Alan Mays' photos

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of be a clown (clowns, people dressed as clowns, or people clowning around) . Banner (upper left): "8th Ward Camping Club." I haven't been able to determine where the Eighth Ward Camping Club was located or why its members were dressed up in clown costumes and other amusing getups. Considering that there's a fellow behind the group who's delivering a tray full of mugs filled with beer, I'm sure that they're enjoying themselves. See a cropped version of the photo for a closer look at the costumes. The type of Azo stamp box (with four corner triangles pointing up) printed on the other side of this photo postcard suggests a possible date that may be as early as 1904 to 1918.

A closer view of the Eighth Ward Camping Club's costumes. For more information, see the full version of the photo.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of bicycle or bicycles . This is an undated photo of a bicycle with training wheels. The bike is conveniently parked in someone's living room right between an RCA Victor television and a small table with a lamp.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of car plus woman (photo of a car with a woman standing near, sitting on, or draped upon it) . This is an undated photo of a woman posing with her family's automobile. It must have been a new car, since her whole family posed with it. I have three other photos showing the woman standing in front of the car, one with her husband, another with her son, and the third with her mother. The husband and the woman's mother also posed separately with the auto in two additional photos.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of distinctive houses . Caption: "The Hornberger Cottage, Central Oak Heights, West Milton , Pa." The Hornberger Cottage, originally called the Woodlawn Cottage when it was built in 1909, was purchased by Jerome Hornberger (1876-1936) in 1919. Central Oak Heights , located in Union County, Pennsylvania, originated in 1909 as a religious camp meeting affiliated with the United Evangelical Church but is now simply an association of cottage owners. The Hornberger Cottage was the "grandest of 62 frame homes built at Central Oak Heights," according to Jeannette Lasansky's book, Union County River Towns (Arcadia Publishing, 2011), p. 106. The cottage is notable for its wide porch on the first floor and balconies on the second and third levels. The porch and balconies were all later enclosed, as shown in a photo published in the booklet, Central Oak Heights, 100 Years, 1909—2009: Cottage Histories (PDF, 2009), p. 18. In this photo, we see that a man and six women are standing in front of the cottage or sitting on the porch. I found it strange that another woman is standing by herself on the second-floor balcony. A cropped version of the photo provides a closer look at the woman and reveals that she's wearing dark glasses, suggesting that she may be blind. After checking further, I believe that the woman on the balcony is Grace Hornberger (1899-2007), who was Jerome's daughter. Grace lived to the age of 108, but she became blind at the age of 18 due to unknown causes (see Karen Blackledge, " Area Woman, Blind Since Youth, Listens to Books ," an otherwise unidentified newspaper clipping from 1999 posted to Find a Grave).

A close-up view of the man and women outside the Hornberger Cottage, along with the woman with dark glasses standing by herself on the second-floor balcony. For more information, see the original version of the real photo postcard.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of kiddie pools (or a regular swimming pool if no kiddie pool) . Handwritten note on the other side of the photo: "Taking it easy in our back yard at Johnson Air Station , Japan, July 1962." A woman sits in a foldable aluminum webbed chaise lounge chair while her sons play in their kiddie pool. A bamboo fence surrounds the yard, and a Japanese wagasa umbrella provides some protection from the sun. On the right-hand side, the blurred face of a neighbor peers over the fence.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of bucket and spade/shovel and pail (beach) . This is a snapshot of a mother and her two children -- a girl and boy -- sitting on an unidentified beach. The little girl is holding a cup that she may be using to pour sand into the metal pail in front of her. The boy has a small shovel that he is using to dig sand to put into a plastic pitcher. The only clues to the location of the beach are the flags in front of the building in the background. I wasn't able to determine what the flag on the left might be, but the one on the right is the U.S. flag. I could see that the flag in the middle featured some sort of animal on a light background with a dark stripe along the bottom. After a bit of searching, I was able to identify it as the Bear Flag , which is the official California flag. See also a cropped version of the photo.

