One More From Modesto …
Here is one more for my friends out in Modesto … I cannot tell you how many hits I get on this site from people out in Modesto, but it is quite a few. My father never mentioned about traveling through Modesto on his trips out to LA to visit his sister back in the 1950’s. If I was on these trips, I would have only been between the ages of 2 and 5. I know that he took several trips to Yosemite and I guess that Modesto must be somewhere between there and Los Angeles. I do not know if this sign still exists out in Modesto now, it looks as if it would be too low for trucks to pass under. I have found several new negatives from this area that I will post in the near future … and I thought that I had run out of Modesto negatives! Thanks for everyone’s comments and as always, thanks for looking …
UPDATE: I did some work on this photo and sharpened another image up a good bit. The lettering on the sign reads: ” Water Wealth Contentment Health ” . I also noticed that the car’s tag in front of my parent’s car reads” 9D 16890″. Years ago, the Florida state license tag identified what county that the car was registered in. The “9” meant that the car was registered in Escambia County, which happened to be the 9th most populated county in the state at that time. A tag that started with “1” meant that the car was from Miami or Dade County. I think that Santa Rosa was somewhere around “33”, but I believe that only the first ten counties were identified by population and from “11” on they were alphabetic. At first I thought that my father had made this photo because of the sign, but it could have been something simple like just seeing this car registered in Escambia County out in Modesto California. I am sorry that the Internet does not show how sharp these images actually are … someday I will have to try to put on a show so everyone can see the finished prints. Thanks again … Frank
Frank Hardy Made My Photographs Two 
Hi – I am a Modesto resident and I loooove that I just stumbled upon these photos!!! So funny that you found some random photos and didn’t think you’d get such a response back. Thank you for sharing these!
LikeLike
Lana Wilkerson
February 17, 2018 at 10:24 pm
My father never mentioned going through Modesto while he was alive, but I knew that he made a few trips out to California from Florida in the forties and early fifties before I was born. He had a sister that lived in LA and was a nurse at Caesars Sinai Hospital, so he would drive out and visit. Wis I knew more that I could share. I have gotten a lot of comments about those Modesto photos, in fact for a while most of my comments were for the Modesto images. Thanks for commenting and anything else that you remember, please share … Frank
LikeLike
Frank Hardy
April 3, 2018 at 6:34 pm
The quotation is actually “Water Wealth, Contentment, Health”…meaning through the wealth of water comes contentment and health. Modesto sits squarely in the center of California’s central valley and at the hub of agriculture – water was very important for irrigation. If you dad visited Yosemite, he would have taken Hwy 132 from Hwy 99.Great pictures – thanks for sharing!
LikeLike
Lisa Price
July 7, 2013 at 2:38 am
Thanks for sharing that with us … I did not find any of these negatives until after my father died and he never talked about any places he visited on his trips out West to visit his sister. I have been surprised to have gotten so many comments on these Modesto photographs. In fact, I would say that all of the comments that I have received, the majority have been from people viewing these Modesto images. Thanks again and please check back … Frank
LikeLike
Frank Hardy
July 7, 2013 at 11:54 am
The ‘Modesto Arch’ is at the intersection of ‘I’ St and 9th. Turning left on 9th Street would put you on Route-132 which is named Yosemite Boulevard farther east and leads to the national park with the same name. The arch originally spanned 9th Street but was moved to cross ‘I’ Street (as oriented in your picture) to allow for the higher volume of traffic on the widened 9th.
The shoulder patch of the Modesto Police Department prominently displays the arch and the city motto: ‘Water, Wealth, Contentment, Health’.
Other cities with similar arches include: Fresno, Bakersfield, Reno and Lodi to name a couple. What caused this trend of building arches is a mystery to me.
Here’s a link to the ‘Modesto Arch Restoration’ project and 100th birthday:
https://www.facebook.com/savethemodestoarch
Thanks for posting your father’s great pictures.
LikeLike
Former Modestan
October 19, 2012 at 5:47 pm
Thanks for the comment. Like I said in an earlier post, I cannot believe how many posts and comments that this blog has received from people that either live in Modesto, used to live in Modesto or just have seen the photos about Modesto. I just cannot believe the positive responses that I have received about Modesto. And the funny thing to me is that my father never mentioned anything about traveling through this area when he was alive. All I knew was that he had taken a number of trips out west to visit his sister in either LA or Denver in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Then when I was born in 1953, I can vaguely remember traveling out West by automobile 3 or 4 times to visit her. I have found a few more photos from his trips out west and I have been working to clean them up, so I will put them up in the next few weeks. Thanks again for commenting … Frank
LikeLike
Frank Hardy
October 19, 2012 at 8:21 pm
It’s 2012, and that sign is stillll there.
LikeLike
Jennifer
July 2, 2012 at 4:00 am
I would be interested in seeing what it looks like today, so I will Google it later. Thanks for the comment …
LikeLike
Frank Hardy
July 2, 2012 at 9:06 am