Sepia Saturday #143 Location location location

This week's Sepia Saturday theme is about shops, shopping, retail, etc.  So of course, I must write about our foray into the retail business.

In the early 1960s Barbara and I had taken a trip to Mexico (which I've blogged about previously) and we loved Mexico so much that we had the cockamamy idea that if we opened a Mexican shop, we could take lots of buying trips to Mexico.

So we jumped right in and opened Ole! Mexican gift shop in Los Angeles. We were on Third Street, 2 blocks from the world famous Farmers Market. We actually thought this was a good location. We didn't notice that there was absolutely no foot traffic on that particular street. And people went to Farmers Market and left - they didn't walk two blocks to visit a Mexican Gift Shop. We weren't that stupid, though. We thought that if you had the right merchandise and got lots of word of mouth, your shop would be successful no matter where you were.  This is the rationale most people make when the rent is very cheap.

This is a photo of the front of the store (I've posted this before - but have to use it again because it goes so well with the theme). I wish this photo was in color because the shop was very cute. It was painted black and the sign was a very bright fuchsia. All of the items in the window were very bright and colorful.

Here's a look at the inside of the store:

Barbara looking so happy and showing off some of the merchandise

We made our second buying trip to Mexico to restock. We checked out the shops and markets of Tlaquepaque, a wonderful town just full of folk art.

Here's Barbara looking not so happy because she's just about to be bitten by that lion

 

 

Here I am trying to decide what to buy

 We had an official opening and Barbara designed a very cute flyer that we sent to everyone we knew (she even got an award from the Los Angeles Art Director's Club for the design of the flyer).

The shop lasted for about a year. It was never very successful. And in retrospect the reason was the location. You just can't have a shop where there's no foot traffic. Also when I look at the prices of items on this flyer, I detect our other mistake. Our stuff was way too cheap. You can't make the rent when you're selling $1.00 papier mache dolls and .50 rattles. You live and learn, don't you?

Try shopping at these other Sepia Saturday sites.

Sepia Saturday #142 Which one is the groom?

I've had this photograph for awhile and always thought it was very mysterious. She does appear to be a bride. Or could it be some kind of religious ceremony - a confirmation type thing? No, I'm sure she's a bride. Look at the bouquet and the wedding veil.

But which man is the groom? Probably the one on the left as he looks a bit older. The one on the right looks pretty young.  They could be brothers. But doesn't it seem kind of unusual for the groom and his brother to be in the wedding photograph? I smell trouble ahead for this poor woman. She might as well be marrying Chang and Eng (the conjoined twins).

And what are those uniforms? They're identical. Are they military uniforms? The hats are identical too. These look very foreign, yet the photograph was taken in Utica, New York at the Adams Studio. I couldn't find any information on the studio. Maybe Bret Payne can give me some tips on how to find out more about this puzzling photo. Maybe these two were in an orchestra or band. Cmon Bret, I'm sure you can figure it out. Help!

For stories about other threesomes, click on Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday #141 Home Tour Sepia Style

Alan's prompt for Sepia Saturday this week shows the interiors of a home. The theme was supposed to relate to the clock. But when I looked at this photo it reminded me of some photos that I had in an old photo album that belongs to a friend. A lot of the photos in the album of are of the people's home.

The first photo actually does have a clock in it so it does slightly relate to the theme.

See - here's the clock. Wish this photo wasn't so fuzzy so we could see what else is on the dresser.
This appears to be a bedroom. But it's made so cozy with the fluffy chintz covered chairs.

To continue our tour - here's the living area:

I really like this room with all the wicker chairs. But they're placed in a weird way - not exactly conducive to conversing. The little side table is adorable. I'd like to have one just like it. Not sure about those borders on the drapes!

Here's another view of this room:

They sure loved wicker, didn't they? That wicker table would cost a fortune today. Check out that nice fireplace and is that, could it be the Mona Lisa to the left of the fireplace. This must have been a very rich family.  But then why couldn't they afford some shades on those naked light bulbs?

Now let's take a walk into the dining area:

This room is so formal compared to the area with the summery wicker. The table and chairs are so heavy. Wonder what the cord is for hanging down from the table - a phone, a toaster? There's a fireplace in this room also. What a nice house. And the owners were so proud of it that they recorded almost every room.

But here's my favorite room. Wonder who slept here. Looks like it might be a child's room. And he sure loved animals. He was probably asking his parents for a dog or cat and they wouldn't let him have one so he plastered the walls with a his favorite breeds:

That's the tour. Isn't it fun to see how people lived years ago in their sepia rooms?
ies: Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday #140 Super Weddings by Megan

Ah. Weddings. What a great theme for me to shamelessly advertise my daughter's business.

