Vintage B&W Pony Pics!

A few weeks back Jen, at Scissors, Paper, Glue, wrote a blog posting about vintage b&w photos; she'd just picked up four bags full at an antique store. She invited her blog readers to tell her their favorite subject of vintage b&w photos and, if she had any, she'd send them to us. FUN!!

Well, I happen to LOVE old photos of kids on ponies. You know, the pony that used to be led around suburban neighborhoods back in the 30's and 40's by a bronze-skinned man in a red-and-white-checked shirt and a droopy moustache? Or the ones that walk around in a circle at the county fair (still see 'em today!) or led by a handler?

In my Mom's collection of family photos she has a shot of her older sister, my aunt Joanie, sitting astride a black-and-white pony in the front yard of their home in Los Angeles. I love that photo! I looked and looked but apparently I don't have a copy of it - I'll have to get one next time I'm at my mom's. Anyway, I think because I love that picture so much is why I asked Jen to see if she'd ended up with any "kids on pony" pics.

Sure enough, within a few days I received a note from Jen and included were THREE b&w photos! Thank you, Jen!!

I scanned them and here they are:
This one seems to have been taken at a fair. Check out the bits of roller coaster track in the background. Don't you just love the man's hat and pipe?? I don't know what the year was when this picture was taken, but I had a pixie haircut just like this little girl's around 1965, ha ha! Oh, and if you look real close at the left side of the photo, there's a white building where you can just read most of the phrase, "Pony Photos!"
I think this lady looks like Eleanor Roosevelt. She's holding the bridles of two shetland ponies, each with a pretty little girl on its back. Check out the lady's hat, striped dress, and strappy shoes. On the back of this picture is written, in what is probably the woman's very own handwriting, "May 1932 Beverly Hills." I'm guessing this may be is a well-heeled society lady and her two well-brought-up daughters, and those ponies are owned, not rented!
This horse is probably not really a pony, he looks a little big, but this still looks like a posed shot. For one thing, the young lady is certainly not dressed in riding clothes. Still, she appears to be happy to be astride a horse, maybe feeling pretty grown-up. She's probably around 11 or 12 which is the prime age when so many girls are crazy about horses (I was). I love the brands on the horse, there's one looks like a capital "N" just in front of the girl's leg, and the other is on the horse's rump and looks like "DB." Would love to know the name(s) of the ranch, or ranches(?), those letters represent!

It has been so much fun to examine these pictures, and wonder about the lives of the people in them, and the times when they lived, different from now, but still the same in many ways.

Anybody else share my love of vintage b&w pony pics?? Got any? I'd love to see 'em. Share!

A relaxed and lazy Sunday - NOT!

Past time for an update and a confession. Actually, the confession will be the update! I have not been able to stick with my goal of 25 Jazzercise classes in 25 Days. Argh!!! Well, Life got in the way a time or two. First, there was the Saturday that we went sailing with Leo on the Chat de Mer. Then Wed'day and Thursday of last week I was not feeling well. I had some mild flu-like symptoms, and some rather dramatic fluid build-up in my lungs that made it hard to breathe. I don't know whether I was having an allergic reaction to something new or different blooming outside, or if it's adult-onset asthma (is there such a thing?), but when I was up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep because I could barely breathe, I was sure wishing for a rescue inhaler! My mom, several siblings, and at least two nieces have asthma and use inhalers regularly, so it does run in my family. I've really never heard of it coming on in an adult who never had a problem before, though, but boy, I surely have first-hand knowledge now of how asthmatics suffer. This is not my first episode either, they started about 6 months ago, and occur sporadically and with no rhyme or reason.

Long story short, I missed Jazzercise on Wed'day and Thursday. The "asthma" is my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

Then, this past Saturday I went to San Jose with my friend, Susan, for a digital scrapbooking laptop crop sponsored by DigitalScrapbookingPlace.com so, again, I was not able to attend my Saturday step class. That's 4 missed days. We had a blast at the crop, by the way! Met lots of nice people, learned some new digital scrapbooking techniques, ate way more chocolate than is good for a human being, and got lots of layouts done (including Ryan's bathtime layouts, Heather, so expect those in the mail soon along with your 4th of July page)! I worked mainly on my own personal pages, and pages for my family, which was really fun because I usually spend most of my time on layouts for my Webajeb customers. [You can see some samples of my Webajeb work at http://www.webajeb.com/ and http://www.webajeb.blogspot.com/).]

Ok, so we're up to 4 days missed in my quest for 25 Jazzercise classes in 25 Days. Then, yesterday, I slept in due to getting home very late from the laptop crop, and I missed the only two Sunday classes. I was ready to chalk up another lost day when Mike suggested a bike ride as an alternate form of exercise. I was having an "I-can't-seem-to-make-any-decisions" day so Mike chose our route. That won't happen again. He decided we would ride from our house, up the hill on our street to Rose Drive, up Rose Drive to Hastings, and then dooooowwwwwnnnnnn Hastings to Southampton Road, down Southampton and over to the Benicia State Recreation Area. Once there we first stopped to eat some ripe blackberries near the ranger's kiosk, then we cycled the approximately 5 mile round trip (mostly flat but there was a hefty headwind part of the way) to the end of the park and back, with a sidetrip up a gravel path to some fig trees we know about to see if there was anything ripe. (There wasn't; in fact, the figs were all teensy and hard-as-rocks, probably due to the drought we are having this year). Next we rode through town to the library (this part was my idea - I had a book on hold I wanted to pick up). We took a short break to drink some water, then started the torturous trek back.

