Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: buckets

"What the boys did to the cow." A comic Halloween postcard published by Julius Bien & Co. in 1908. This postcard was addressed on the other side to Miss Lille Collins, 122 Dickerson Street, Newark, N.J., and postmarked in Smyrna, Delaware, on October 30, 1911. Message: "Love to all, E.R.C." For a another card from the same publisher, see What the Pig Thought of the Ghost on Halloween .

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:

"A Happy New Year. Haddocks. Come to your milk now." A Victorian-era New Year calling or greeting card with a hand-drawn sketch. "Come to your milk" seems to have had a specific meaning in the nineteenth century beyond pulling on a calf's tail to try to get it to drink out of a milk bucket. Besides a few hits on the phrase in Google Books, however, I haven't uncovered any source that reveals what that meaning might have been.

A tools photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. A real photo postcard showing a group of men working on railroad track maintenance (workers like these were sometimes called " gandy dancers "). The man on the left is using a track jack to adjust the height of a rail. The man next to him is posing with another tool, probably a sledge hammer. The boy in the middle is carrying a bucket. The fellow on the right is sitting on some sort of long bar—maybe a claw bar for pulling spikes—that appears to be wedged under one of the cross ties.

An early label for Dwight's Cow Brand Soda.

A painted backdrops photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Two women hold on to a bucket in a fruitless yet humorous attempt to fill it with the water flowing over a painted version of Niagara Falls.

"Oh! You Lobster. / It's all very fine to wine and dine / A pretty dear sweet little miss / It looks very swell, but will you tell / How it's done on a salary llike this ($10 per)." This vinegar valentine has been personalized with the initials "F.F." for the man, "J.V." for the woman, and "The Biltmore" hotel as the setting for the wining and dining. The early twentieth-century meaning of "lobster" was similar to today's "sugar daddy." For a similar valentine, see Ye Gilded Boob .

This advertisement consists of two die-cut pieces--shaped like a cow and a milkmaid--that have been glued together. For the back of this two-part advertising trade card, see De Laval Separators Have Revolutionized Dairying . "De Laval Cream Separators. Save $10 per cow every year."

This advertisement consists of two die-cut pieces--shaped like a cow and a milkmaid--that have been glued together. For the front of this two-part advertising trade card, see De Laval Cream Separators . "De Laval Separators have revolutionized dairying. All styles and sizes, $50 to $800, farm and factory." "Nearly 500,000 farmers, all over the world, have found a De Laval Cream Separator the best investment they ever made. Send for catalogue and name of local agent if not stamped above."

Handwritten on the back of the photo: "Suzy on Halloween '53 (her hat slipped a little)."