Megan majored in film at Boston's Emerson College and after trying the Hollywood film scene, decided she'd rather do her own thing. So using her love of film and of retro technology she started filming weddings using old super8 cameras and film (yes, real film!) She's turned this idea into a very successful business and travels all over the world filming weddings in that wonderful retro style.

Here she is filming a wedding in Tuscany.

And here's a link to her website where's she's posted a sample of her wedding films. Check them out.

hello super8

You can't tell that I'm proud or anything, can you?

Be a member of the wedding at Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday #137 The Saddest Olympic Story Ever

This week's Sepia Saturday theme is about running and the Olympics. I'm going to tell you the sad Olympic tale about my ex-husband, Gonzalo Javier. It all happened before I knew him. He was a college student in Kansas and was an award winning runner, competing in both the mile and the the 1/2 mile.

After graduation from college, he gave up a job as a translator for the UN and broke off his engagement with his then girlfriend. He headed back to Guatemala where he was from so that he could qualify for the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Competing in the Olympics was the biggest dream of his life. He qualified for the 1500 meters and he and another athlete were both going to Rome. His dream had come true!

But wait. What happened to the dream? It turns out that in some of the smaller countries, the Olympics can become very political. Several people decided that they wanted to go along, like about 30 officials. They weren't athletes, they hadn't qualified for anything. But they wanted to go. So then the Guatemalan Olympic Committee said there were too many people to send. They couldn't afford to send 30 people. So they didn't send anyone - particularly the two athletes who had qualified.

Here's my ex looking very sad:

He went on to lead a very successful life being involved in education, having two children (with a second wife) and having lots of various interests. But I don't think he ever got over the disappointment of not going to the Rome Olympics.

Here's a clip of the man he would have run against. Could he have beaten him? We'll never know.





 

For maybe some happier running stories, click here:  Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday #135 Little Spanish Fairy

One of the best things about a trip to Spain was going to a wonderful flea market in the Plaza Mejor in Madrid. Every Sunday the plaza is ringed with sellers of vintage paper items. What could be more fun?

Unfortunately the prices were really high. But I did manage to purchase a few things and this is one of them. A really odd photo postcard of a Little Spanish Fairy. I wonder what the occasion was. I've searched the internet for Spanish customs, Spanish costumes, children's holidays, but found nothing that explained what this costume might be for. I'm sure in those days, Spanish children didn't dress up for Halloween. It's just another one of those mysteries.

The back of the photo has some writing, but it looks as if this photo was torn from an album and the pages stuck to the photo in places.

I'm not much of a translator, but I think it says something like "To my loving friend, bla bla bla, your best friend, Andrianna or Andreirra or something like that.

The more I look at the photo, I think she's really supposed to be a butterfly. What do you think?

See more fairy tales by clicking here Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday #133 Why Ganesha?

The theme for this week's Sepia Saturday is elephants. I had no idea what I was going to do for this post. No one in our family past or present had ever come close to an elephant except maybe in a zoo. But I had no photos of such events.

But as luck would have it, I had lunch with my school chums Marge and Jane last week. We had all gone to Ganesha high school together, graduating in the class of '60. Marge was telling us about the trip she just took to Thailand for a Rotary Club convention. She shared with us this photo of her (on the left) and a fellow Rotarian riding an elephant. One of the perks of her trip.

Marge was also wearing a shirt she got in Thailand with Lord Ganesha printed on the back. Ganesha is one of five prime Hindu deities. He's got a curved trunk and big ears and the pot bellied body of a human. He's the Lord of success and destroyer of evils. He is also worshipped as the god of education, knowledge, wisdom and wealth.

This led to a discussion about why our high school in conservative, white anglo-saxon Protestant Pomona was named Ganesha. I had never given it a second thought. But now that we were mulling it over, we wondered who named the school Ganesha and why. Was it because Lord Ganesha is the god of education and wisdom. I'm sure there were no Hindus in Pomona in 1958 who were on the naming committee. There was a park in Pomona named Ganesha Park and I'm sure this is why the school was named Ganesha. But why was the park named Ganesha? Hmmmm.

And then we were wondering, if our school was named Ganesha for the elephant god, why were we called the Giants?

We should have been the Elegant Elephants or the Plumpy Pachoderms? Did we not have the imagination or the courage of the University of Alabama whose mascot is Big Al?

I wish we would have had a mascot like Big Al. Look how much he adds to the hilarity
of a football game:




 For more elephant stories, click Sepia Saturday