Is this from the Vincent Mancini / Mary Corleone era?

Looks like mouth-to-mouth gnocchi making to me.

Who knew you were such a playah!!!! Is she the one that got away?

Gina, those were great pics. I guess now we can just get a mental picture of what you look like through your ancestors.

Yes, they had kindergarten back then.

No, not much has changed. I still look as pissed off.

These pics are all so fantastic!! It's so nice to see that you all have these hanging around, and treasure them all.

SC, I know what you mean. I look at my wedding photos, and many of the people are gone now, my aunt, all my uncles, my dad, Mr. Babe's aunt and grandparents. It's strange to see them captured on film, isn't it??

Sollozzo was too late when he told Geoff not to lose that famous temper of his.

Are you sure we're not related Gina? This could have been any of my uncles.

Gina,

What absolutely beautiful pictures. Yet another beautiful wedding gown your mom is wearing. I love the gangster pic of your grandfather. What a great sense of humor hu?

And Geoff and SV, you guys are so adorable.

TIS

Here are a bunch of photos from the mid-1940s, and there is an interesting story behind them.

My mother and her three girlfriends were very intelligent, independent single women. In 1945 (I'm pretty sure that was the year), the four of them decided to hitch-hike around the US. With their backpacks and canteens, they hit the open road. They took a lot of photographs - unfortunately none of the pictures have any identification on them! A few were obvious, but most were not. I do know that at some point they ended up on the campus of Notre Dame. The pictures are rather small, so it may be hard to make out the detail. (My scanner can't do high-resolution images.) Here are two photographs to start with; I'll add whatever information I can.

Cast of Characters:

Mom, who would have been around 24 at the time.
Gloria, my mothers best friend. Grew up across the street from my mother. Gloria was around 23.
Estelle, Gloria's younger sister. She was around 21.
Sabine, one of my mother's closest friends. I believe she was around 23.

The two photos:

Top: Thumbs up! L. to R.: Sabine, Estelle, my mom (who only stood around 4'9" - if she wore heels.) My mother wrote on the back, "This is how we got places - didn't do badly either!!"

Bottom: Standing: Gloria, my mom. Sitting: Sabine, Estelle.

They were 4 very brave women. Did your mom ever share experiences with you from those days? These days you'd be taking your life in your hands.

They sure were brave. Talk about Women's Lib before it's time. I'd would have loved to hear their experiences.


TIS

Here is the second installment:

Top: My mom wrote on the back, "After a while, couldn't carry the knapsack on my back, sooo -"

Bottom: Backpackin' Babes. The sign says Yuengling Beer - maybe they're discussing splitting a keg? (Probably not.)

She's so beautiful, GG. I know it's difficult for you to have not known them - but they look so happy together, and so in love. I know they would have really liked you.


'Don't you hear my call
Though you're many years away
Don't you hear me calling you
Write your letters in the sand
For the day Ill take your hand
In the land that our grand-children knew..'

I knew she had hitched around the country with her girlfriends, but I really didn't know much in the way of details. She did tell me that times were very different in those days. Still, I can't imagine that she or her friends would have done anything dangerous - they were probably very careful who they rode with. And while they were happy-go-lucky, fun loving people, I know for a fact they all "kept their honor" until they were married.

I only wish my mother had wrtten something on the pictures about where they were taken. That's why I can't readily identify many of the places in the photos.

The pictures were kept in three very small photo albums, which I didn't discover until after her death. Of course, now I wish I had sat down with her and heard all the stories about her travels.

Signor V.

That last pic of your mom SV is so adorable.

My daughter is now going through all our albums and finding old pictures of her and her cousins and posting them on myspace. My oldest nephew is 30 and his friend has Nicole post pictures of him around 2 and 10. She's now his hero..haha.

Although I haven't posted yet (scanner problem), I feel like this thread is helping me get to know everyone that much better.

For instance, who knew that Signor V was such a little ladies man, down on Miami Beach?

Nothing like a little cousin lovin', eh, Signor V?

You should've offered her a tuna sandwich, you'd have a two headed child this very day.

Next installment:

Top: Roll out the barrels! While Estelle (l.) and Sabine (r.) take the high road on the back of a large truck, my mother stands in the foreground.

Bottom: Wish I had more information about this one, but here is what I can make out: the numbers on the left front of the store say 1845, and the numbers on the right say 1945. Right above the main entrance the letters spell out "One Hundred Years Ago". Over the entrance is a large display of a man and a woman (she is wearing a large hoop-skirt) toward the right, and there is a horse-drawn carriage with driver in front of some old-time storefront facades. On the faux store, barely visible behind the carriage, is possibly the name "Smith & Morgan".

Keep them coming SV. I'm loving it!!! I'm waiting for Turnbull to post with locations of all of these pictures..haha.

I have to say... This is one of the best threads ever. The pictures that all of you have been posting have been great.

I sadly don't have access to any pictures of my family from the GF era. I barely have any of my own baby pictures!

Awww...

My mother was very tiny, and struggled with a seesawing weight problem for nearly all her life. Looking at pictures of her over the years, there are times when she was (to me) barely recognizable. She had it rough, there. My father had problems with his weight, but they were not quite as drastic as my mother's.

But back in the 1940s, she was probably at her healthiest. She didn't pick up her first cigarette until she was 28. She was very active at that point in her life.

Signor V.

Very nice, SV.

Cool pix and stories, SV.... its just too bad you don't have more details.

To make a guess at some locations: the Yuengling Beer you pointed out in one of the pix was a locally brewed beer in Pennsylvania (and PROBABLY not sold much beyond PA); with that in mind, and guessing that the Department Store pic is from a fairly big town I'd say it was Pittsburgh - the 1845 reference could be noting when the area was rebuilt after a big fire.

I've just realized, by carefully examining some unposted pictures with a magnifying glass, that it would appear my mom and her friends actually went to Canada! (Who knew?) So, there is a good chance that is where many of these photos were taken.

Here are two more:

Top: A delivery at a produce market. On the right, a truck has backed up to unload its goods. In the foreground are wooden crates with bunches of carrots resting on them.

Bottom: A horse and buggy waits at curbside. At the top of the picture, a fragment of a sign is visible that says "Baths". It may have been a small hotel. Across the street, the sign says "L.L.A. Bertrand", and this was probably a bar. Up the steps and over the doors, a sign says "Beer" along with a couple of other illegible words. To the right, a sign just above the street-level windows (on the light-colored building) says "Tourists".

Well, as was posted earlier, I'm half expecting that between you and Turnbull I'll find out more about the pictures than I ever thought possible!

I wish I knew more about their trip. I do know now that at some point they went to Canada. I also remember my mother telling me that she traveled "around the country" (as she put it) with her girlfriends on more than one occasion.

Signor V.

SV, you have been posting some great pic's. It's nice seeing the BB member's family. Hopefully I can get Becky to bring my old pic's to the BB convention.

Great pic's everybody!!!

The department store is Smith and Morgan's, on Notre Dame Street in Montreal. It was founded by Socts immigrants David Smith and Henry Morgan in 1845, which accounts for the centennial hoopla.

Are you forking kidding me?

So, that's who opened the drapes!
The car looks like a '55 Ford.