Nov 6, 2009

Strange and Goofy


I've been slacking off lately. I've been distracted, scattered even; feeling a strange sense of unreality at times. So perhaps digging up some of my wackier finds is in order.


I love this family; the gangly, goofball father, the different expressions of the older son and the mother have gazing at him. I most of all love the discombobulated look of the younger child - the severity of being born into this family of crazies must have just hit him. (I might be projecting.)


I understand the compulsion of taking a picture of Elsie the calf, but why in the living room?


This one is more of a disturbing one.

I saw
Where the Wild Things Are recently - a movie about an angry, frustrated boy. It's not a children's movie. It doesn't really have a plot either. It's scary and disturbing at many spots, yet I found it compelling.

12 comments:

Cafe Pasadena said...

Now, this posting is even better. Into your Greatest Hits Collection!

The Viewliner Limited said...

Very Strange and Goofy. But very cool vintage!

VM Sehy Photography said...

You know if you hadn't pointed out that they had the cow in the house, I never would have noticed. I grew up with lots of uncles who farmed, so perhaps that explains it. Still, I can't imagine either of my Grandmas letting the kids bring a cow into the house. Nor the parents of my best friend in elementary school for that matter. Perhaps the parents went to town and the older sibling was watching those two.

Emma J said...

So, peeking out of the car to the right- all bare-legged - are those the girls whose bathing dresses these fellows are modelling?

I love these! (You may be projecting, but then we all are.)

dive said...

Hee hee hee hee hee!
Oh my, Vanda. These are hyterically funny and truly disturbing.
Wonderful stuff.

Petrea Burchard said...

I love the two old friends sharing a laugh. I love all of these, it's wonderful that you've preserved them here.

Vanda said...

Hey CP, how's it barking?

I think that at the time that thing is what passed for men's bathing suit, skirt and all. Of course, I have no clue what time "that time" was.

Anonymous said...

The first photo is my favorite (gads are those some skinny gams). So many photos from that period are somber. When you see this kind of flirtatious interaction (with the girls watching) it's hard to deny that great grandma and gramps had sex. Whose projecting now?

Anonymous said...

That chair in the photo with the cow in the living room; it looks like the chairs down at Union station. They used to be that beat up too. Lotions on the mantel? Packaging in the fire place? Christmas early 50's?

Vanda said...

Yeah, hard to think of the "old folks" as lively and rambunctious, but they had to be.

Maybe it was a Chirstmas Cow?

Anonymous said...

That's a happy cow, must be California.

(The girl couldn't wait to leave the farm and everything on it. She took a secretarial course at a nearby junior college, then found a job in Sacramento. The boy, on the other hand, never left the farm and never wanted to. He was a Yup/Nope kind of guy, but his wife, children, and neighbors loved him deeply. His daughter became a large-animal vet, his son found a career in the service. He was survived by eight grandchildren.)

Vanda said...

I like your interpretation, Karin.