Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: 1954

"Ghost Party, Saturday evening, October 23rd, at 9:00 o'clock, Harmony Maennerchor, 204 Lancaster Avenue. Admit one ghost, $1.50." See also Ghost Party Ticket, Reading, Pa. , on Fonts In Use for Florian Hardwig's discussion of the typefaces (Metropolis Light, Stylescript, Goudy Oldstyle, and Bernhard Gothic) used on this card.

See the full version of this photo for more information:

Posted to the Vintage Photos Theme Park for the theme of Fourth of July (flags, fireworks, patriotic, freedom, red-white-blue, barbeques, etc.) . Judging by the American flag and other decorations that the boy has on his bike in this somewhat battered photo, I suspect that he rode it in a Fourth of July bike parade. If that's the case, he probably received the book he's holding in his hand as a prize for participating in the parade. (By the way, after searching for images on Google, I was surprised to see how popular Fourth of July bike parades seem to be.) Although the book cover is difficult to make out (mouse over the image above for an enlarged but still blurry view), it looks like the title begins with the words "Tom Swift," and the shadowy images seem to correspond to the submarine and octopus that appear on the covers of early editions of Tom Swift and His Jetmarine . Since this Tom Swift title was first published in 1954, it's likely that this boy rode his bike in a Fourth of July parade that year or sometime later in the 1950s.

Unrepentant milk drinkers arrested for disudderly conduct and nearly causing a cowtastrophe.

One of the dealers at a local antique mall sells a variety of old photos, and I usually find a few interesting images each time I visit. I noticed that the dealer occasionally adds pithy comments--ranging from clever and witty to sarcastic and dark--to the back of some of the photos, and I began watching for these "precaptioned" pics when I looked through the piles of hundreds of unsorted snapshots at his stand. I can't resist the captions that turn out to be interesting or amusing (and sometimes quirky or strange), and I often end up buying the photos, even if they're bent, torn, or taped. I don't know anything about the dealer who conjures up these captions, but perhaps he, too, appreciates a good Far Side or Charles Addams cartoon.