Sepia Saturday

I'm posting at Sepia Saturday today.

I am going with the suggestion of three men.

Three transplanted Dubliners.
I know that this is Montreal around the early 1960s. My Dad, Jack, is the handsome man in the middle. On the right is my Uncle Brendan O'Shea, married to my Mom's sister Nellie. On the left, with the glasses (X 2), is Jim O'Connell, married to my Mom's youngest sister, Ursula.
Whose house this is? I can't figure out, nothing is familiar to me. I can guess it is probably the O'Shea's, and it might be on Durocher St. or else where they moved after Durocher.
I will have to ask my aunt.
Dad has his suit jacket on, but the other two are in shirt sleeves, rolled up.

Sepia Saturday

I'm posting at Sepia Saturday today.

Today's theme is:

249 : Coach rides,old transport, animated discussion, cab drivers

The first modes of transportation that came to my mind were these of my sister at an amusement park.

They appear to be at different times as one is in colour. The best guess at location is Belmont Park in Montreal in the very early 60s.

Then I found one of her on a horse in Dublin Ireland in 1960.

Sepia Saturday - Aug 30

I'm posting at Sepia Saturday today.

Today's theme is:

243 : Running away, escaping the crowds, beaches, steam train, aquarium (domed)

Around 1960 - Montreal Quebec

It's not a steam train but it's best train I could come up with!!!

My Uncle Brendan, cousin Brendan and my sister.

This is Van Horne Park and we lived on the street in the background, de la Peltrie.

William made a comment that play grounds have really changed over the years. Now everything is made of plastic. There are often rubber mats on the ground.

Everything here is made of metal and cement! I remember hot hot the metal would get in the summer. You could have your bum backside scalded coming down the metal slide.

Then there were the teeter totters! Or see-saws as they were also called. What could be dangerous about a wooden plank balanced on a pivot, we would load two or three kids on one side and a smaller innocent on the other, then all jump off in unison.

I remember the money bars and my sister climbing to the top and falling down making her nose bleed. My grandmother was watching us and was horrified. 

Monkey bars or jungle gyms are being removed from parks in many cities.

Image below from A Simpler Time blog.

Sepia Saturday Aug 23

I'm posting at Sepia Saturday today.

Today's theme is:

242 : Fans, Faces, national Costumes, Hidden Meanings

Look at these faces!! And in national costumes!! Taken in Dublin Ireland.

The two girls on the left are Mc Guinness cousins, Brenda and Susan, two of my Dad's sister's children. Every little girl in Ireland took dancing lessons back in the early 60s.

Click here for more photos of them both.

Sepia Saturday Aug 16

I'm posting at Sepia Saturday today.

Today's theme is:

241 : Writing and Letters

August 16 was my Dad's birthday.

 He spent time working in Manitoba, I had posted about this here.

While he was there he was very homesick and missed my Mom, my sister and me. He wrote great letters to my mother which she kept. Unfortunately none of her responses have survived. 

This is very appropriate based on the sign in the prompt above: REMEMBER TO WRITE THAT LETTER HOME!

Sepia Saturday Aug 9

I'm posting at Sepia Saturday today.

Today's theme is:

240 : Criminals, ID Photos, Named Photos, False Pretences

Ar first I was stumped with this topic, then I had a *light bulb* moment! I reread the prompts and *facepalm* I had scanned all the papers my mother had kept in the old brown suitcase.

My Dad was an electrician. That might explain why my Mom was always on his case about extra plugs. I especially remember her frustration at Christmas time when she couldn't put the tree where she wanted it!!

When we emigrated to Canada in 1957 Dad had to be re-certified so he could work in Quebec. 

Sepia Saturday - Jan 11

I'm posting at Sepia Saturday today. This week's challenge:

210 : Now search your books and find those old photographs

We/I don't have any photos hidden in books. I am now the keeper of the old photos and they are all in one place and also scanned. 

Also since we are away from home for the winter I don't have any access to possibilities like our childhood bible.
However my mother had this box she had made many, many years ago from old birthday cards which held pieces of jewelry.

