Saturday, September 17, 2011

Sepia Saturday - Family Travels

For this week's Sepia Saturday, the theme of travel or place was a welcome suggestion. When deciding which photos to post, a family pattern emerged. It turns out that one side of my family has been very travel savvy over the generations, while the other side was full of home bodies. The photo to the left is typical of my mother's side of the family. Kentucky farmers who loved posing with the cars, but hated traveling very far away. These two young men (Roy Watts and Bill Beyersdoerfer - brothers-in-law) were quite the road devils in the 1930s. They loved racing around the curving hillsides of Pendleton County Kentucky and "driving up closely to the bumper of an old couple's car to honk" their horn for a good laugh. Throughout the rest of their lives, they maintained this close relationship to each other and the roads. Roy remained addicted to taking leisurely Sunday drives, just to "go" somewhere and view his neighbors crops, while Bill complained of the slowness of "old" drivers when he was in his advanced 80s. I can imagine these two still racing the roads of heaven together as they did when first forming their friendship so long ago. The remaining images are a sampling of family travels from my father's side of the family.
The woman on the right is my great grandmother, Ruth Elizabeth Schilling Daniels. I have no idea where this is or whether these ladies went up in the plane, but Ruth was from the Ohio/Indiana areas, so that will have to be our default location for the time being.
Here is another photo from the Klondike Gold Rush collection. Someone on the Daniels/Schilling side of the family must  have been enormously adventurous to travel this great distance for the small possibility of finding gold! This mode of travel in that area is also the subject of another interesting point of trivia. These boats were often dissected once arriving at their location to provide building material for the shacks that housed the miners.
Grandpa Charles Daniels traveled extensively while serving in the military. He not only served in both the Pacific and European theatres during WWII, but took his entire family with him to live in France while he was stationed there during the Korean War. This is a view of his corner of Paris during WWII.
Grandpa Charles, celebrating the end of WWII in Marseilles, France (Front right) - would love to have tasted that bottle of French Champagne!
A piece of travel ephemera from Charles' collection - his ship assignment from 1943.

Before and after the war, Charles worked for the Cincinnati Union Terminal. Perhaps working along-side so many travelers kept his travel bug strong and active. The photos above and below were taken after his retirement from railroad work, and at a time when the fate of the Terminal was very precarious. For another Sepia Saturday post about the terminal, please see the Lincoln Park blog post.
That about wraps it up for the older travel photos. Charles and Bessie were some of our biggest travelers. They spent their retirement years travelling to Hawaii, several other states, and down the Mississippi on the Delta Queen - so many times I cannot count. In turn, their children and grandchildren have taken on the tradition of globe trotting like travel pros. Me, I'm a bit more middle of the road: have not travelled too far, but can be happy either way. I love a good trip, but enjoy being a home body as well.
Safe and happy travels everyone!
C

9 comments:

Christine H. said...

I absolutely love the photo of Grandpa Charles holding a stogie (?) on the tracks with Cincinnati union Terminal in the background. What a delight.

Alan Burnett said...

A fabulous collection of images - a delight to read and to look at.

Bob Scotney said...

Grandpa Charles got about a bit as shown by your delightful photos. Interesting to see another link to that Art Deco Cincinnati terminal.

Little Nell said...

A wonderful collection, and I particularly like your pen-portraits of the two men.

Brett Payne said...

What an interesting and varied collection of travel-related images. I wonder if that boat on Hess Creek housed a gold dredge? I particularly like that last image of Charles sitting at the end of the train observation car - the colours have a great quality to them, and the steam gives it a sense of something about to happen.

Tattered and Lost said...

I'm imagining a barnstormer landed in a field, all dashing with his white silk scarf blowing in the breeze, and the ladies couldn't resist. I like how they're both carrying purses out in the field.

What's even more interesting is there is another plane behind this plane. And off in this distance is some sort of signage or something. Two barnstormers or a really early airport?

Postcardy said...

You have an interesting collection of family photos. My favorite is the one with the plane. The last one with the observation platform would have been perfect last week too.

Liz Stratton said...

I couldn't help but think of the movie, Secondhand Lions, when I read your description of Roy and Bill. I'm not quite sure if it was the photo that evoked the memory or the sight of both of them on the tailgate. My favorite if the one of Marseilles. It clearly captures the emotions that I have so often heard described by those who fought in WWII.

Thanks for the trip!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the kind words everyone....the 2 color favs of Charles at the end are from my Dad's collection. He was a professional photographer back in the day, but took most with the large color slides - which accounts for the last slide and its wonderful color.

The plane comment is interesting - I hadn't seen the other plane back there - good catch! And an interesting vision about the silk scarves and pilots - that great grandmother of mine was apparently a bit of a wild child - so I am not surprised she would go chasing after a fly-boy moment!

BTW, if any of you happen to be in Cincy for the NGS next year and have never seen Union Terminal - it should not be missed - photos cannot do it justice!

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