Posted 13 years ago
walksoftly
(167 items)
I believe these pictures are of an Uncle that lived in Mission B C, he never married. I wonder if he had the photo's taken to send to a sweetheart, the first image is a very unusual pose for the era.
Can anyone come up with a better story?
What a great photo ! His face says I am lonesome so one could guess it was to a sweetheart :-)
Thanks for the Love toolate, oilman, & bratjdd.
Thanks for the love & the comment Mani. Why is it that we feel so compelled to put old photo's into context?
Thanks for the love & the comment Bellin.
The strange part about pic #1 is that he is holding a sheaf of Oats, not flowers & he wasn't a farmer he was a carpenter & owned timber property.
looks like uncle joe got dumped and flowers didnt work
I like that, thanks Phil for the lovely comment.
Thanks vans you made me chuckle, but I hope that wasn't the story.
maybe he should of tried chocolate i think she is allergic to flowers lol
bratjdd, I think they said NO as he was a bachelor all his life, may'be that's why he's sitting on the train tracks looking so pensive.
something very far off down the tracks. is that the train? great pictures
oh well wasnt trying to be morbid :)
The story was nice bratjdd, & he did have a good life, just didn't have the sweetheart in it.
That's OK trgrubaugh, no offence taken.
Thanks for the love, trgrubaugh.
Thanks scandi for the love & the comment, glad you enjoyed it.
I think everybody must have had an uncle Joe.I miss my uncle Joe.
So true garrybeair, I wish that I knew him but he passed before I was born, thanks for the love & the comment.
Thanks for the love crabbykins, & packrat.
Garrybeair, isn't that the truth, your Uncle is so handsome, it surpises me he was not married, I think he looks shy and quiet, like a very kind man...I miss my Uncle Jack...
Thanks for the love, BirdieZ, vintagemad, & michelleamieux your comment is very nice, glad you enjoyed it.
Uncle Joe most certainly liked unorthodox poses and backdrops, didn't he? After viewing Uncle Joe Part 2 first wherein he was posing among flowers and bushes, I sincerely think he did have a modeling career in mind. I think he could have been one. He has a face I believe we could trust, perhaps he is trying to sell the sheaves in a Farmers Almanac Catalog? Very nice photos and it makes one wonder.
Thanks for the love, Lao. Was there such a thing as a male model in that era, does anyone know?
They are interesting old pics.After looking a few times I noticed the train rails are quite different too.
@ RonM do you mean the shape or the placement?
Walksoftly, I ever saw five rails that close together.
I've seen this before on bridges, I believe it was just a place to store rails if they just needed one. If you look closely you will see that three inner ones are only lightly spiked down & have no track plates under them.
Uncle Joe, what a catch he'd a been!! mich
May'be he had to many to choose from, or was too shy to ask, we'll never know but we can make up our own narrative.
Thanks for the love, Monroe.
Thanks for the L's, vetraio & Nina.
I am a big people watcher and I think your Uncle Joe was a poetic and artistic man, which may not have been the norm for the hard working man, so he just stayed shy and didn't share the poetic part of himself, for fear of being called effeminate. I love your Uncle Joe!! Mich
Thank you so much, Mich. I have been on a quest to find the location that this photo was taken. I wish that I knew more about my U Joe.
Love the Photos. Did anyone notice that Uncle Joe was using the eraser end of the pencil, as if he were correcting the note he had just written, but the pencil has not been sharpened?? I think Joe liked to stage pictures that would make you think about what was going on in them. That is exactly what he accomplished !! I also wonder who his picture taking accomplice was. Way to go Uncle Joe!!! I know that he and I would have had a lot to talk about.
Glad to see this one again . Love the railway photo !
Thanks for the love musik & such a nice comment Uncle Joe & I both appreciate it. I don't know if he was the creative one setting up the photo's or if it was the one behind the camera. Whoever it was they draw you in & really make you wonder what the intended outcome was for these photo's what was he trying to portray?
Good eye, Eye! There is someone walking across the bridge, good thing it wasn't a train. :-)
Thanks for the love, Sean & Amber.
Thanks Sis, it is nice to see this one getting some love again.
Uncle Joe is enjoying all the love, thanks tom, junkmanjoe, DrFluffy, geo & official.
Lol love it...... I think Joe was getting ready to jump ...lol
look at that face and hes writing his last will and testimony. to the girl that jolted him , telling her he cant live without her .and not to cry cause he cant fly ....lol loving it
Roy I think B'buss's twisted sense of humour is rubbing of on you...smiling
Thanks for the love on these special photo's Toenail, there's something that compels us to provide a narrative for old photo's & your's is a good one.
Thanks for the love
fortapache
Aim
packrat
CindB
Vv
Armyeng
pops
I think that Uncle Joe, like RonM in comment #24, was pondering why there was extra rails. They could've been Gauntlet rails, although it's strange there would be three - unless the middle one was 'hot' for streetcar use... in which case Uncle Joe is simply resting after being kicked by the electric jolt he got after stepping on it. This would also explain why the beautiful bouquet of lilacs and wildflowers he was carrying now look like sheaves of oats.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauntlet_track
The more likely reason for the extra rails were to keep any derailed cars from damaging the bridge infrastructure. I've never really understood how the extra rails would prevent that, but it's what I was told long ago and seems to be true:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,1604426
It's difficult to tell in the photo, but it looks like the second rail from the right carries on well beyond the bridge (at least as far as the person walking), so I wonder if the first and fourth rail (from the left) are part of the Gauntlet for smaller gauge trains, and the second and third rail (from the left) are the guard/check/bull rails?
I called a friend who worked for the railroad for the last thirty years & the rail where guard rails. They would help protect the bridge sides if there was a slow speed derailment. The rails would only allow the cars to move over about a foot. The middle rail was a backup if the first guardrail failed.
Thanks for your input.
Can you confirm by looking at the original photo if the 4th rail (from the left) carries on well into the distance, and beyond where the 2nd and 3rd rail ends? This might also indicate a dual rail purpose for narrow gauge as well. Would be interesting to ask your friend about that too!
The three inside guard rails only go to the end of the bridge.
i think that the sheaf of oats is a reference to his biblical name - Joseph. in the old testament, Joseph's sheaf of oats rose up and his brothers sheafs bowed down to it. the brothers flew into a rage and left Joseph in a pit and told his father that he was killed by wild animals. the rest is in the bible...
Maybe that's why he lived about 100 miles from his brothers!
hi my name is joe, everybody knows where I work, where I go to eat, drink beer, everybody knows this joe, but then there's the other joe...the guy who likes to just relax, who enjoys the songs of birds, the whispering of the winds, there is the other joe who dreams of love not yet there, but which might come one day, this is the joe who sits on the tracks oats in hand with his thoughts somewhere else.
That sounds like my Joe, hawkseye!