In Control: Sepia Saturday

A daunting image faces us with this week's prompt with a myriad of dials, levers, buttons, - in other words an aeroplane control panel.

I have an ideal match with this image of my brother,  who in the 1980's had a part share in a light aircraft and secured his pilot's licence. 

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 The control panel of my granddaughter's toy supermarket till fascinates her - with its buttons, slot for swiping payment card, zapper for swiping bar codes, and a little microphone for calling for help - great fun for pretend play!  

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As for dials, who remembers the black, heavy old fashioned telephone. where you  dialed the number?  

 

Image - Pixabay

And what about that symbol of Britain - the red public telephone boxes ? 

  Image - Pixabay

I have vague memories of the old system where you put your money in, (one or two pennies), dialed the number, pressed buttoned A to get connected and pressed button B to get your money back  if the connection failed  -  always worth pressing this to see if someone had forgotten to pick up their refund coins. The operator would cut in to tell you when your money was running out, or impatient people knocked on the window if you were too long on the phone. 

 

A family heirloom of sorts - a favourite toy of my daughter and, after a sojourn in the loft,  now of my granddaughter - the pull along Fischer Price Telephone .  It still gives pleasure, though it has lost the paper with the numbers below the dials. 

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Sepia Saturday gives an opportunity for genealogy bloggers  

to share their family history and memories through photographs.

 

Click HERE to read other bloggers thoughts on control.  

Windows on Show: Sepia Saturday

 A gray day picture of a small child looking out of a window is this week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph.

I am snap-happy when it comes to photographing windows on holiday, so here I am adding  a  splash of colour that takes me back to many happy times. 

A magnificent frontage to a town centre building  in Traustein in Bavaria, Germany.

 An example of the "malerei" - the artisitc painted walls
 to be seen in Bavaria and Austria. 

 In Warsaw, a town house  with decorated walls - open windows here, 

but no one looking out.

 An unusual corner window in the spa town of Bad Reichenhall in Bavaria. 

A more rustic  look,  yet still so homely and attractive .

It is not just abroad you will find colourful window boxes

Just three miles from my home in the Scottish Borders is this hotel in Melrose.

First impressions do count!  

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As for someone peeping out through a  window, I had to turn to pictures of my little granddaughter. 

Not a window, but  looking through the glass door.

First trip on a tram - and looking out of the window.at Beamish Open Air Museum in County Durham -  one of our favourite day trip destinations.

And finally  - a photograph I have shown before, but it immediately came to mind when I saw this prompt, so  I had to show it again.  

 

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Sepia Saturday gives an opportunity for genealogy bloggers 

                                to share their family history through photographs

 Click HERE to read what other bloggers have seen through the window.

Posted by ScotSue at 16:10 8 comments

Hats off to Boys and Girls! SepIs Saturday

This week's prompt shows two small children playing happily on a makeshift bike.   I have hardly any photographs showing toys, so instead I have opted to shout: 

"Hats off to Boys and Girls"

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Wearing a very fancy decorated hat, here with her father  is Florence Adelaide Mason (1898-1965),   my grandfather's cousin.  I have to thank my American third cousin, Bonny (Florence's granddaughter) who discovered my blog and made contact with this and many other  family photographs.  I was delighted to discover this American connection, as up until then,  my family seemed ot be very firmly based iln Lancashire, England.

Florence was the youngest of 11 children of John Mason and Alice Rawcliffe - sister of my my great grandmother Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe.   John emigrated to the USA in 1887, followed a year later by Alice, travelling with six children under 13 years old and "two pieces of baggage".  Five more children were born in Brooklyn, New York, with three not surviving  infancy.  The family moved later  across the river to New Jersey.  

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 My mother, Kathleen Danson, not too happy in this big brimmed hat, c.1911 



Kathleen, standing playing at dressing up, perhaps,  with her sister Edith. c.1913

Someone has been busy knitting this chunky outfit for little Annette King, my husband's second cousin.  She is all wrapped up in this outfit, set off by a bonnet,   reminiscent of a cloche hat style with the pom-pom on the side.  c.1920's . 

