Continuing along with my last post “A Look Back In Time” (Click here to read it) – I’ve been going through old negatives that belonged to my Great Aunt. I’m not sure when these photos were taken, I would purely guess that it’s sometime around the mid 20’s judging from the autos, motorcycle, and farm machinery, but who knows. The people are long gone, so there’s no one to ask…. Anyway, below are a few more negatives that I have scanned in…
(again, clicking on any of the photos will open up a larger version)
The above photo looks to be from Niagara Falls, not sure from what vantage point though.. I would guess somewhere near Terrapin Point on Goat Island, but again – it’s only just a guess.
Somewhere along the Erie Canal, back when it was actually used for something besides recreational purposes. Can’t really tell what the barges are hauling, but it kind of looks like scrap building material or refuse of some sort?
The above and sadly blurry photo shows a couple of happy farmers on their way somewhere with a tractor that I think is a “Fordson”, which it is pulling is a grain binder. The tractor would pull the binder in a field of grain, where it would cut the grain, gather it, and then bind it with twine in small bundles called “shocks” and drop them in the field. The shocks were then later picked up and loaded onto a wagon and brought up to the barn to be run through a “Threshing Machine” which would separate the grain from the rest of the plant (the straw). Today, a single machine goes through the field, cutting the crop and separating the grain from the straw in one pass, combining the jobs of the binder and the threshing machine into one machine – this is how the name “Combines” came about, which is still the name used today.
This picture above was taken at “silo filling time” which was in the early fall. Farmers would use a binder made for corn crops, and like the grain binder above, it would cut the corn, gather it and tie it into bundles (shocks) and then drop the bundles into the field. Later, the corn bundles were loaded on a wagon and hauled up to the silo (above) where the bundles were then fed down that inclined chute into a machine called an “ensilage cutter and blower” where the entire corn plant was chopped up into small pieces and then blown up the pipe and dropped into the silo. The machine that did all this was powered by a LONG belt from a steam engine. You can see the belt going from the machine next to the silo and disappearing off the left side of the photo. The scaffolding around the silo I believe was used to tighten hoops that went around the silo. The silo itself was made of wood, and as the wood dried in summer when the silo was empty, the wood would shrink and the hoops would loosen… Anyway, today, a machine that can harvest multiple rows of corn at a time, cuts the corn, chops it up, and blows it into a large dump truck that is running next to it. Then the truck hauls the chopped corn (silage) to a large, open ended bunk type storage area (bunk silo) where the truck dumps the load of silage, and then a large tractor levels the pile down and packs it in tight…
A couple of guys enjoying their motorcycle. ๐ I wish I had that motorcycle AND the car that’s off to the right!! I’m sure they would be worth a lot of money today!!
A little boy playing with a kitten. I must be related to him somehow!! ๐ ๐ ๐ The lady in the back doesn’t look any too happy about it though!! O_O
Fortunately, it wasn’t all hard work back in those days. People did take time to gather for picnics and family fun! Do people actually do picnics anymore?!?!
Not sure what the ladies were up to here, but the guys seemed to be fairly entertained by it! Lol!! ๐
I love this photo! I have no idea who any of the people are, but look at the kids! It’s nice to know that kids are the same no matter what era they are in! ๐
I love this photo too! Some of the older women look pretty somber and serious, but the rest seem to be enjoying themselves! Though it looks like the “hair stylist” there is using sheep sheers to cut that girls hair!!! Lol!! O_O But for 50ยข I guess you can’t complain!!! ๐
That’s it for now! ๐