Yeah, I said torturous.

Remember all that downhill riding we did? Well, there's no way to ride back to our house without tackling some pretty hefty hills; either the steep but relatively short climb up Panorama or Hastings, or the long and steady rise of 2nd Street. We chose 2nd Street and managed to ride all the way, slowly but surely. Even that, though, was nothing compared to Rose Drive! Once we turned onto Rose the headwind was horrible. Most of the time we even had to pedal on the downhill portions of this hilly road else the wind would bring us to a stop. Finally, the last uphill block did me in and my bicycle and I toppled onto the shady grass in front of Matthew Turner Elementary school. Once I'd caught my breath, I walked my bike the rest of the way to the top of our street, about 2 blocks, and only then did I climb back on to coast down the hill to our house (in order not to be embarrassed in front of our neighbors).

We arrived back home about 4 p.m. I'm pretty sure I didn't get up off the couch for the rest of the day OR evening.

Mike seemed to do fine on our ride and, wisely, he pretty much held his tongue about the rough conditions though at one point he did ask, "Are you going to count this as a Jazzercise class?"

Oh, yes. Yes, I am.

Sailing in SF, and another trip on our horizon!

We had a great day sailing on Saturday. Here's Mike at the helm of the Chat de Mer, near Angel Island. The weather was typical for summer in the San Francisco Bay; partly overcast, partly sunny, with a nice strong breeze. It was Mike's and my first time sailing the catamaran and, although the sails are harder to put up and bring down than on our old boat, Mirage (because they are so much bigger), she handles beautifully. I got a chance at the helm myself with Leo intructing me through a number of tacks as we headed toward the Golden Gate bridge. The feel of this boat is certainly different than the Mirage, but we're getting the hang of it. Leo said I did well.

Here is a photo of the Chat de Mer in the Richmond harbor. Next time we go out I'll get some pictures of the roomy inside. For now here are a few more pictures of some of the outside amenities:

Here is the netting that many catamarans have in the front, stretched between the two hulls. It's a popular place to hang out and watch the water below, especially when there are dolphins playing in the waves under the boat.

This is for you, Mom! It's the dinghy, attached to the aft end of the boat, and it's a big dinghy. Not like the little one Mike and I had aboard the Mirage, that had to be inflated with a footpump and rowed with oars, this one is large, permanently "inflated," can be automatically lowered into the water at a moment's notice, and has a nice big engine. Easy escape in case the boat sinks!

A nice feature of catamarans is the swim step on the aft end of each hull. The bottom step is right at the water line and then there is that silver ladder that can be lowered into the water for very easy reboarding.

We used to have a time of it trying to get back into the Mirage after a swim. We had to either climb the rope ladder (very difficult and awkward) or climb into our dinghy and then into the boat. I used to worry incessantly about Mike going overboard, becoming exhausted in the cold water, and me being unable to pull him back into the boat. I'd probably have to tie a rope to him and tow him to shore!

Here's a view of Alcatraz. It looks empty because very few visitors come to this side of the island; they are all on the other side where the boats dock.

A small sailboat, the "Missy B," heeled over in the strong afternoon wind. These sailors are in full foul-weather gear, a good indication of the both the day's temperature, and the possibility of water splashing aboard.

The city of San Francisco.

It was obviously a great day for fishing. Look at all the party boats! The seagulls follow the fishing vessels waiting for the filleting of the day's catch to begin. They then swoop and dive on the scraps that are thrown overboard. The Golden Gate bridge is in the background.

More fishing boats. Look at all the fishermen lining the sides. The waves are from the high-speed ferry that just went by.
Leo, at the helm, and Gordon. There were five of us aboard; Leo, Mike, me, Gordon, and Jerry. It was a great day! Our next trip is scheduled for the first weekend in August, when we will take an overnight trip to Half Moon Bay.

These day and weekend trips are preparation for the Big Trip to come: the Baja Ha-Ha!! Yes, Mike and I are going again this year, this time as crew for Leo on the Chat de Mer! We are very excited. Leo will be adding one or two more people as crew; we don't know yet who they will be.

I'm also happy to report that the same couple who house- and petsat for us last year have agreed to return this year! We're tickled to have Richard and Mary coming back; our cats already know them so the adjustment should be easy for them, and I will have a little less separation-anxiety (at least we hope so). Richard and Mary enjoyed living in Benicia, so are also looking forward to the two months here this fall. Our dates of travel will be October 15 through December 15.

And, of course, I'll be taking my laptop so I can blog along the way!