 

 Two photographs of a similar  period, c.early 1920's.  From the collection of my great aunt Jennie, and I guess they are probably children of her friends.  

My aunt  Peggy Danson , a bridesmaid at a wedding in a Dutcvh style hat, which seemed in fashion in the late 1920. 

Like mother, like daughter - myself  in  my sun hat here, c.1950, looking very like my mother in a similar hat in the photograph above. 

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And not forgetting boys in hats:

Joseph Prince Oldham, (1855-1917) my cousin's great grandfather

My uncle Fred Weston, c.1908.  He is all dressed up - but for what occasion?  I would love to have known.  In the 1911 census, the Weston family were living at Lunt Gardens, Bilston, Wolverhampton in the industrial English Midlands.  The road name  of Gardens seems to have been a misnomer, because the local sewerage works were also there.

A serious looking George Danson, my great uncle, wearing a flat cap, c. 1904.  Ten years later George, the youngest of eight brothers,  was killed at the Battle of  the Somme. 

My husband's brother  in the cap that was very popular for boys 1930-1950's. I remember my brother wearing this style,featuring the school badge,  as part of his school uniform,

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And finally - my daughter, wrapped up in her fur coat and matching bonnet for a ride on her first birthday present, forever known just as "Donkey" - January   1974.

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photographs.

Click  HERE to see tales from other Sepia Saturday  bloggers.  

Women on Wheels - Sepia Saturday

This week's prompt photograph of a vintage cycling advertisement,   c.1900   made me take a look at  the topic of women on wheels  - or as,  one journalist in the 1890's called them,  "wheelwomen". 

 "Velocipedes"   were an early form of bicycle, followed by the penny farthing and the boneshaker.   

 

 The introduction of the "safety bicycle" brought in the first hey days for leisure cycling in the 1890's, with women not going to be left behind.  For women, cycling  came to represent a freedom they had not experienced before and the activity quickly became associated with the wider movement of  women's emancipation.   

But there  were public outcries at the prospect of these  changes in the social norm with much of the criticism focusing on women's dress - notably the new style of bloomers and knickerbockers. these  offered more freedom for movemen than women's  usual restrictive dresses.     These fashions became the subject of ridicule in cartoon of the time.

   

 

Newspapers of the day  ** abound  with letters,  articles  and reports  on  the vision of women riding around the countryside .   

In 1894 the Society of Cyclists calling for  "Rational Dress for  Wheelwomen" 

An angry  letter condemned "a young woman who spends most of her time in riding  on a man's bicycle, has a good deal to learn in respect of simplicity and neatness of attire". 

A clergyman refused to give communion to women who turned up for church in bloomers or knickerbockers.  

However some  doctors said firmly that, " as those best qualified to judge, they were almost unanimous in declaring that the average standard of health among women, who cycle had shown an appreciable elevation."

So this was the image portrayed in advertisements and posters that conveyed a sense of fun and freedom. with illustrations of happy cyclist  enjoying the fresh air and exercise.  

As one protagonist said 

A  most exciting and delightful mode of travel.  

• Images above  courtesy of Pixabay
• ** Source:  Find My Past British Newspapers Online 

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But what of my ancestors - next to no  photographs exist of them on bikes.  My grandfather cycled or walked everywhere until he died.   For years, my aunt cycled  in all weathers more than five  miles to her work as a teacher  on a bike with a basket on the front handle bars. When I came to get my first bike, the basket like hers was a "must have" item. 

 

Here is my husband's great Aunt Pat who doing the Second World War rode on her bicycle to work with the Fire Service in Kent  on the south coast. 

Fast forward  more than 110 years from the first image, and here is my granddaughter in the casual dress of the day, plus the  obligatory helmet as "health and safety"  considerations reign supreme.   What a contrast!

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photographs.

 

Click  HERE to see tales form other Sepia Saturday  bloggers.  

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