Culture – Page 53 – I Don't Get It

Not Exactly Pin The Tail On The Donkey

Shove The Sombero On The Bulldog is a variant of the common child’s party game, wherein a cowgirl chases down a … Dear God, I don’t know what they’re doing. These images from 1949 raise more questions than they answer.

Like why would you park your jalopy on steps?

And is she kneeling in prayer, cursing the car’s engine or praising the argyle socks of a would-be beau?

Why hasn’t anyone prebussed this table? I see some empties.

Why don’t men wear ties like this anymore? And why does the one on the lower left look like Viewmaster reels?

What did Hiram do to deserve such bevy of beauty adoration? Is his thigh numb now?

And why would Bart and Molly bother with a “pretzel battle” at the fall barn party?

I think that makes them married, in some countries.

Well, They Were Right About Black Tuesday

Only two weeks after the stock market plummet of Black Tuesday (not to be confused with the upcoming Black Friday), Current Events newspaper was already trying to determine how history would look back upon the crash of the stock market and beginning of what would later be termed The Great Depression.

My Granddad Bill kept this paper from when he was nine years old. Here is the cover of the weekly that was used by students across America.

While the optimism was admirable, they seemed to believe the worst of the effects would be limited to 1929, rather than a depression that would carry them all the way into the second World War. But such is the hindsight allowed in only a handful of days. The Roaring Twenties would roar no more.

keatonhorseshoe

Pepigram Binder Has Zero Google Matches

Well, now I suppose it has ONE match, for this blog post.

I can’t show you what a Pepigram Binder is, but these are evidently pepigrams that would have been stored in said three-ring binder.

As you might have figured, these came from my Granddad Bill’s stack of salvaged things. But as to this pepigram, I have no explanation. Pep-i-gram Bin-dah (sing to the tune of “Paperback Writer”…)

Granddad’s Monthly Test #1

My granddad Bill was born in 1920. Wasn’t he a happy toddler? As a child of The Depression, he tended to hoard things–things others might toss without batting an eye. Much of it was unnecessarily saved, but among his piles of things salvaged were monthly tests. Today I share one that he took in 1930, just after he turned 10 years old.

I hope that you have found this interesting. You can see how children only 9 and 10 were already learning about Fascism before they ever learned about Hitler. One wonders if children nowadays are so aware of their political system. Actually, one is certain they are not. They are busy playing Fortnite. Perhaps I will share more of these in the future, as a testament to the lives of those in The Greatest Generation.

Oh, The Ennui Of Driving Through Sequoias

Over 100 years ago, when this image was taken in California, the absence of windshields demanded that the driver (right-sided in this case) wore a duster and goggles as he wound his way through grounds without paved streets. Ladies often wore something similar to this.

That’s quite a bit of work required before jumping in and cranking the engine. This pint-sized pooch seems to think it’s worth it.

Tramps Like Us

Oh, my goodness, y’all. Could these little boys BE any cuter? All dressed up in the 20s to emulate Charlie Chaplin for a lookalike contest. Bless their hearts.

Fun fact via Newsweek:

In 1975, several years before his death, Chaplin entered a look-alike contest of himself in France. He probably thought he was a shoo-in for the prize and everyone would have a hearty laugh at the end. But then he came in third.