A mother and her children playing in the sand at an unidentified beach in California. For more information, see the full version of the photo.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of cuddle up a little closer (people embracing) . A man and a woman hold each other close as they pose for a photo in front of a painted backdrop that depicts a railroad observation car . See a cropped version for a close-up of the couple. This is an unused real photo postcard with no name, address, or message on the other side. The DOPS stamp box printed on the verso suggests that the card may date to between 1925 and 1942.

A real photo postcard of a man and woman on an "observation car." See also the full version of the photo.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of holding a doll . Notation on photo: "C. C. Kuhn. Photo.#716." A photo of two girls -- one standing and one seated -- posed on a piece of carpet among some shrubbery and potted plants. C. C. Kuhn ( Carl C. Kuhn , 1888-1948) was a well-known photographer who lived in Cashtown, Adams County, Pennsylvania, at the time he took this photo. This is an unused real photo postcard with an Azo stamp box design (four corner triangles pointing up) on the other side, which suggests a date that may be as early as 1904 to 1918. For a closer view of the girls and the doll, see a cropped version of the photo. For a close-up of the doll and Kuhn's name on the photo, see an even smaller detail .

A real photo postcard of two girls and a doll taken by photographer C. C. Kuhn. For more information, see the full version of the photo.

This detail from a real photo postcard by photographer C. C. Kuhn shows a doll and the way Kuhn added his name and a number to the photo. For more information, see the full version of the photo.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of flying . Photographer Cal Calvert (1875-1930) created an elaborate mockup of an airplane for customers at his studio in Portland, Oregon. In this example of a real photo postcard by Calvert, a man, two women, and three children are pretending to fly over the city of Portland. Mount Hood is visible in the background. The style of Cyko stamp box on the other side dates the card to sometime between 1904 and the 1920s. Banner on the front of the airplane: "The Rose City." Sign on the rudder at the back of the plane: "Seeing Portland." Printed on the other side of the postcard: "Cal Calvert, 10 Minute Postcard Man. City Park Gallery at the Washington St. Entrance, Portland, Oregon. Mazeograph Process." Handwritten note on the other side: "We had this taken for the children's sake. They are in the Catholic School now. Everything was settled May 2nd." For more examples of Calvert's photography, see Cal Calvert and His Airplane .

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of people holding balloons . "Disneyland, 1967" is written on the other side of this snapshot. A woman and a man pose for a photo while a man behind them holds balloons shaped like Mickey Mouse's head. A sign on the building in the background identifies it as the "Bank of America," which operated a branch on Main Street, U.S.A. , in the Disneyland theme park, Anaheim, California, from 1955 to 1992.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of weddings . This is an undated color photo of a bride and groom cutting into their three-tiered wedding cake. The bride is smiling as she poses for the camera, but the groom seems stoic and isn't paying any attention to the photographer. A framed print of grapes and other fruit hangs on the cinder-block wall in the background, and curtains with a colorful pattern are visible directly behind the bride. Crepe-paper streamers provide overhead decoration.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of birdbaths or other lawn ornaments . This is a real photo postcard with a handwritten date of "April 19, 1953" on the other side. When I purchased this photo, I noticed that the landscaping included a pink flamingo lawn ornament, concrete planters, a small trellis, a bench, rustic wooden chairs, and various trees and plants. The sign over the door of the small building identifies it as the "Office," and I thought that perhaps it was the office for a small motel or cabin court. But then I took a closer look at another sign on the right-hand side of the building, and I was surprised to discover that it says, "Burials $10.00 Up." The sign also lists specific hours of operation, which I couldn't decipher, and ends with "Other Times by Appointment." Could this be a cemetery? I don't see any gravestones, and the yard art -- especially the plastic pink flamingo -- isn't typical for decoration in a graveyard. See cropped views of the yard on the left-hand side and the building on the right .