Posts Tagged ‘1950’s’
Concrete Supply Company …
I do not know anything about Concrete Supply Company, I ran across these the other day and thought that they looked interesting. It must have been a huge operation with all of the trucks that they operated. These photos were made on August 24, 1956, or that was the date on the negative envelope. The construction business in Pensacola must have been booming during this time for this company to maintain and operate so many trucks. Here are a few more photos …
I have no idea where this business was located, but it sure took up a lot of property somewhere in Pensacola. If you have any information regarding this business or the concrete business in general, please feel free to share it with us. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
The Hardy Collection Negatives …
Several years ago, after I had culled through about eighty boxes or so of negatives that had been stored in a room off of my parent’s garage, I gave sixty boxes or so of negatives from the 1950’s and 60’s to what was then called The Pensacola Historical Society. They in turn went through all of them and put them in new glassine sleeves and envelopes. Personally, I can not believe all of the time that was spent on preserving all of these negatives. You are looking at five rows with around twelve legal sized boxes per row. These are from the 1950’s to the early 1960’s … maybe 1962. I think I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I did not have a photo of all of the negatives cataloged by year. I personally want to thank Jacquelyn Wilson for all of the time and effort she spent on undertaking this huge project … you are looking at easily over 100,000 negatives / images and this is just from twelve years or so. If anyone has any questions about any of these negatives, feel free to contact the Historic Trust ( their new name since they are now part of The University of West Florida ) in downtown Pensacola with any of your questions… 850-595-5840. They also have lots of archived images that you can look through and purchase for your own personal use. Sure is a lot more personal way to decorate your home, your office or whatever area you have that you want to decorate. I still have thousands of negatives and those are what I have selected to put here on this blog. You can also contact me and I can share with you what little I know … Thanks again for looking and please check back … Frank
Another Re-Worked Photo From The Past …
One more old Kodachrome image that I had scanned and put an over-lay texture over the image to give it more of an aged effect. I also like the texture that is created on the image, but some of this is lost when I re-size and reduce an image for the web. I wrote a post on my blog earlier today reminding my few readers that I also have this blog and to come over and check out the work that I have posted. I get ten times as many viewers on this blog as I do on my personal blog, but I just wanted to make my viewers aware of all that I have posted on this site. I have several things that I am working on for this site and one is adding a textured over-lay to some of the images that I thought might benefit from it. The other I will share with you later when I get some images completed.
The next two things are a couple of web sites that I recently just ran across … the first shows you a list of old images and the background is Google Maps and you over-lay the image over it. Here is a link to the site. Type in ” Pensacola Florida ” and go to downtown Pensacola, find the corner of Palafox and Main Street where the new Artisan Apartment building is being built and find the old photo of Pensacola Restaurant Supply and lay it over the corner to see what it looked like back in the 1970’s … pretty neat effect if you ask me. There is a list of of old buildings that you can do this to. I uploaded one of my old Sacred Heart Hospital image with the nuns out front, but it said that there was no Google street-level view for the block between DeSoto and Brainerd Streets, which I knew was wrong. Maybe I did something wrong, but go check it out. The other site is The Florida Past project and a link is here. I have not gone all through it but what little I did see was interesting. Contact me with any comments or questions and let me hear from you … Thanks for looking … Frank
PS – I title all of my images, for what it is worth, and the one above is ” Road To No Where ” or maybe it is ” Lonesome Road To No Where ” or it could be ” On The Road With The Drifting Cowboys “. Take your pick … not a car or a person in site. How many of you can remember that canvas water bag that traveler’s used to hang off of their radiator for when your car over-heated in the desert? And how about driving across the desert at night since it was too hot during the day? I can remember sitting in the back seat of this old Buick by myself with the window rolled down, staring out the window looking out at the stars when all of a sudden a UFO comes flying by … I can see them like it was yesterday … at least I thought it was a UFO and I was too young back then to even know what a UFO was back then. More on that later … Thanks for stopping by …
Re-Worked Images …
