Category Archives: Historic photographs

THE PEOPLE IN OUR LIVES, WHERE DO THEY GO?

Posted on January 20, 2019 by Gary Garth McCann

I met pre-med Samuel in an experimental psychology class. He thought he needed my help studying, and probably he did.  As much as help, he seemed to need a buddy, something he was accustomed to from his years as a … Continue reading →

Posted in autobiographical memory, book reviews, Hippie era, Historic photographs, recent | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The girls blow the boys? I beg your pardon?

Posted on June 22, 2018 by Gary Garth McCann

How language changes. “On Sunday afternoon the girls blow the boys to a picnic.” From Life magazine, 1949. It means the girls paid for everything. The article was about how an Ohio State boy made five dollars last him for a … Continue reading →

Posted in commentary, Historic photographs, humor, language | Leave a comment

THE JFK ASSASSINATION: AMERICA’S ULTIMATE MYSTERY

Posted on November 22, 2017 by Gary Garth McCann

Perusing one of my railroad books, ‘Down South’ on the Rock Island, by Steve Allen Goen (La Mirada, CA: Four Ways West Publications, 2002), I came across the photo and caption reproduced below. (Ignore the Brook Hollow ad.) The photo was … Continue reading →

Posted in autobiographical memory, commentary, current photos, Hippie era, Historic photographs | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Andreas Feininger “Coney Island,” 1949, Time Machines and Dining Cars

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Gary Garth McCann

Time and place, the two dimensions in which we travel. Except for the very large fact that as gay people, Todd and I would very much have needed to hide the nature of our relationship in the late ‘forties, early … Continue reading →

Posted in current photos, Historic photographs, trains | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Overheard at Carlsbad Caverns: My Father is Such a Cowboy

Posted on August 25, 2015 by Gary Garth McCann

Todd and I eat like dogs, tucking into our food. In the visitor center we were eating all the more like two dogs with bowls side-by-side on the floor, because we both sat on the same side of the table … Continue reading →

Posted in autobiographical memory, fathers and sons, Historic photographs | Tagged | Leave a comment

Union Pacific Station, Cheyenne, Wyoming: “Lady, if all your things were on that train, you should’ve been on it, too.”

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Gary Garth McCann

You don’t have to do much reading between the lines to see what was going on. In the late ’40s my Aunt Lacy and “a gal” she met were having highballs in the club car with some soldiers on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Ads from the 1940s and '50s, autobiographical memory, Historic photographs, nostalgia, train stations, trains | Leave a comment

2015 update to “Men’s Swimwear for 2014?”

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Gary Garth McCann

Recently a viewer added an enlightening comment to my post of a year ago (4/18/14), which I called “Men’s Swimwear for 2014?” “One of the pictures you have is of the Natatorium at my high school in Minnesota. It’s the … Continue reading →

Posted in Historic photographs, nude swimming | 1 Comment

Swimming at the US Naval Academy, 1942

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Gary Garth McCann

Above and below reblogged from shotmen.tumblr.com Life – Swimming at the US Naval Academy – Myron Davis – July, 1942 – 5e70964cd34ac649 Life – Swimming at the US Naval Academy – Myron Davis – July, 1942 – a15f6b6f6dea258c    

Posted in Annapolis, Historic photographs, Midshipmen, US Naval Academy | Tagged | Leave a comment

Ronald Reagan advertising the Union Pacific Domeliner City of Los Angeles

Posted on January 29, 2015 by Gary Garth McCann

Before he was governor, before he was president, actor Ronald Reagan appeared in these Union Pacific Railroad ads in the National Geographic in the mid-1950s. The Domeliner City of Los Angeles is the same train that was featured in the I Love … Continue reading →

Posted in Ads from the 1940s and '50s, Historic photographs, movie stars, trains | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Two men dancing in the late 1800s

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Gary Garth McCann

Reblogged here from the marvelous tumblr, Lover of Beauty , there captioned as “Experimental Sound Film (dir. William Dickson — 1894)” and cited as “originally posted by truefoes.” Consider this unrelated but relevant quote from Intersecting Tango : Cultural Geographies of Buenos … Continue reading →

Posted in blogs, Historic photographs | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment