a painter and paper-hanger, so there was some interest in wallpaper in the family!
zhena gogolia
@MagdaInBlack: Yes, the wallpaper! And a grandma who loves whiskey!
zhena gogolia
To be precise, I’m thinking they are “little golden” records, to go with little golden books.
WaterGirl
All people with no photos automatically get an excused absence. If you don’t have photos, please ignore my requests to send in the pics you don’t have. :-)Trivia Man
Love the peek into a time and place slightly before my time.
Yesterday I finally began sorting a suitcase full of prints, slides, and negatives. (Apparently without cable tv I have more free time!)
just two Xmas pics in the pile. A tree with a cowboy hat on top instead of an angel, a brief tradition I abandoned after 2 years. And a friend passed out face down on the carpet next to an empty vodka bottle and an accidentally perfectly placed Xmas card on the floor next to him.
side question- what is a good, affordable scanner? Photos, slides, and negatives if that’s cheap. If I have to spend a few hundred I’d upscale to at least 9×14 or 11×15 bed so Mrs Trivia can scan her art submissions at home.
Albatrossity
@WaterGirl: Certainly. And she can still make that face :-)
Recently she commented on FB about an article in the Atlantic, entitled “The Plight of the Eldest Daughter” The article points out that “Women are expected to be nurturers. Firstborns are expected to be exemplars. Being both is exhausting.”
I had not thought about it in those terms before. I probably was a PITA as a brother, but reading that article made me a lot more sympathetic. We both turned out OK, and that is probably the most important thing.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: I had two aunts that were nuns, and they always came to visit us on Christmas.
One was quiet as a mouse, in every way, and the other had this BIG contagious laugh, and she always had a drink or two on Christmas.
Albatrossity
@Trivia Man:
side question- what is a good, affordable scanner?
Slide scanners are not cheap, at least the quality ones. You might check with your local library; they often have good scanners for their patrons to use.
WaterGirl
@Trivia Man: Love the cowboy hat idea. If you want to send christmas pics, you can just send them as attachments on email.
WaterGirl
@Albatrossity: I love that she wrote that! Yes, women in particular, I think, are supposed to be multiple things that are mutually exclusive. Maybe that’s true for men, too, but it does complicate things!
MagdaInBlack
@Albatrossity: My mother had some interesting wallpaper in our old farmhouse. I recall cabbage roses in one bedroom.
She and a friend used to hang wallpaper as a part time thing in the late 40’s. Small farming community word of mouth kind of work.
Trivia Man
@Albatrossity: It was the library that pushed me to get the ne of my own. The limit on their scanner is 60 minutes. I was going not ably to get about 10 scans and each of those was low quality, 4-8 pictures per scan as an index so I can organize what I have.
NotMax
@Trivia Man
Office Max/Office Depot used to offer scanning services. Dunno if that is still done and in any case cannot speak to the quality of the end product.
Have a single carousel of slides I’d like to have scanned to digital format (someday). Looked into home scanners capable of doing so — way outside my budget.
Albatrossity
@Trivia Man: Got it. I guess I am spoiled, at least vis-à-vis library scanners. I used the ones at the university library. Maybe there is one of those near you?
Otherwise, I have no recommendations about scanners. I have owned some, but it was long enough ago that those recommendations would be less than useless!
Honus
Little Steven had a segment on his SiriuS XM show this week about those yellow 45s and the little record players for them the kids got for Christmas in late 1940s. By the mid fifties those kids were teenagers who were used to listening to their own records in their bedrooms and not on the console in the living room, and this situation midwifed the birth of rock and roll.
NotMax
@MagdaInBlack
One of the most striking wallpapers encountered was in a ridiculously huge (about 12 foot by 12 foot) powder room in a farmhouse I lived in for a time in rural PA. Toilet, sink, vanity table and two – count e;m, two – fainting couches. Said paper dated, I believe, from the 1940s.
