From the Archives: July 4, 1944, celebrations, Post Island, Massachusetts

The family beach cottage (house), Post Island, Quincy, Massachusetts, USA

My dad spent part of World War II in Puerto Rico working for the US Navy. He was a civilian engineer, and when the project ended, he returned home to Boston. His sister and brother-in-law owned a cottage (house) on the shore at Post Island, a section of the Hough's Neck Peninsula that projects out into Massachusetts Bay. He joined them and the other beach residents for old-fashioned 4th of July celebrations.

Uncle Cliff and the horseshoes

The Penny search in the sand

Aunt Mary at the potato race

Watermelon consumption contest

Costume contest

Tennis champions with non-tennis shoes

Enjoying a short one in a genuine woody station wagon

Dianne enjoying a mackerel

Dulcie, Aunt Mary, and Joe on the beach

These Kodachromes record a world that looks so ordinary, so Americana. Children are enjoying a holiday at the beach. The gents are building an addition to a house. Girls are playing tennis. The very innocence of these scenes is the point. 

War was waging on three continents. Terrific battles were being waged on the Pacific Islands, in France and China, and on the horrifying Eastern Front. Civilians in China and Russia were starving. Most families in these pictures had a relative or neighbor overseas or on the oceans. 

But in Massachusetts on this sunny July day, life looked so normal. There was no destruction, hunger, or fear. The houses were neat and intact. The lights were on. By 1944, civilians could buy butter, sugar, coffee, and gasoline, although the latter may have still been rationed. The miseries of war seemed far away.

In a total contrast, in 1944, my mother was a child in Berlin. Life there was much more brutal.

My dad was able to afford and buy 35mm Kodachrome film and use it for family snapshots. Possibly he had bought the rolls at the navy post exchange on Puerto Rico before he returned to the mainland, but regardless, he felt secure enough in its availability to use it for casual photographs. It underscores the amazing capability of our industrial output. 

These photographs are the original 35mm Kodachrome. I think the film speed was Weston 8 or approximately ASA 10. I am not sure if my dad used an electronic light meter then. The camera might have been his Perfex, made by the Candid Camera Corporation of Chicago, Illinois, with unknown 50mm lens. I scanned these slides on my Nikon CoolScan 5000 film scanner, operated by NikonScan software on a Windows 7 computer.

Dinosaurs and Toilets of Olympia (Oly 09)

Welcome to my Jaws (100 mm ƒ/3.5 Planar lens)

There are dinosaurs in Olympia! They live (and eat?) at Eastside Big Tom. Tom is a fried food emporium of the healthiest, most calorific treats one could imagine. According to Experience Olympia & Beyond,

Hungry dinosaurs, milkshakes featuring deep-fried bacon and maple, and a mouthwatering smashed burger dripping with goop sauce - Eastside Big Tom is a direct ticket straight back to the best parts of your childhood.

We could stop now and it would be enough. The dinosaurs, the ambiance that takes you back to the best parts of your childhood, the smashed-burger dripping with sauce that runs down your chin and you don’t even care who sees it. But there are delights like the Bellicose Badger shake (featuring deep-fried bacon and maple) and the Birthday Cake soft-serve ice cream cone waiting in the wings. Customers wait with baited breath for Michael to share the monthly special shake, named after an animal (not the ingredients) in alphabetical order. Prior to the Bellicose Badger he featured the Aggravated Aardvark (peanut butter and pickle juice). These shakes may sound a bit odd, but for the life of me I can’t understand why everyone isn’t putting deep fried bacon in their shakes. It’s amazing.

Bacon milkshake?? I may need to try this one. 

Form two lines and order your treats. You can also sit behind the main building. (50mm Distagon lens)

Nice decorated potties (50mm Distagon ƒ/4 lens)

This is American folk art of the best type, hand painted with care and creativity. There is much more in and around Olympia, so I want to explore and record.

I took these photographs with my Hasselblad 501CM camera using Fuji NPS160 film, tripod-mounted. This was long-expired film, but it had been frozen for 20 years.

The Giant Duck (Crow?) of Chehalis, Washington (Abandoned Films 14)

They grow them big in Washington State. Sadly, I think this big fellow does not host visitors any more nor quack or caw. 

The Yard Birds Swap Meet was a staple of the Centralia-Chehalis community for decades. According to the Yard Birds web page, which, as of May 2024, was still online,

Welcome to the �most unique� Yard Birds Mall! Seven acres of shopping under one giant roof! Yard Birds has a rich history of being a one stop shopping destination, and this reputation holds true today. With over 60 independent merchants on both floors selling everything from antiques, toys, clothes, video games, music, furniture, jewelry, steampunk accessories, as well as services such as hair styling, auto repair, custom stone countertops, and guitar lessons. We�re more than a Mall, we�re a family of merchants. Whatever you�re looking for, chances are you�ll find it at Yard Birds!