No … I have not been in jail … or the hospital … or have I died …. I have just been busy with other things over the past few weeks and have not been posting any images recently. One thing that I have been working on lately is re-working some of my images and putting a textured overlay on them. I am surprised at how much you can change the look and feel of an image by just adding some texture in Photoshop. The ” old-school ” way was to do it in printing on textured paper, but you were also very limited by the few printing papers that you could select or by running the finished print through a texture-creating machine. I have been doing some reading and found a technique that I that would be interesting and am starting to create some new images from old images. The image above of Pensacola Bay around 1950 is an image that I thought would lend itself well to texturing and I think that it succeeded. Also, a gift to my viewers, this image is an 8×10 full resolution sized file. So if you want to down-load the file ( right click and Save as … ) you can make a print to keep. Just call it an early Christmas gift. Most of all of the other images on this blog are sized for the web for easy loading and viewing … nothing bothers me more than having to wait minutes for images to load because the photographer was not considerate enough to resize the image or images. As usual, all comments are appreciated and welcomed. Please check back, because I forgot to mention that I have been doing some scanning a lot of new negatives. Thanks and please check back … Frank
Clubbs Junior High School …
The date ( I believe ) is 1956. Back then, schools used to put on these elaborate coronations and would crown a king and queen of the school. Clubbs Junior High School on 12th Avenue used to have a ” King and Queen of Clubbs ” and would also have a court. I would assume it was pretty much a popularity contest … the athletes and cheerleaders would make up half of court usually. I did not know this until I talked to a friend of mine whose sister just happened to have been elected the ” Queen of Clubbs ” a year or two after this coronation. By the time I was in junior high school in the mid-1960’s, these coronations were a thing of the past. At least they were at Wokman Junior High where I went. This event was held in the auditorium at Clubbs. By the time my friend’s sister was queen it had gotten so large, it was moved to the Municipal Auditorium in downtown Pensacola. I have several bags full of negatives that I will go through and post in the future. Here is the other view that I worked up …
This one still needs some more work, but it is passable for the internet / blog. It is not as sharp as I would like it to be. I do not remember what years the other years are and I will find the bags and look. If anyone out there happened to be in the audience at this year’s coronation, please share what you remember with us. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Logging Truck Accident …
This is one of the logging truck accident photos that I mentioned in my last post. The coloring and texture over-lay is my doing … don’t ask why. At the time II did this seven or eight months ago I thought that it looked sort of interesting, but now I do not know. I did not feel like re-doing the image and you still get the point and besides the photo of the ” Gulfarium ” sign in the background looks interesting. I just happened to run across this file as I was trying to clean-up my desktop … thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Happy Labor Day 2014 …
I ran across these negatives maybe ten years ago and thought that they were some what interesting, but I just never did anything with them. I really never had a reason for posting them and then yesterday, I ran across them again and thought that they be good for a Labor Day posting. So here they are. My father took these back in the mid – 1950’s in Flomaton, Alabama, which is just across the Florida Alabama line. The lettering on the door of the Ford truck reads ” Gulf & Southern Transportation ” and judging from the trailer they must be hauling lumber / wood. Timber is still a big industry in this area of southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. I know I have at least one post on this blog showing photos from a tractor trailer hauling trees accident on a road in this area. As usual, I know nothing about the truck driver in the photo, other than the fact that he is a hard working individual. Here are several more photos …
I made a mistake identifying the location of Gulf and Southern Transportation, I said that it was located in Flomaton and I should have said ” South ” Flomation. I honestly did not know that there was a South Flomaton. For those of you who have never before been to Flomaton. it is maybe three blocks long ( and that is being generous ), but I made an error and wanted to correct it. The one thing that I always remember about Flomaton is that’s where we would go and catch the train when we would go to visit my uncle in Chicago. After the railroad station in Pensacola was closed in the 1950’s ( see prior post ) and you wanted to travel anywhere by train, you would drive to Flomation and catch the train there at the train station. Well, that is all that I can think of to share with you about Flomaton today … if any one has any comments about trains, Flomaton, lumber or truck hauling, please share them with us. I wish everyone a safe and happy Labor Day … try not to work too hard today and please check back. Stay out of trouble … Frank
