Fun & Games
Category: History
Green Lake, 1949
That’s all the back of this picture said. I can assume it’s not the Green Lake in Texas. Probably Wisconsin or Michigan, where folks wear more plaid and more layers. I doubt it’s a family reunion, with no children or young people. Perhaps just a gathering of friends? It looks casual, but the grand dame on the far left could just have easily have fit into an image at the turn of the century.
Isn’t it funny how different people experience the same moment? The woman dead center in the foreground isn’t even making eye contact with the photographer at all. The ladies on the far right are full of pep and horsing around, while Debbie Downer beside the tree appears to have just lost her favorite pet.
Actually, the two grumpiest folks are the ones without glasses!
Mi Amor
You’ve Got A Friend
On What Would Have Been Her 110th Birthday
Hang On To Your Hats
Witchy Women
Those eyes prove these two are related. Probably sisters–sandwiched between a stern mother and a less terrifying sister. Clasped hands, similar necklaces, and those eyes that stare up and out with…what? Mischief? Sorcery?
Ears Like Taxi Cab Doors
Yep, Mom’s Still Mad
No Room For Milk
BTW, this artwork was done by Dick Sargent, the prolific Saturday Evening Post illustrator, not to be confused with the second actor to portray Darrin Stephens on the ABC’s fantasy comedy Bewitched.
Pretty Sure That Was A Red Light, Stan
In the spring of 1958, LIFE photographer Russell Halford took a series of photos of Los Angeles motorists.
Some were irritated.
Some were happy to offer a light.
And some were dangerously mid-beauty routine.
I don’t think it’s going to help.
As an aside, note the nub shown through her window. That’s how we used to lock car doors. You could push them up and down.
Truman Strolling Down French Riviera
Five years after he’d left the White House, Truman (not visibly flanked by any Secret Service) took a monthlong Mediterranean tour. Here, he walks through the alleys of St. Paul de Vence. Behind him are his traveling companions, Mr. and Mrs. Sam Rosenman.
Other vacations were less formal, like this trip to Key West, Florida in November of 1951. The man holding up swimming trunks is General Harry H. Vaughan.
Doesn’t he look happy as a clam in the Key West “chow line” for lunch?
Nothing slowed old Harry down.
President Truman didn’t pass until the day after Christmas of 1972 at the age of 88. His wife, Bess, outlived him by another decade, making her the oldest living First Lady to date.
Here they are with daughter Margaret in the lounge of the American President Lines’ President Cleveland, April 28, 1953, before sailing for San Francisco and home after a one-month Hawaiian vacation.
Aloha!
I Don't Get It 