I receive FBI news and alerts as a normal part of my day.
Unfortunately, many unscrupulous (and that is an understatement – they are pond scum) people defraud thousands of people pleading for donations to help out the people affected by a disaster.
Instead, the money goes straight to their pocket or to some organized crime/terror network.
If you are so kind and noble as to want to help out our Sandy victims, please read this following FBI alert before doing so:
Yes.Β President Harding’s last photos in my grandmother’s album.
OMG.Β Leave it alone!
________________________
I found a copy of the actual event flyer from July 1923.
Now we can see an overview.Β See what the Bell Street Pier looked like when President Harding rode in his motorcade.
You can make out train tracks.Β Look at the far left – you can see the window locations on the building and…a pole.Β You can also see blackness under what appears to be a short bridge and a railing that abruptly ends.Β Important stuff.
The “PORT OF SEATTLE” with “BELL STREET PIER” signage can be signage can be seen at the far left.
Upon studying “Grandma’s” photos further and in comparison to the “press” photo (below), I feel BOTH were taken within seconds of each other – but from opposite side of the motorcade.Β Please note my scribbles:
“Grandma’s” on top, “press” below.
And note the following obervations:
Pole – also painted white at the bottom;
The prominent roof of a car (circled) parked along the pier and next to the pole;
The group of four men marked with the proverbial “X marks the spot(s)”;
The wooden railing in both of Grandma Kono’s photos; and,
The US Marine Corps on one side of the motorcade, the US Navy on the other.
Amazing.Β These are two rare images taken from different sides of President Harding and within seconds of each other.
BUT…….
With the flyer image, we now know train tracks ran along the pier.Β Trains are also visible in the press photo.Β There are MEN atop the rail cars.
Due to the angle, it is believed the photos in Grandma Kono’s album were taken from atop the rail cars.Β Off to the left just outside the field of view in the picture (just like the grassy knoll in the famous Zapruder film of JFK’s assassination).
Ergo, I cannot fathom Grandma Kono climbing atop a rail car…let alone in a dress as was customary at that time for ladies.
I am really sick and doubly-sick about the presidential elections. People we elect should be trying to fix OUR country’s problems instead of going to actors’ homes to raise funds. With those funds, they might buy TV time to state mistruths of ANYTHING to better your view of them. The media takes ANY little miscue and blows things out of proportionΒ to increase their OWN revenues.Β Where is Walter?
Yes. I am sick of this idiocy. I am happy old man Jack is not here to see what he fought for has turned into this farce.
I used the same setup but with a telephoto. Rugged Canon F-1 with a 250 exposure back.Β Heap of moolah back then.
In the “old days”, we shot with 35mm cameras that used something called…film.
You loaded your own bulk film if you shot a lot.
You manipulated something called “ASA”.
You had to meter the light and set your shutter speed and f/stop.
There was no auto focus.
Me on the left with my motor driven Canon F-1 dangling from my shoulder. This was my mom and aunt’s war time refuge in the town of Fukui. At my relative’s home.
The cameras were made out of steel with metal gears – weighed a ton…especially if you carried an external motor drive with EIGHT AA batteries.
You developed your negatives at home – according to temperature.
Processing tanks. For 250 exposure lengths, I used a tub.
There was no “Photoshop”.Β You used an enlarger and “dodged” and “burned” your prints to make corrections.
You all have it easy now.Β Well, I guess me too.
________________________
Just for memory’s sake (and my ego), here are two of my award-winning sports shots from 1972.Β From one statewide photo contest.Β These are surviving test prints, i.e., boo-boo prints that had been stashed away by luck. π
The final prints – from the best printing efforts – were mounted and submitted.
Available light (and lighting was poor, believe me).Β I didn’t use flash as I felt it distracted the players trying their best to win.
Exposed Tri-X at 2400 ASA and “cooked” the negatives in HC-110 replenisher.Β Brutal stuff.
I usually shot from the stands, rim level, for a different perspective.
You had to anticipate the play and pre-focus.
And some luck.
_______________________
1st Place
Recently scanned and unretouched. That’ll be cheating now, wouldn’t it?
Honorable Mention:
Ditto.
Not bad for not having taken photo classes.Β All self-taught.
OK.
My ego’s placated…and no criticisms from the pros who might be peeking.
Dad’s eyes got a teensy-weensy bit watery again today.
Perhaps its becoming a routine.
________________________________
Went to see Dad this morning.Β Took him his “bentou”, or Japanese lunch to-go, as a change of pace.Β They only serve America cuisine there.
Pork cutlet bento
Not that he complains.Β He doesn’t.Β But all the servers there know heΒ WON’T eat fish.Β He makes sure of that.
Also took him “yokan”, “senbei”, “manjyuu”, and Morinaga caramel (his favorite from decades ago)…Β Oh.Β And “anpan”.Β Gotta feed his sweet tooth.Β Make him happy is all that matters now.
Another favorite of Dad’s – anpan
While he asked how “Sue-boh” is as usual (his favorite brother who was KIA), he – by coincidence – talked about how he broke his elbow again. π
But this time, I had the pictures I had taken last month with me!Β Blew his mind.Β He “kinda” remembered my son and I went to Japan, but he couldn’t comprehend how I got those pictures.Β Oh well.Β Anyways, the most important thing was that yes, that was the large stone he jumped from…but he asked, “Where’s the benjo?Β There was a benjo there behind the tree.”Β A “benjo” isΒ kind of like anΒ Japanese-styleΒ outhouse. Β πΒ Β And that definitely was the (remnants of the) branch.
You should have seen his boyish smile.
I took along what vintage pages IΒ dared toΒ from Grandmother Kono’s albumΒ today.Β I was concerned asΒ they were soΒ fragile…Β but Dad handled them gingerly.
He said there was a butcher shopΒ in the brick building in the background. That brickΒ building at King and Maynard is still standing.
He particularly liked the photo of him, Mieko and Suetaro…Β He had a nice smile.Β I wonder what was going through his thoughts then but I wasn’t going to interrupt.
He is smiling while looking at the three of them.Β By the way, the stone bracelet he is wearing was from Masako and Izumi.Β He says heΒ doesn’t takeΒ it off but doesn’t remember where it came from. π
I think his eyes got a bit watery.
He said, “That was a long time ago,” and “ζγγγ”
Just a teensy-weensy bit.
______________________________
About an hour later, he remembered looking at the vintage pictures.
Masako and Spam Musubi 