Hoffman Dance Group …
These images are from a dance group that my father used to photograph out at the auditorium at Pensacola Naval Air Station. He photographed this group for many years and I remember going out there with him when I was seven or eight. I remember walking up and down the halls looking at all of the military photographs on the walls. Nothing in particular other than how large and deserted the place was when I was out there. I ran across these negatives recently and they were in fairly good shape and did not look like they would take me too long to get them ready to post. There were quite a few negatives in the envelope, so I just randomly found six to clean-up and post. I am not going to make any comments about any of them, so here it goes …
The negative envelope said ” 1956 ” on it, but I am not sure about that date. If it was 1956, I would have only been three and this would have been too young for me to have gone. However, this was something that he could have photographed for many years and I did not go until later. I do remember this fairly well and I am pretty sure that I went with him for several years a kid. I would imagine that these children’s fathers were in the military or they worked out at the Naval Air Depot on base. If anyone sees these photos and know anything about this ” Hoffman Dance Group “, please let us hear from you. I am interested personally about who Ms. Hoffman is and how long that she had these dance recitals out on the base. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Several More Pitchers For The Dons …
As usual, I do not have a name for this player, but I am just impressed with the intensity that this pitcher is throwing with for a photographer to take a picture. Also, notice how sharp the fence in the backfield is the photograph. You can read all of the business names very easily … Hill-Kelly Dodge, National Laundry, Fisher-Brown Insurance, W.B. Wood Appliances, etc. I have one other pitcher that I have cleaned-up a little to post …
This guy is throwing with some power, also. I hope that they looked this intense in a real game as they did when my father was taking their photographs. I mentioned in an earlier post that I am interested in seeing if anyone out there might a color photo of the team showing their uniforms and if anyone happened to have shot some footage with a movie camera at any of their games. If anyone ever runs across any of the two, please contact me through this blog. Thanks for looking and if anyone out there recognizes either of these two players, please let me know and if you have any comments let mu hear them … Frank
A Few More From The Dons File …
These two images are ones that I found in my files from the Dons, but neither one have anything to do with the baseball team. The photo above is the secretary / office manager / business manager … I guess she was the one that kept the wheels on the truck for the Dons. Notice the bare concrete block walls in the office. I do not believe that sheet rock was used in the construction industry until the late 1960’s or even the 1970’s. I know that most houses built in the late 1950’s used a type of plaster over plywood on room walls. If anyone is familiar with the construction industry in the 1950’s and 1960’s could tell us about the plaster walls and tell us when sheet rock started being used. The photo envelopes in the right hand corner was the type of photo mailers used back in the 50’s. I have one or two of these laying around, but I know I have not seen one used in thirty five years or so. The photo below is one that was from the body building contest photos that I forgot to include. I do not know who these guys are, but they look vaguely familiar … I am sure some one out there will recognize one of these guys.
One more thing, if anyone out there has a color photograph showing a player or the team, I would be interested in seeing the photo. All of the photos that I have of the team are all black and whites. I am interested in seeing what color the Dons team logo is on the player’s uniforms. Also, if anyone ever runs across a home movie made at one the Dons games, please let me hear from you. It is funny that there can not be any film shot during a Dons game that is lying around in someone’s file cabinet On the other hand, I do not think that the home movie business started until the 60’s. You had color transparency film back in the 1950’s and a little in the 1940’s, however it was used mostly by the military and the magazine photographers. Color film for the general consumer was not available until the 1960’s and I wanted to say mid-1960’s before it became common place.
Well, that is all I have for this post. Let me hear from hear if you come across any color movie film or color photographs on the Dons. I hope everyone has a safe Fourth of July. It is hard to believe that 2014 is half over and that Christmas is just around the corner. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Frank Hardy Made My Photographs Two 
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