Therefore I went with the theme of a "book" itself for this week.

I've always been a voracious reader. As a child I loved going to the library and read my way through all those children classics, such as Nancy Drew, Five Little Peppers, Trixie Belden to name a few. I loved the series of autobiographies the library carried telling the stories of famous women.

My parents were more than happy to buy us books as well.

Obviously I would read anywhere! I can't quite place where this is, other than it is in Montreal in the very early 60s.

Sepia Saturday - Oct 12

I'm posting at Sepia Saturday today.

198 : It is 100 years since HMS Queen Elizabeth was launched at Portsmouth. Whilst this is not the Queen Elizabeth, it matters not, because in SS 198 we celebrate the start of something new. It might be a life, it might be a love, it might be a a new chicken coop or it might be a mighty ocean liner.

I'm going to go with a new life. My mother is holding one of my cousins, I'm guessing Gregory as she was his godmother, if I remember correctly. On the left is his mother, my mother's sister and the man is their father, my grandfather.

This is in Montreal October 1960 and the church was likely St. Roch as they lived in Park Extension.

Sepia Saturday - Oct 5

I'm posting at Sepia Saturday today.

197 : We have all taken photos that are, shall we say, less than perfect. We celebrate these in SS 197 : the pointless photos, the blurred photos, the photos that would have been better left unprinted. But sometimes they tell a powerful story all on their own.

This is going to be an easy challenge to find a photo that would have been better left unprinted...my parents took photos (not a lot)  but more times than you can imagine heads were chopped off!!

I am guessing this is Montreal around 1960.

This wasn't taken by either of my parents as they are both in the photo along with my sister, my cousin and an aunt and uncle. I would guess that the photo was taken by my cousin's Dad. Maybe I took it, but not likely that I would have been allowed to touch a camera.

What is my cousin saying? What is my uncle doing on the left, at first I thought he was blowing up balloons but now I wonder if he was lighting a cigarette. It is amazing to see my aunt smoking.

What are those two tiny pictures doing on that big expanse of wall???? We must be visiting one of my aunts as this is not our house.

Sepia Saturday

Challenge and image source from Sepia Saturday.

These Madrid street kids are upside down, the wrong way up, and all over the place. That's what happens when you place kids next to the slightest excuse for a piece of acrobatic equipment. So for Sepia Saturday 177 - post your posts on or around Saturday 18th May 2013 - we want you to search out your old photos of kids, or acrobats, or people who are upside down or the wrong way around .... or whatever. This 1908 photograph comes from the George Eastman Collection which has been made available by the wonderful Flickr Commons initiative.

My sister, cousin and myself on the swings in Van Horne Park in Montreal around 1960. That is my pregnant aunt sitting on the bench partially obscured by the tree. Love the car!!

We were living on de la Peltrie at the time, the street behind the swings. The house number would have been around 5100. These are typical Montreal duplexes defined as 4 1/2 or 51/2 rooms, the half being the bathroom. This is very different than the way properties are described in Toronto. Nowadays a lower apartment would rent for $850 a month!!

Construction of the Decarie Autoroute was not begun until 1964 and is a sunken highway which caused the collapse of many businesses along the original Decarie Blvd. a story for another day.

Sepia Saturday

I'm posting at Sepia Saturday today.

The suggested theme:

168 : Nominated by Sepian John Newmark, this photograph of the Potsdam Conference could make you think of meetings, round tables, famous events, photographers being photographed or almost anything else.

I couldn't find a round table but they certainly look like they are having a meeting!! And I can throw in a famous event as well!

My mom and aunt are at the head of the table, my uncle on the right and the couple on the left are Australian friends, Kevin and Jean, we (my parents) met while living in Baie Comeau Quebec. My aunt and uncle were visiting from Montreal.

Uncle Kevin and Aunty Jean would become the parents of Julianne McNamara the American gymnast. 
She won the 1980 US all-around title and earned a spot on the Olympic team that boycotted the Moscow Games.

That's Mom's writing July 1960.