Monday, November 18, 2013

Two From August, 1960

Not only do I know that this first photo was taken on August 13 1960, but the photographer also noted that it was taken at 1:45 PM. What use is that? NONE! I just like knowing it. Tom Sawyer Island is teeming with activity, from explorers already on the island, mighty fishermen, and a raft arriving (or maybe leaving).


Flower. Mart. Boring. Picture.


Editor's Note: starting today, I will be away from the blog for almost a whole week. Hopefully the withdrawal symptoms won't be too severe! Please keep tuning in, and I'll talk to you when I return.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Always love to see shots of folks fishing from the TSI pier. Sure the trout were netted in, but that's still considered fishing, right? No?

Melissa said...

“Gee, Mom, I sure am glad to be here at Disneyland on August 13, 1960.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear it, Bobby! Aren’t you always glad to come to Disneyland?”

“Sure, Mom! But August 13, 1960 is a great day to be in Disneyland instead of central Japan; ain’t that right, Patsy?”

“Don’t say, ‘ain’t,’ Bobby! Your mother will faint! And she’ll fall right off this raft! They’d be awfully glad to have this raft in central Japan, where Typhoon Wendy killed at least 18 people today, August 13, 1960.”

“Oh, my! I suppose you’re right, Patsy, a raft would be better than nothing in a typhoon, but…”

“It’s OK, Patsy, Mom can swim, even if she doesn’t have an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, yellow polka-dot bikini like the one in the song by Brian Hyland that reached number one on the Billboard charts today, August 13, 1960.”

“That’s true, Susie, but Bobby still shouldn’t say, ‘ain’t.’ If we don’t strive to be the best we can every day, why, we’re no better than the Communists, who started building the Berlin Wall today on August 13, 1960.”

“Say, Patsy, you know an awful lot about Communists for a supposedly red-blooded American girl, even if you are my sister.”

“Children, children! Stop squabbling! I’m sure Patsy doesn’t know any more about Communists than you do, Bobby!”

“That’s right! I heard Bobby telling the man at the teacups ride that the Soviets withdrew their advisors from China today, August 13, 1960!”

“I didn’t bring it up! He’s the one who made that joke about all the tea in China! Mom, Susie’s making faces at me!”

“Susie, stop making faces at your brother. And all of you stop fighting, or I won’t tell you what your cousin California Highway Patrol Officer Charles A. Carson saw on patrol in Red Bluff, California today, August 13, 1960.”

“Oh, who cares what dumb old cousin California Highway Patrol Officer Charles A. Carson saw? Probably just some teenagers smooching in the back seat of an El Dorado.”

“As a matter of fact, he saw what looked like a huge airliner descending from the sky in front of him in complete silence to about 100 to 200 feet from the ground, then suddenly reversing and climbing back to about 500 feet from the ground, with a glow making the round or oblong object visible. At each end, or each side of the object, there were definite red lights. At times about five white lights were visible between the red lights. As he watched the object moved again and performed aerial feats that were actually unbelievable.”

“Um, Mom, that sounds like the kind of thing that might happen later tonight, like, say, at 11:50 p.m. on August 13, 1960?”

“Don’t you give me any of your back-sass, now, young man, or we’re turning this raft around. When you grow up and have kids of your own, you can start deciding how linear time works. Now, Patsy, did you finish your geography homework for summer school last night?”

“Yes, Mom, but I’m gonna have to re-do it tomorrow. That nice man in the cowboy hat just told me that the Central African Republic & Chad proclaimed their independence from France today, Saturday, August 13, 1960. I guess it wouldn’t be very nice of me to wish they had waited until Tuesday, August 16.”

“There, there. At least you know your grandchildren will still have an easy time drawing the map of Europe – just color half of it red and write four letters. Why don’t I buy you a balloon? It’ll be just like Echo 1, the inflatable satellite that was used for the first two-way satellite communication today, August 13, 1960.”




Tom said...

I learn so much here.

The pictures are swell, too!

K. Martinez said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
K. Martinez said...

Cool Frontierland image. I think I read somewhere that after finding dead abandon fish throughout the park, they decided to discontinue fishing off the pier on Tom Sawyer Island.

Melissa said...

Although I don't find the Flower Market picture boring, you should have seen it five minutes later, when the Disneyland band decided to have one of their famous impromptu games of Hide and Seek.

keeline said...

Slides and some photos routinely have dating on them. However, rather than being the timestamp of the photo, it is when the film was processed, was it not?

Modern digital cameras record the timestamp when the image was taken (unless the internal clock is set incorrectly which is often true--despite all of those CSI and other police procedural shows).

If there's a date and a time on a slide, it seems like it would only tell you when they finished up the roll of film and got around to processing it. In the days of film that might take me weeks or a couple months. Perhaps I'm unusual in that way but I don't think so.

Melissa said...

Film cameras that would datestamp the negatives when they were taken did exist, but you're correct about almost all of them, keeline. I was just having a bit of fun with the dialog.

Major Pepperidge said...

Anon, you mean kids didn't pull the trout all the way out of the water? I would think that any child getting a nibble would yank on the pole out of excitement - like I did when I would go fishing!

Melissa, Officer Carson sounds like he's had one too many donuts. I love your comment-story-history lesson!!

Tom, I learn as much as anybody, which is half the fun.

K. Martinez, I heard that too, and it has the ring of truth about it. Who would want to carry fish around all day?

Melissa 2, the link doesn't take me to a photo. Bummer!

keeling, you are right about date stamps, but in this case the info was hand-written by the photographer, so I can only assume that it is correct in this particular case. Most vintage date stamps only gave the month and year, not the exact day.

Melissa 3 (!), how do you know so much about vintage cameras and date-stamping tech??