Saturday, October 15, 2016

Sepia Saturday: High Flying

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.



This month Sepia Saturday is all about travel to and fro. Since I’ve touched on trains and automobiles, let’s move on to airplanes. The planes in my photos were probably not used for pleasurable travel, however.
 
Unknown school children on a class trip https://jollettetc.blogspot.com
Melly, is that our precious Scarlett kneeling in the front row?
This photo seems to be of a class trip to somewhere, but where and why are a mystery. My grandaunt Violetta Davis Ryan taught only in the Shenandoah Valley where the airport was just small and unimpressive, hardly a field trip destination. Perhaps the class was led by my grandaunt Velma Davis Woodring who taught in the American school in Japan and later Korea.  The greater mystery, though, is what Scarlett O’Hara is doing with this class. Oh, fiddle dee dee. I’ll think about that tomorrow.

My granduncle Ray Rucker was a sailor assigned to the USS Colorado in the early 1920s. The ship carried Corsair sea planes for scouting and reconnaissance.

Ray Rucker's photo of seaplane on USS Colorado 1920s https://jollettetc.blogspot.com

Ray Rucker's photo of seaplane on USS Colorado 1920s https://jollettetc.blogspot.com

Sailor walking on biplane wing USS Colorado 1920s https://jollettetc.blogspot.com
Sailor walking on the wings of the float plane














The following two photos of bomber planes are just small professionally produced photo cards. Each one is about 1.5” x 2”. They were among the photos that Ray saved from his days in the Navy.

Souvenir photos belonging to Ray Rucker 1920s https://jollettetc.blogspot.com


Fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride to Sepia Saturday.

Wendy
© 2016, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

18 comments:

  1. How interesting if it was a class trip with the air plane. Certainly better travel than any of the class trips I took!

    betty

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    1. Oops - didn't mean to imply the class traveled by plane. I am wondering if the airplane was on display somewhere that the class visited.

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  2. I think you will take the prize for originality, as I imagine few of us will have vintage photographs of aeroplanes. A fascinating glimpse!

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    1. I will be surprised if I'm the only one with planes this month.

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  3. Hi Wendy, I always enjoy reading your posts and seeing the lovely pictures you share which transports me back in time.

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    1. Thanks so much, Rachna. I've been keeping up with your writing career too!

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  4. I'm guessing Scarlett is the one in the hat. Oh my! That is a real mix of people there, and I wonder if they all would even fit in that plane! I wanted to do aircraft also, but don't have any vintage planes like this...so my hat's off to you!

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    1. Yes, that woman in the big hat reminded me of one of Scarlett's outfits. She doesn't look quite like the others in the photo.

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  5. Great pictures, and the Scarlett O'Hara remark was perfect! Gave me a good chuckle. :)

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    1. Good - always nice to have company in my little world.

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  6. Is Scarlett the little girl 3rd from left?

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    1. Oh goodness, Jo. I guess that movie reference doesn't translate in Australia. "Scarlett" is the lady in the big hat. Scarlett O'Hara is a character in "Gone With the Wind," a classic American novel and movie set during our Civil War (1860-65).

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  7. Wow, these are great pictures. I don't think I have one photo of an airplane in all of my vintage photos, but then again I still have 2,000 negatives to scan, so you never know.

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    1. I expect you will outshine me as soon as you get through all those scrapbooks and negatives.

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  8. A fine collection and the remark about Scarlett made me enlarge the shot and look more closely. I agree it looks like a class trip - perhaps ’Scarlett’ had a very pale skin and just suffered from the sun.

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    1. I suppose you are right about the pale skin. People seemed more concerned about those things in "olden times," but we are getting more cautious again.

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  9. When my dad was a young man, he took flying lessons and then he and his buddy bought an airplane. What I would give for a picture of that airplane! I can't imagine a class going on a plane but that is certainly what it appears to be!

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  10. Scarlett is the name of my dog. Black silky hair and a flighty temperament. No hat though.

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