Saturday, February 09, 2019

Ice and Snow

It's February, and that means that it's really cold in some parts of the country. Not so much here in SoCal - unless you are up in the mountains where it snows, like this happy couple that is up on the snowy slopes of Mount Baldy (the slide is from the mid-1950's). Even though I am many many miles away from Mount Baldy (also known as Mount San Antonio - the tallest mountain in the San Gabriel range), I can sometimes see it way in the distance - after some recent rains and some cold temperatures it looks as if it has a deep layer of snow for the first time in many years.


This next slide is dated "February, 1959" - 60 years ago to the month. Two elves (or maybe they are regular children?) are enjoying a sunny day out on a frozen pond. Melissa will enjoy the outfits, I'll bet! The photo reminds me of a Saturday Evening Post illustration. The person to the right has taken a nasty spill - I can sympathize.


Last month I posted a photo that had a child wearing a hat with ear flaps (at Disneyland!), and it reminded Steve Stuart ("Nanook") of some photos of his own childhood! Even though I lived where it got very cold in the winter, I never had a flappy hat. 

Steve is in Manhasset, New York in 1957. The taller boy is his cousin. Looks like they found a stick, and it's a good one.


Well, that pond (or maybe it's a river) in the background hasn't frozen over yet, but that doesn't mean that it's not still in the 30's. If a blizzard suddenly moves in, Steve is more than prepared!


I hope you've enjoyed today's wintery pix; thanks to Steve Stuart for sharing his personal photos!

14 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-
There's something about the expressions on the faces of that couple, her purse, and the gentleman almost out of frame to the left that seems to cry out for some 'speech bubbles or balloons', as these folks certainly look as though they have much to say.

And, m'am - is that really the most practical purse to bring up into the snowy slopes of Mt. Baldy-?? Yes I know - I should talk-! Just check out the devil-may-care outfit I'm sporting there in Manhasset-! I'm afraid I can't remember why that keychain and keys seems to have some significance as to take center stage in that image.

Thanks, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

I think that man that is out of frame in the first pic, was just passing by.....with his "invisible ski pole." The lady sitting on the ice in the second pic, might just be doing some yoga.

Nanook, I was going to ask you about those keys. Perhaps you had just been handed the keys to the family car and told that you could drive on the way home?

K. Martinez said...

These pics are making me feel cold. Brrrrrrrr! Thanks, Major.

Nanook, holding that set of keys, you almost look like an on-the-spot news reporter. Thanks for sharing your personal photos with us.

Chuck said...

I initially thought the man in the first photo was wearing a Navy/Marine/Coast Guard-issue M-422 or G-1 (depending on when it was issued) leather flight jacket, but on further inspection the wider collar, exposed buttons, and that belt at the waist rule that out. I still wouldn't mind having that outfit, though.

Nanook, I think you may be holding the mythical keys to the oarlocks, which many an unsuspecting young Scout has been dispatched to search for in vain.

When I was a kid, I had an olive-drab, vinyl-shell, faux-fur-lined "Arctic Patrol" ear flap hat that had been my dad's as a kid that I wore until the lining literally separated from the cap and my mother couldn't figure out how to fix it. I loved that thing.

The white house in the background of the Keymaster photo reminds me of my grandmother's house, although this house looks larger. Lots of good memories surround that place; I lived there with my mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother when my dad was in Vietnam, and again in my last year of college. My sister and her family live there now, keeping the place in the family.

Thanks again for sharing your pictures!

Dean Finder said...

That first pic shows how rudimentary ski resorts were in the 1950s. Little more than parks with snow on the nature trails.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, this same couple had photos that were unlabeled but appeared to be somewhere in the Middle East, but I have no idea if it is Turkey, Armenia, Iraq, or any number of other countries… anyway, it was snowing there too, so these people were no strangers to snow. I have a nice photo of the woman at Disneyland! Something tells me that the lady was just there to enjoy some winter fun, so practicality didn’t factor in when it came to her purse.

TokyoMagic!, I thought that the man to the left was feeding invisible pigeons. If I was going to yoga, I would definitely do it on ice! Nanook is holding the Key To All Knowledge.

K. Martinez, we actually had frost the other day, much to my astonishment. And a friend who grows rare fruit trees and other plants lost a bunch of them because of the cold, which is a bummer.


Chuck, I thought it looked like the man was wearing an old bomber jacket, or something along those lines. I guess it might make sense that commercially available jackets would copy the style that so many men saw in action just a decade earlier. From what you’ve said in the past, your mom was pretty handy, so if she couldn’t fix your beloved hat, it was probably time to give it a proper viking funeral.

Dean Finder, I have no idea, but did they groom ski trails back then? Maybe or did skiers just get lifted to the top of the hill, and good luck to them on the way down?

Nanook said...

@ TM!-
I was visiting my cousins in Manhasset, so if those keys were to the "family car", my uncle would've been giving me the golden "opportunity" to 'motor on home'. (Perhaps he was more adventurous than I remember-!)

@ Ken-
If I were a reporter, I certainly had the teeth for it. Unfortunately, I would have to judge my smile as being inappropriate - for after all, most of today's "reporters" are better-schooled at dispensing fear, doom and helplessness, and are only 'allowed' to smile when sitting at the anchor desk, pretending to be one of our "friends".

@ Chuck-
I don't know about those 'oarlock keys', but out of frame in my left hand, I'm holding a pair of brass magnets - and... I'm also standing on a board stretcher! Somewhere I think I have a picture of that pond all frozen over.

Thanks for weighing-in on that jacket. My first thought was some sort of military jacket, but like you, its features seemed a bit too weird for that status.

JC Shannon said...

In the first pic, that is Yuri and Svetlana from the USSR. He is a MIG pilot and she is a spy for the KGB. "When we take over, all women will wear babushkas." I always pictured Steve as looking a lot like Anthony Quinn, I don't know why. Seriously, here in Montana, everyone wears a floppy hat in the winter. We are a stylish lot in summer, but when winter hits, we all look pretty bad. Thanks to Major and Steve for sharing these great images. Do svidaniya!

Sunday Night said...

Thanks for the wonderful pics today Major and thanks Nanook for sharing your photos and memories. My guess on the key photo is that someone lost their keys and Nanook found them and to commemorate the event you got your picture taken!

Melissa said...

Now that's a real industrial-strength babushka! And her purse is way cool.

There must have been a sale on red snowpants that year!

Aww, who's a little cutie with the earflaps?!?

It's slightly warmer than the grave here today, so I'm glad I don't have to go outside and have fun like these vintage suckers. It's blankets and internets on the couch for me!

Nanook said...

Take a close look at the shoes and ankles of the gal in the first image, and tell me things look anatomically normal. Something about [at least] her left ankle that seems way beyond too narrow for bone to be beneath it.

JC Shannon said...

Nanook, I see what you mean. That's what happens when you eat a steady diet borscht for 25 years.

Chuck said...

Nanook, I think that it's just an optical delusion. The left side of her left leg is hugging the left side of her left trouser leg, and the wide opening of the trouser leg on the right side combined with the overexposure of the image from the snow and sunlight on the left side make her ankle look narrower than it really is.

Anonymous said...

Major and Nanook, thanks for brightening my gloomy Monday with these pictures, and thanks everyone else for the comments.

The person on the ice looks like they hit their head and are rubbing it. I don't know why rubbing your head helps when it hurts, but it does.

JG