THE SONGS OF A NIGHTINGAIL

  An old time shoe factory. A fanciful image of a cobbler shop – perhaps in “Hobbiton” where Bilbo and Frodo Baggins lived? Looks like this ‘shoe hospital’ did a lot more than just fix shoes. That’s quite a stacking of old suitcases!  Cobblers took on more than shoes, of course.  Purses, belts, caps, aprons, suitcases, briefs - just about anything leather. Today’s cobbler hard at work. I remember as a child stepping up on that second step, shoving my shoe-covered feet into a hole, and looking down to see the bones of my feet inside my shoes. The machines were known as fluoroscopes although different shoe stores had different names for them like ‘Ped-o-Scope’ or ‘Foot-o Scope’ or ‘Xray Shoe Fitter’. When I was young I wore shoes like these.  I don’t know that they were Buster Browns, necessarily, but they were very much like this style. By the time I was in 6 th grade I was wearing more fashionable shoes and by the time I hit Jr. and Sr. high schools I was wearing ...

  Pretty girls showing off the very latest in sexy swimwear. Fully decked out & completely matching.  Had I been in my 20s in the ‘20s, no one would have been surprised to see me show up in a matching outfit like this number.  Not my fault.  My mother drummed the matching thing into me from the time I was old enough to dress myself and I’ve often been kidded about it – good naturedly, of course.   These gals are ready for a fun time on the beach. Only trouble with skirts in the water – you have to wring them out when you come back on shore. A slimmer line would probably work better. My husband’s grandmother, Daisy May Elizabeth Young on the left, her sister, and a friend sporting two-piece slim-line swimsuits of the day. A daring one-piece.  You’d really have to have the perfect figure for this one! Slim line suits would work better if you wanted to do acrobatics on the beach . . . . . . or dance to a crazy song called “Cleopatra Had A Jazz Band” -...