Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: vegetables

A photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park monthly topic of something funny . A couple of funny Easter bunnies -- actually dressed up for Halloween -- pose in front of a fireplace as they hold their carrots. Printed on the back: "This is a Kodacolor print made by Kodak. November 1961 R." The November photo developing date was the first clue that these are Halloween costumes (but I'm counting them as Easter bunnies, too!). There's also a scarecrow standing on top of a pumpkin (on the right in front of the fireplace) that's obviously an autumn decoration, and it looks like there may be pumpkin and ghost figurines on the mantel. See also Quizzical Kids in Easter Costumes and more photos in my Funny Bunnies album.

"Harvest Service, 1907. Lutheran Church, Strasburg, Pa." For other photos that show church altars decorated for a Harvest Service (also called Harvest Home), see Harvest Home Display with Minister and Harvest Home Greetings, Methodist Church, Strasburg, Pa., 1909 .

In this real photo postcard, a minister of a church (location and date unknown) stands in the midst of fruits and vegetables that decorate the altar in preparation for a Harvest Home service. "Harvest Home" is a religious celebration that's still held today at some Lutheran, Reformed, and other churches in Pennsylvania and elsewhere during the late summer or early fall. As seen here, the observance typically involves a display of tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkins, cornstalks, flowers, etc. For additional examples, see Harvest Service, Lutheran Church, Strasburg, Pa., 1907 , and Harvest Home Greetings, Methodist Church, Strasburg, Pa., 1909 . In this photo, the inscription at the bottom of the stained glass window on the right-hand side says, "Donated by Robert, Ella, & Sallie Wise." The signboard hanging on the wall on the left-hand side of the photo provides the following information about the church: Register - Attendance & Offering Number on the roll - 200 Attendance today - 114 Attendance a year ago today - 81 Offering today - 236 Offering a year ago today - 104

A witch holds her broomstick tightly as she rides in the back seat of a watermelon car driven by a wide-eyed veggie creature. A black cat sits next to her, and a bat flies above. A date of "Oct. 31st, 1908" is written on the other side of this postcard, which was published by the British firm of Raphael Tuck & Sons and issued as part of its popular Halloween series 150 .

"O, is my true love tall and grand? O, is my sweetheart bonny?" Mirrors , cakes , apple peels , and chestnuts (see below) have all figured in the Halloween fortune-telling games depicted on early twentieth-century postcards. So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when I found this postcard by Ellen H. Clapsaddle , which suggests that young women could use cabbages (or kales ) to foretell what kind of husband–tall and grand? bonny?–they might marry. In a discussion about Pumpkins and Postcards and Portents–Oh My! , Mikaela Taylor of Middlebury College explains how picking a cabbage from the garden could predict a woman's romantic future: "If the selected cabbage or kale was difficult to unearth, it denoted difficulty in a relationship. Kale with clumps of dirt stuck to the roots signified a rich husband, and the size, shape, and taste of the kale foretold the physical attributes and personality of a future spouse." Ellen Clapsaddle illustrated a number of other prognosticating postcards like this one. For another example, see Halloween Chestnuts—Uncertainly, Hope, Despair, Happy Ever After .

Wisconsin photographer Alfred Stanley Johnson, Jr., created this fanciful scene of Boy Scouts roasting a larger-than-life potato over a campfire and published it as a postcard in 1912. This copy of the card was addressed to Mrs. Galen Groff, Kirkwood, Lanc. Co., Pa., R.F.D. #1, and was postmarked in Quarryville, Pa., on October 7, 1913. Handwritten message: "Oct. 7, 1913. Dear Aunt, As Ernest said, we were to come down for chestnuts. I thought I would write and tell you that Roy and I will be down on Sun. if it suits you and it don't rain, but if it doesn't suit you please let me know as it will be all right. Maud E."

A 1909 real photo tall-tale postcard by William H. Martin. For a similar postcard with an automobile and oversized apples, see Apples–How We Do Things at Fearnot, Pa. :

Postcard addressed on the back to Earl Elliot, Douglassville, Pa., and postmarked at Douglassville, Pa., Oct. 31, 1906. The handwritten message on the front is "Greetings for the day," and the initials "L.U."--presumably those of the sender--appear in a number of places on the front, including on the wall next to the fireplace. The clock strikes midnight on Halloween as a woman gazes into a fire and children bob for apples in a wash tub and on a string. Jack-o'-lanterns form a border around the scene, and ghostly figures hover in the message box at the bottom. The woman in front of the fireplace may actually be playing a fortune-telling game involving three nuts, which she has named after three of her suitors. After placing the three nuts in the fire (I think the nuts are visible here on the top of the grate at the front of the fireplace), she watches to see how they burn. The following poem, which appeared in 1900 in The Jolly Hallowe'en Book , by Dorothy M. Shipman, p. 68, describes the practice. The Test of the Nuts I've named three nuts and placed them Side by side on the grate, The one which cracks is unfaithful, The lover I know I should hate. The one which blazes with brilliant fire, Tells of high regard, 'tis said, But the one which burns with a steady flame Names the man whom I shall wed.