Deep, deep olive green background printed all over with flamingo pink chrysanthemums*, each about 8 inches wide.
*Might have been roses. Regardless, each the size of a pie pan.
MagdaInBlack
@NotMax: I am almost sure I have seen that but on a gray background. Might have been bark cloth curtains or upholstery tho.
Albatrossity
@Honus: That’s a great story. My sister definitely had other records later in the 50s that were quite memorable. “Monster Mash”, and “Purple People Eater” are two that come to mind.
I’ve blown up and rotated the part of one of these pics that shows the record and the record cover; it definitely looks like it was Christmas music!
Albatrossity
My sister tells me that the wallpaper of interest was in my grandmother’s kitchen!
zhena gogolia
@Albatrossity: It was a graveyard smash!
Steeplejack
@Trivia Man:
You should ask BillinGlendale about scanners, probably in the “On the Road” threads. He had some knowledgeable recommendations some years back.
evodevo
@zhena gogolia: Two thumbs up!!
MagdaInBlack
@Albatrossity: I guessed the kitchen. It resembles the farmhouse I grew up in.
Chat Noir
These pictures are great! I’m working on a family tree project so old pictures are my jam. You were totally adorable.
dnfree
I’ll look for photos. As to the question of whether the oldest daughter is in charge, my answer as an oldest daughter is “Of course!” It is natural that the oldest should be in charge. My only problem was that my younger brothers did not agree. They just ignored my wisdom and dictates and did as they pleased. It was a great disappointment to me.
Miss Bianca
Just parachuting in to say that that photo of Albatrossity in his orange overalls is deeply cute and hilarious, and I am so glad to see it again.
Also, when did the rage for gaudily-figured wallpaper recede, and is that a fashion trend we will see again in our lifetimes? I live in a log cabin now, and so there’s no plaster or paint or anything to deal with, but I used to *love* going through wallpaper sample books when I was a wee one – my mother knew *exactly* what she was doing when she brought those home! Kept me occupied for hours!
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca: My mother could hang wallpaper. I got this incredible pink fantasia in my room, including those edgings that go along the top of the wall (friezes?).
mvr
Thanks for the photos! As a boy with curly hair in the early 1960s I can only imagine the crap you got in the 50s. The number of people who would ask why I had the curly hair while my sister’s was straight likely numbers in the hundreds.
I’m not sure where our old Christmas photos are at, to the the extent there are any. But I did run into a picture of my mom on an elephant at a county fair in the 1980s yesterday.
cope
I am loving these pics from the past, so similar to the many, many slides my stepfather took of our family events.
@Trivia Man: During quarantine, facing huge quantities of 35 mm slides, 2X2 slides, prints, color negatives, B&W negatives and even glass slides taken by my grandfather at the turn of the 20th Century, I bought an Epson Perfection V600 Photo flatbed scanner. It included Silverfast editing software and has done a great job with all those different formats of images. It was just around $300 when I bought it from Amazon.
MagdaInBlack
@Miss Bianca: In the early 90’s I worked in a small town full service old school hardware store. We had racks and racks of wallpaper books and oh did I love looking thru those.
That was my all time favorite job.
StringOnAStick
My 1970’s parents were way, way into wallpaper, and all this discussion of it in small farm towns finally explains why for me. Unfortunately my mom’s taste ran to metallic, flocked wallpaper in truly gaudy colours and patterns; I think there’s a reason I’m into natural things and earth tones. There’s so much truly hideous wallpaper in their house that I would not be surprised to see it in one of websites about bad real estate listings at some point.
Angua
@Albatrossity: Maybe songs from “Cinderella”? I had those same yellow records and the ones I remember are all from
Cinderella”. I used to pretend I was the man on the radio and solemnly announce each song.
Angua
@zhena gogolia: Yes, that’s what they were called.
WaterGirl
@Angua: Welcome!
Now that I manually approved your first comments, future comments will show up for everyone right away.
WaterGirl
@Angua:
I love that.