YOU CAN’T UNRING A BELL By Joyce Ray Wheeler (b. January 4, 1926- d. November 1 2012) Stuck between pages of my Bible is a torn page from a legal pad on which I had written hurriedly these words. “When a thing is done, it’s done. You can’t un-ring a bell.” These words are not […]
This steam engine train ride in San Francisco in 1901 must have been thrilling! The film is photographed from the front of a moving steam engine and it shows the scenic portion of the Ferries and Cliff House Railroad route along the bluffs and cliffs of Lands End (at the northwest corner of San Francisco) […]
You can see the Formica table tops, tail fins on cars, gigantic household appliances, supermarkets, beehive hairstyles and a thousand and one other visual manifestations of that era! From 1950s maternity clothes, outdoor shopping centers, red-checkered picnic tables, carpet sweeper; roller coasters to a child eating cake batter off of electric mixer blades: it is all included in […]
(I imagine there were many deaths from just breathing this air for so many years.) Where would you go if you saw this coming toward you? Dust bowl refugee from Chickasaw, Oklahoma. Imperial Valley, California. “Black Sunday, 1934, that was the awfullest dust we ever did see” photographer Dorothea Lange Abandoned farm of the […]
After the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, help arrived in 1906. This film, made by Thomas A. Edison Company highlights the role of the United States Army in transporting supplies following the 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco. The Army’s relief operations headquarters was at their base, the Presidio, outside the burned part of the […]
The filming of major news events was new when the San Francisco earthquake occurred in 1906. These rare films give a glimpse of life before and after the quake. This film was take May 9, 1906, less than a month after the Great Earthquake occurred in April 18, 1906. The location is Market and Mission […]
I remember by Joyce Ray Wheeler “I remember, I remember the house where I was born.” This is the first line of a poem Mrs. Iva Butram had her fourth graders memorize at Rocky Hill School in 1935. Yes, I do remember “the house where I was born.” It stood in the middle of little […]
I recently ran across an article with the photographs above that stated it was legal to mail children through the mail until 1913. and a reader validated the article somewhat when he wrote a story about traveling with the mailman to his grandparents in “Sand Mountain Memories,” on Alabama Pioneers. I found it hard to […]
The Paris Exposition was a world’s fair held in Paris, France from April 15 to November 12, 1900 and the film below brings the event to life. Thomas Edison Attended It celebrated achievements of the past century and of course Thomas Edison attended. He had only recently invented the mobile motion picture camera and these […]
This was filmed amazingly only four days before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Take a trip down Market Street on April 14th, 1906. Talk about a traffic nightmare. Cars were such a new invention there were no lanes or traffic signals. See more of the aftermath of the earthquake Historical books by Donna R. Causey Three […]