Message on the back of this postcard: "Wish you a Merry Halloween from Isabelle." Addressed to: Howard Knicley, Brookville, Pa., R.F.D. No. 2. Postmarked: Punxsutawney, Pa., Oct. 27, 1909. Printed on the back: "Raphael Tuck & Sons' 'Hallowe'en' Post Cards, Series No. 160." In the scene on the front of this Raphael Tuck & Sons postcard, anthropomorphic apples jump into a wooden wash tub filled with water to initiate bobbing for apples on Halloween. Here are some other colorful Tuck Halloween postcards:

Signs: At top: "[Meats]. Cash Store, A. J. Morel. Groceries." In windows: "The Morel Stores." Gas pump: "Socony Motor Gasoline."

A Famer's Love Letter My darling sweet ________, do you ________ all for me? My heart ________ for you and my love is soft as a ________. I am for you as strong as an ________. You are a ________ with your ________ hair and ________ nose. You are the ________ of my eye, so if we ________ then ________ be married for I know we will make a happy ________. For a postcard version , see below:

Hood College , located in Frederick, Maryland, was known as the Woman's College of Frederick until 1913, the year before this Thanksgiving dinner was held. -------- Hood College, Thanksgiving Dinner Menu, 1914, Menu Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it; But we hae meat and we can eat; Sae let the Lord be thankit. --Burns. Grape fruit au marasquin, olives, celery, radishes, salted almonds. Lemon sherbert, roast turkey with giblet sauce, sweet potatoes en glace, cranberry jelly, corn en creme. Bird's nest salad, saltines. Mince pie, pumpkin pie, nuts, raisins, mints, cafe demi tasse. Ah, sweet content, where doth thy labour hold? --Barnabe Barnes.

The Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine, Florida, was built by Henry Morrison Flagler , "a Gilded Age industrialist, railroad pioneer, and partner with John D. Rockefeller in Standard Oil" (as described on Flagler College's Legacy of Innovation page). The luxury hotel opened on January 10, 1888, and this menu dates to February 26 of that year. Today, the hotel building is part of Flagler College . Gil Wilson 's History of the City of St. Augustine Web site contains additional information regarding the Ponce de Leon Hotel and Osborn Dunlap Seavey , the hotel's manager in 1888. Not to be confused with the Ponce de Leon Hotel in Roanoke, Virginia : Hotel Ponce de Leon, St. Augustine, Florida O. D. Seavey, manager Lunch, Saturday, February 25, 1888. Consommé. Julienne with rice, Pickled oysters. Fried shad roe, á la tartare. Radishes. Bermuda potatoes. Roast leg of mutton. Smoked beef tongue with spinach. Currie of chicken, á l' Indienne. Kidneys, sautés, with mushrooms. Baked sweet potatoes. New beets. Boston baked beans. Pressed corned beef. Game pie. Ribs of beef. Ham. Tongue. Mutton. Pickled tripe. Pickled lamb tongue. Asparagus salad. Chicken salad. Sliced tomatoes. Lettuce. Stewed prunes. Apple pie. Pumpkin pie. Ginger snaps. Lady cake. Croquettes Parisiennes. Assorted cake. Pistache ice cream. Fruit. American and foreign cheese. Tea. Coffee.

A Farmer's Love Letter Do you care at ( carrot ) all for me, for my heart beats ( beets ) for you and my love is as soft as a squash but as strong as an onion . For you are a peach with your reddish ( radish ) hair and turned-up ( turnip ) nose. You are the apple of my eye, so if we can't elope ( cantaloupe ) then let us ( lettuce ) marry anyhow, for I know we could make a happy pair ( pear )." For a fill-in-the-blanks version , see below:

For the front of this business card, see W. H. Michael & Son, Commission Merchants, Philadelphia, Pa. . W. H. Michael. 114. Foreign and domestic fruits, nuts, etc., wholesale and commission. Headquarters for southern fruits and vegetables.

"Orchilla Guano. The great soil enricher. Will grow big corn. Improves the quality and increases the quantity of the wheat; used with great success on berries, peach trees and all kinds of vegetables. Never fails on grass. R. A. Wooldridge & Co., importers, 64 Buchanan's Wharf, Baltimore, Md." The stars and stripes of the U.S. flag seem to be an odd choice for the background of this nineteenth-century trade card that advertised imported bird, uh, manure . For another card from the same company, see Orchilla Guano :

"How we do things at Ephrata, Pa." Wisconsin photographer Alfred Stanley Johnson, Jr., reused these same onions in another tall-tale postcard that he entitled Onions (below).

"How we do things at Jackson, Pa." These same onions appear in another tall-tale postcard entitled Onion Harvest (below), which was also published by Wisconsin photographer Alfred Stanley Johnson, Jr.