Friday, September 21, 2018

Getting on down the road...

 As automobiles became part of family life, families' Sunday afternoon drives and picnics by the road became popular.  I wonder if people with wagons and buggies had taken part in similar activities before cars came along.  Sure they did.  Picnics don't depend upon cars! (There, I have taken a stand!)

And of course the other family activity was having a photograph taken by Uncle Ed or Joe, or whoever had the bug to develop his own film and make prints.  Or perhaps there was already someone who was doing that as a profession.  Mostly I think it was amateurs for a while, especially of family outings.

A hamper used to mean a picnic basket.  When I was growing up it was the place in which to put dirty clothes prior to being laundered.

The cherry blossoms are beautiful.  These were smart folks who had table and chairs, as well as...do you remember it was called the running board?

Thanks to a Facebook friend for all these great old shots of picnics...Appalachian Coal Fields.  I keep sharing almost everything they post on my FB page too.

This looks like an early bar-b-q grill.

Young people aways enjoy gathering for fun times! Do you see the early portable radio front and center?  Remember before the days of parks with picnic tables and parking lots?

These outings were forerunners of a popular pre-game activity for American football fans, called Tail-gating...where a parking-lot full of cars would have people cooking over little grills and drinking from coolers...and many sporting colors of their favorite teams.

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt shows a nice old car being given a good wash by some members of a family (possibly) while they were captured by another person with the inevitible camera!

Come on over and see what others have to share HERE.

"A much loved car outside a postwar prefabricated house: could anything be more redolent of the early 1950s. The car may not be a new one, but it has been washed and polished until you can see your reflection in it. The photograph contains equal measures of pride and hope - emotions that were equally redolent of the decade in question. As a theme image, you can take whatever element you want from it: be it as solid as a chrome bumper bar or as ephemeral as an emotion. All you need to do is to post your Sepia Saturday post on or around Saturday 22nd September 2018 and add a link to the list below. "

An antique auto was in the parking lot at Lakeview Center a few months ago.



6 comments:

  1. Great Post. Love old cars, they had so much character.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Picnics are always a lot of fun (as long as the weather cooperates).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Picnics improve with the hamper's contents, the view, and the company. Why am I now hungry?

    ReplyDelete
  4. A great collection of roadside picnics! When I was growing up my family enjoyed many such picnics. Instead of a running board to sit on, however, we sat on a ground cloth and used the tailgate of our station wagons to keep the food away from bugs. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wonderful photos of cars and picnics. How liberating the automobile was, allowing folks to travel far and wide and lunch in the open air. And to get away from parents when the time came, as depicted in your photo of young people picnicing.

    ReplyDelete

There is today, more than ever, the need for a compassionate regenerative world civilization.