Saturday, August 31, 2013

Sepia Saturday - Braces and Suspenders


The Sepia Saturday suggestion for this week is three guys in suspenders and ties and no coats.

Well, we just did a page on trios and finding guys in ties would be pretty easy, so let's find some photographs of guys with braces/suspenders.

While looking for these, I also found enough photographs of people in bib-overalls to make a page by itself.

Group on the front porch

Now this would be a pleasant family photograph if it weren't for the rather vacant looks on the faces of the adult women, and the rather unsettling pose of the girl.

The men look like a closing scene from the Red Green Show doing the Man's Prayer. "I'm a man. But I can change. If I have to."


Hah!
Blindfolds! We don't need no stinking blindfolds!
(Actually the Flickr comment section under this picture
should give you a good laugh. Just click the picture and scroll.)
Untitled

Halderman Seldom knew where he was.

Whenever Halderman spotted someone with a camera, he always managed to get into the picture. Here, while Myra and her mother, Philo and her Aunt Cadbury, posed on the steps of the family summer home, Halderman quietly slipped into the frame. He always smiled so no one ever objected.

Someone at the Seldom household next door always came to get him and return him to his lawn-chair lookout position.




Treasure from the photo booth
Photobooth Man
Dephos had so many pleasant memories.
Take lunch for instance ...and breakfast!
Photobooth Guy

Uncle Walter, Leona, and Papa Ladd
Family at the front of the house. (Enhanced)
Two guys in a farm yard

Five in the yard
Untitled

Eight on the farm
Four of these fellows had graduated to belts. There is still one hold out.
Man with a beer
Michael Caine invites you in for a beer. That IS him, isn't it?

There were several other suspenders and braces photographs but they occurred in previous Sepia Saturday pages like "trios" and "costumes" and I somehow noticed, so I didn't re-use them here.

Now all that's left is the completely true legend of the Notorious Butterfat Gang. (As excerpted from the book Those Talking Pictures.) (You will be pleased to hear there are no copies left.)

Brace yourself to suspend your belief.
(Okay, go ahead, groan.)


This is the last known photograph of the notorious Butterfat Gang of Seven who terrorized the dairy industry in the mid 1930’s. Harlan Underln, standing, center, led the gang in raids on milk trucks and neighborhood Rubber Baby Buggy Ice Cream wagons throughout Iowa and County Cork

The Butterfat Gang of Seven, (the actual number in the gang is unknown because none of them could count) all descended in some way from lineage of the infamous robber, Dennis Moore of the 17th century in England. Highwayman Moore was noted for lupines and doing something completely different.

The method of the Butterfat Gang was simple. They would stand in the road and stop dairy delivery trucks. Eight or nine of the gang members would circle the truck and stand lookout. Three or four other members would then insist the driver sell them what ever stock was carried on the truck. The driver would then be obligated to return to the dairy and restock for the morning deliveries. This certainly confounded dairy owners not to mention the trauma experienced by many cows.

Their last caper was said to be the carefully planned robbery of the 2:40 AM milk train. It went awry when most of the gang members overslept. No one knows how many actually showed up as none of them could actually count. The engineer refused to stop the train anyway.

The notorious Butterfat Gang

Throughout their reign of confusion, none of the gang was ever caught. Actually no one ever looked for them either. They all lived well into their fifties and died overweight

Heppel Whitsig, (seated, with cigar) invented the combination creel and picnic basket and went on to a successful retirement in poverty. He never married. His twin brother, Wimpole, (also seated but no cigar) was either the youngest or the oldest in the gang, depending on which account of his birth was accurate. His mother could not seem to recall the event.

Fred (too tall) Herringbun was not on the Titanic when it tragically struck an iceberg. He married young and his wife dressed him funny.

Gable Snoot, seventh from left in this picture, worked briefly as a store window model for suspenders (or braces). He was spotted there by a Hollywood movie director who went into hiding and was never seen again.

The rest of the gang is pretty much unknown but perhaps someone will recognizes a relative or a neighbor here.

These events rarely get a notation in history books although some say the gang activities accelerated the research leading to the invention of the milking machine.


Grandpa and Grandma and a Grandkid in the window?

Now for a good boost of reality, you should go back to
Sepia Saturday home page
and look for some blogs with a better grip on the subject.

The most popular photographs most popular, Family Group, An album of the most requested photographs in the Lost Gallery.

Area 51 and a Half Area 51 and a Half You are probably not authorized to see these.

Don't take my picture! Oh! You DID didn't you! completely unaware of the photographer This is a collection of photographs that disappear on the way home from the photo processing shop.

And don't miss
Cabinet Card Gallery
One Man's Treasure
Penny Tales
Square America
Tattered and Lost
Vernacular Photography
The best
FOUND PHOTOGRAPH
sites on the web.

And for postcards try
THE DAILY POSTCARD.
POSTCARDY

All images are the property of Lost Gallery and the author. Permission must be granted for their use. All rights reserved.

THE KIDS Lesson one. It is always a mystery how a photograph of any of these precious children could end up lost or abandoned. Here are a few. You will probably say "Ooh..." at least once.

Dee and the Business School Dee and the Business School
The beautiful Dee. A curious story; What do you see?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?
Neiffel and Helvetica Typehigh

"What are they doing?"

17 comments:

  1. As usual a fine brace of photos. And very suspenseful stories too.

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  2. Absolutely fantastic collection. My favourite
    where grandpa takes the stroller with the baby for a walk. Different times, different clothes and perhaps a bit of apprehension at the photo session, the children not as forward as today, but still there is mischievousness and laissez faire. Thoroughly enjoyable to look at these photos.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Titania. Yes, that photograph shows a lot about how things have changed; the baby buggy, the gingerbread trim over the porch, the clothing, even the photograph itself.

      Delete
  3. "Halderman's" body language is unsettling. He is standing like he thinks he is the king and the women are his subjects.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Postcardy. It struck me that way too. Then I decided that the women were laughing at him so I figured he is just a bit daft and they are tolerating him.

      Delete
  4. That's a nice idea - graduating to belts. As usual a fine collection you've shared with us and made us smile with your captions.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Little Nell. Glad you enjoyed the page.

      Delete
  5. I got a laugh out of your captions for these! LOL! That first photo--man! Those women look like cardboard cutouts. Yikes!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Rosa. I am glad you found some laughter here. And you are right! I looked at it again and they DO look like cardboard cutouts!

      Delete
  6. The one next to Gable Snoot (in the Butterfat Gang shot) looks very much like my long-lost Uncle Fred Nordquist, who spent time in the Big House due to his particular fondness for Holsteins with sexy back legs; we've all wondered what became of him!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Deb Gould! Really? We might be related! My great Aunt Dora Bull had a twin half-brother named Fred. He lived at the same place.

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  7. I always enjoy your stories, or captions and a wonderful assortment of photos!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Karen S. I am glad you had a good time.

      Delete
  8. Titania: Sept 2 2013 2:08 PM
    Firstly again fantastic collection. Pictures of three is very familiar as we were three sisters, always photos of three and then I had three girls, still photos of three. I admire all the old photos, so many stories of lives past. Moments of happiness and also some marked by life's hardship.
    Are you intending making books from your collections?

    Thanks Titania. I don't know where your comment went but I have re-entered it here from my email notification.
    I have been collecting photographs for a long time and only in the past five years started putting them in LOST GALLERY.
    I did to a book some years ago I called "Those Talking Pictures" because so many of them seem to speak to me. As you say, there are stories. I only printed enough copies for family and friends however. Perhaps I should consider another updated edition.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Funny story at the end...
    I like Halderman.
    He'd be a sensation nowadays since photobombing is popular.
    :)~
    HUGZ

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks Ticklebear. He seems harmless. Yes, photobombing is almost a sport now days.

    ReplyDelete

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