Rastus and Helen, circa 1900

As often happens with well-intentioned projects, my paternal grandmother's photo album was meticulously kept for about a year and a half.  The photos and the captions begin to peter out with the approach of her marriage and the Great War.  Thus, I have a complete record of a daylong excursion by automobile to the top of Dan's Rock overlooking Cumberland, Maryland in July of 1914.  But I have no idea if certain children pictured a few years later happen to be my father, my aunt, or some cousin. 

That's grandmother Helen on the far left, posing like a Gibson Girl in the back of the car.  In the front seat and at the center of the photo, looking rather heroically off to the left (his right) and wearing little round wire glasses, is the chiropractor she would marry a year later.  I wonder who is taking the photo, since that would usually have been grandfather's gig.  There are two things Golladays are always likely to have, and one of them is gadgets.  The other I'll get to in a moment.

Inside the album's front cover, carefully pasted into its place of honor, is a photo that's a bit older, probably around 1903.  It is a window into the past and, like the past, it's complicated.( Read more... )