If you are nostalgic, you may like the book ‘Not So Long Ago’ by Lloyd Morris. I recently purchased this Random House copy from 1949 which includes more than 100 black and white illustrations. This wonderful book is full of details and traces the influence on American society to the three most important inventions of the first part of the twentieth century-- the automobile and the radio and motion pictures.
Part One: ' Life's but a Walking Shadow' reviews the motion picture, its development, and its personalities. You'll see mentions of Vaudeville and the Penny Arcade and view fetching styles from those days. Part Two: 'The Horseless Carriage Makes Good' provides a look at the automobile, early motor cars, the assembly line, unions, roads, and junk with interesting sections such as, ' The Ogre Growls'. Part Three: 'Listen to Voices in the Upper Air' goes over the radio, inventors, hams, reporters, monopolies, and some of the discord that ensued. Enjoyable was viewing the images of the Four Fathers of Radio one one page.
The beginning of the book is set in 1896, also known as the bicycle, beard and high hat era.
Around our neck of the woods, communities step back in time and put on family-oriented festivals known as Pioneer Festivals. These festivals come to life with demonstrators, re-enactors, and craftsmen and women.
Here, people can purchase a wristband and enter a gate and walk around and view the art of blacksmithing, military units conducting drills on foot or horseback, traders hawking their wares, and people crafting quilts and sheep shearing.
1942 Philco
Yes, I have been known to purchase tins filled with goat's milk lip balm and do enjoy delicious meals being prepared over open fires. There’s something about the taste of apple fritters and corn on the cob that delights me.
I spend time at stands looking over farm market items like peppers, eggplants, pumpkins and a variety of herbs and raw honey.
It is at these festivals that I pause to take some black and white photographs. And, I celebrate the memory of those that brought us engines, tractors, radio, bicycles, automobiles, and motion pictures.
Yes, festivals like these, remind us all of the times not so long ago.