Between the Tigris and Euphrates

I'm back to my original mission of uploading old family photos. But I have no idea who this family is :)  I know that the old woman in the photo is my great-great-grandmother Josephine. Look how tiny she is!Little Sicilian woman. You know she was probably as tough as nails though. 

 She is the mother of my great-grandpa Charlie .  The other people, I don't know. I love the old baby carriage though. If I become rich and live in Manhattan, I'm going to get an old-fashioned stroller like this. I can just imagine pushing one of them through Central Park. Très adorable! I wouldn't want a nanny though. I'll take care of my own kids. I always see them in the subways --- au pairs taking their employers' kids everywhere. The mother probably doesn't even work. Damn rich people. Sorry, I tend to digress often.

Not sure of the year. So, I'm saying late 1930's or early 1940's. Probably taken at my great-great-grandparents house in Babylon, NY. 

Gangsters, Preemies, and Pygmies ...Oh my!

Here I thought that I would have to wait for next summer for True Blood season 4 to satiate my need to obsess over things, but HBO once again fulfills my needs with their new series 'Boardwalk Empire'. I already had an existing obsession with the 1920's, and although I'm not a huge gangster movie fan, with a show set during in Atlantic City during Prohibition, I am hooked by the opening credits.

I love the scenes on the Boardwalk with all the vintage ads and shops. In one scene, Nucky Thompson passes by a storefront that had preemies (prematurely born babies) on display, and for 25 cents admission one can go in and see them in incubators. This reminded me of an episode of 'History Detectives' (PBS) where a woman claims to be one of the babies displayed in incubators in the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. The baby incubator was invented around 1890, and before its use to help premature babies, these precious under-weight infants would usually die . As far as I can tell, babies have been displayed in incubators since the 1904 World's Fair (maybe even before that).

It is seems so strange (and maybe a little unethical) to have human beings on display, but at the turn of the last century their were many attractions that displayed human beings. There were the sideshow 'freaks' in the carnivals, and most famously Coney Island. In one of my favorite blogs 'Old Picture of the Day', one theme of the week was Coney Island. There the author put up old pictures taken from Coney Island's heyday. One of them was of a sideshow and another showed a display of native Filipinos. Boardwalk Empire actually touched upon this in a later episode. Apparently at this time, there were many exhibits like this around the world called 'human zoos'. In the same episode of the 'History Detectives' they mentioned a pygmie man named Ota Benga who lived at the Bronx Zoo in the monkey exhibit for a while before people were upset and sent him to live in an orphanage.

Crazy, crazy stuff

First Communion

This is my grandmother and her brother posing for their First Holy Communion ca. 1933.

Joseph and Charles

This lovely picture is of my great-grandfather Charlie (Right) and his father, Joseph. They're at Joseph's house in Babylon, NY. I'm not sure on the date, but it has to be from 1930's-early 1940's. (I'm leaning more towards 1930's though)

My great-great-grandpa looks like he can kick some serious butt, don't he?

Picket Fence Dreams

Here is a picture of my grandmother and her mother. I'm not exactly sure when this photo was taken, but my grandma looks about 3 or 4 years old in this picture, so I would say 1929-1931.

Flower Girl

Another wedding pic. This time my grandmother is the flower girl! Her brother is the ring bearer. The bride is my grandmother's paternal aunt. My grandmother looks around 4 years old in this photo, so I'm dating it 1930 (she was born in '26). The wedding dress still looks '20s-ish. My grandmother's dress was supposedly handmade by her mother (who was a seamstress).

Since I put a song for the other wedding pic :) 1930

Beach Babes

I love old beach photos! The progression of bathing-suit styles fascinate me. Not many men would be caught dead wearing a one-piece now.

My grandma is the little girl to the far left. The boy in the middle is her brother Joseph. I'm not sure of the exact year in which this was taken. My grandma was born in 1926 and in the photo she looks about 3 or 4 years old.... so possible late 1920s to early 1930s.

Prima Donna Nonna

This is a photo of my nanie when she was a little girl taken in the early to mid 1930's. I love how you can see the shadow of the person taking the photo. You can tell he is probably using a box camera (or something like it) from the position of his hands!