So take a look at towns, traffic and trams, in places ranging from Paris and a Far East waterfront, to a small rural village in the Scottish Borders and trams across the country.
A busy scene in the Square outside Paris
Opera House, May 1940 -
a postcard from my father's war-time album.
a postcard from my father's war-time album.
Dad
was serving in the RAF Codes & Cipher Branch and was seconded to
the American 8th Army under General Bradley. They landed at Omaha
Beach, fought their way through Normandy to set up their headquarters at
Versailles. In Dad's own words
"With the GIs in khaki and ourselves in blue, we were very conspicuous – more so as we were so few. We also got a jeep and as I was the only one who could drive, apart from the official driver, we used to go into Paris and park by the Eiffel Tower. Hundreds of Frenchmen gathered there trying to buy cigarettes.
Another time I got a lift into Paris to hear General de Gaulle make a speech at the Place de la Concorde. I was stopped by a Frenchman who said in English “RAF Sir? My name is Joseph Calmy. I was the Shell agent here before the war”. I offered him cigarettes and he then invited me to a building and gave me a bag full of Chanel perfume, toiletries, powder and cream – it lasted Mum for years. I flew back with it when I got some leave in March ‘45."
A photograph of my father dated on the reverse September 12th 1944.
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Another "service" memory - this time from my husband's uncle, Matthew Iley White
who served in the Durham Light Infantry in China. 1937-40.
Mattie's Service Book showing his time in China
Matthew Iley White of South Shields, Co. Durham
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A
busy place for traffic in my memory was Harvard Square in Cambridge,
Mass.where I spent a happy year, working in 1965-66 in Radcliffe
Library. The Squar was the hub of the town, with shops, commercial
buildings, and the transport intersection for buses and subway.
More up to date on a visit to London - taking a photograph of the distinctive red buses in the busy traffic is a must.
I
grew up in Blackpool, the famous seaside resort in north west England
and here is the promenade,with the famous Blackpool Tower, built
in 1894 and rises to 520 feet high - key facts drummed into us at school.
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A change of period and place, with a look at traffic in my home village of Earlston in the Scottish Borders.
Traffic passing through the Market Square and along the High Stret, c.1920
Earlston in Lockdown, Wednesday April 15th 2020 at 10.00am
with the absence of traffic the most noticeable feature. This is
usually a busy road linking the central Borders with the east coast, and
used by commercial, business and farm traffic, buses and emergency
vehicles - but what a change in the last few months.
C,1910 - Car in the middle of the road in what is now the A68 trunk route linking Edinburgh with north east England.
Same road, same cottages, but taken April 2020 during Lockdown.
Again this is usually a very busy road.
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Blackpool
trams in their green and white livery date back to 1885 and they are one of the oldest tramways in the
world. They run for 11 miles along the seafront. During the famous
Blackpool Illuminations in autumn, trams are decorated with lights.
Vintage
tram at Beamish Open Air Museum in County Durham, where life in the
late 19th-early 20th century is recreated - a favourite place of ours for a day
out.
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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity
to share their family history through photograph
Wonderful pictures! I especially like the double-decker buses and the vintage photos.
ReplyDeleteSue you have put so much work into this post. Great photos. I found your father's story fascinating. I recognised Shanghai straight away. Not that I've been there but my father has. Your uncle looked very young. I liked the illuminated and vintage trams and your lockdown photos.
ReplyDeleteYou have done yourself proud here! Great matches to the prompt from everywhere. But I smiled on two accounts when it came to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. When I was in Boston staying in a hotel on a busy 5-way intersection across from Fenway Park, I was perusing the hotel's booklet on things like what to see, where to eat, etc. etc. and turned a page to see in giant capital letters: "DO NOT DRIVE IN DOWNTOWN BOSTON". Whoa - what? It wasn't long after that I was on our tour bus in the middle of downtown Boston when I saw what they meant! Tiny narrow streets and traffic all over the place with everyone trying to beat signals and no one willing to give the right of way to anyone else. Truly a mad house! I was happy to leave it to the bus driver and after that I took the "T" (subway)to wherever. The second photo of Harvard Square shows a parked '55 or '56 Ford hardtop in light blue & white. In 1960 I was trying desperately to figure out how I could afford to buy a pink & white one. It was a pipe dream, of course, and never came to be. Oh well. :)
ReplyDeletequite a fun selection of photos and family stories. Well done.
ReplyDeleteVery creative! I like your postcards then and now views. lots of places here have "enjoyed"? the same slow-down experince. I miss Howard, a founding Sepian, who introduced that postcard concept on his blog of the same name.
ReplyDeleteI remember driving (briefly) in Cambridge, and people would double park their cars, leaving them blocking traffic, to go about their business. It sure was maddening. I just learned a lot more (than I had previously known) about the Borders...the Scottish ones where a lot of the Scots Irish haled from before coming to the US.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mike about your then and now postcard views. The last photo minded me of a train I saw during a trip to Disneyland in January. I love the trams photos, especially the one decorated in lights.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your kind comments. I enjoyed reading memories of driving in Boston and Cambridge (not recommended!). I like to showcase the Scottish Borders in my post, as it is a forgotten corner of Scotland that people wizz through on their way to Edinburgh and the Highlands.
ReplyDelete