The last tenants and businesses were evicted from Yard Birds mall in November of 2022. Since then, it is unclear what the owners of the property have been doing or renovating.

Later, I will post some black and white pictures from Chehalis. 

I took these photographs on my Hasselblad 501CM camera with the 50mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens using long-expired Fujicolor NPS160 film. It had been in my freezer for over 20 years, but certainly was not fresh. I gave it extra exposure and used EI=80. A polarizing filter emphasized the blue of the brilliant clear sky. 

 

On the Boat to Dover - from the Archives, 1979

On 20-21 March of 1969, I completed my train trip across Europe, taking the sleeper from Munich to London. The train left at dusk, and I slept through Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Köln, and other German cities, awakening in Belgium. My companion in the compartment was an American anthropologist en route to USA. He had hominid teeth in a briefcase that was hand-cuffed to his wrist. I can't recall if he slept with his teeth, but he took them to Abendessen und Frühstück. In Ostend, we boarded a ferry boat for a comfortable and remarkably warm crossing of the English Channel to Dover.

White Cliffs of Dover (Tri-X film, Nikkormat FTn camera, 105mm ƒ/2.5 Nikkor lens, orange filter)

The winter light was spectacular, and I recall the White Cliffs of Dover glowing in the morning sun. The cliffs are composed of Late Cretaceous chalk streaked with lenses of flint. I used an orange filter to enhance the clouds and glowing cliffs. 

Approaching Dover

The English Channel

Today, most travelers take the Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) with no need to change trains. It may be direct, quick, and efficient, but you lose the romance of the sea crossing. The ferry boat had another advantage: cross-channel travelers could buy liquor and cigs with low or no taxes.

We finished our journey with the train into London St. Pancras station. I checked into a cheap hotel (note the repeated theme of cheap) and spent two days exploring London. I revisited the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum. In James Park, a flying duck deposited a dump on my wool coat. I bought a couple of souvenirs at Selfridges. 

When it was time to leave, I bought a TWA ticket to Boston for $63. That was the period when TWA and Pan Am were matching (trying to destroy) Sir Freddie Laker's no frills Laker Airways with cheap cross-Atlantic flights. In 1982, Laker went into bankruptcy, and Pan Am and TWA promptly raised their ticket prices. 

To buy the cheap TWA ticket, you had to go to the downtown ticket office and check if one of the bargain seats was available. It was mid-week in winter, so I ended up with three seats to myself. It was modestly civilized to fly in that era, although people smoked onboard. Thus ended my seven months in Europe. 

Thank you, Dear Readers, for riding along.

Where Evil Reigned: the Bürgerbräukeller and Dachau (Munich) - from the Archives 1979

The Bürgerbräukeller

Bürgerbräukeller (no longer extant)

In 1923, Adolf Hitler and his closest followers and cronies gathered in the Bürgerbräukeller, a huge beer hall in the Haidhausen district of Munich. It had been one of the main gathering places of the Nazi Party in the early 1920s. On 8-9 November of 1923, he and his closest followers marched to the Bürgerbräukeller and declared a putsch, or a coup d'état, to overthrow the Bavarian government. The march to the beer hall was inspired by Mussolini's March to Rome. The police were ready and crushed the putsch, resulting in 19 deaths among the police and putschists. Adolf Hitler was arrested two days later and tried for treason. 

Hitler brilliantly used the trial as a propaganda mouthpiece rather than a defense of his actions. He claimed he was being persecuted, that the judges were corrupt, and that he was a German patriot. The trial thrust this minor figure and his evil Nazi party into the country's consciousness. The rest is gruesome history. Compare with a certain trial that recently ended in Manhattan for another demagog, who claims he is being politically persecuted.

Hitler was convicted to five years in the Landsberg prison, of which he served five months. There, he wrote his infamous political autobiography, Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”), which later became obligatory reading for Germans. Compare and contrast with "Agenda 47" and the Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025," both radical blueprints to reshape American government and society. They clearly outline how they plan to impose authoritative government and eliminate many of the checks and balances of our current political system.. 

My friends took me to the  Bürgerbräukeller on Saturday evening, a good way to get a taste of authentic Bavarian beer hall culture. The crowd was mellow, and the obligatory stein of beer was 1-litre. After two of them, I was buzzy. The pretzels and sausages were similarly ponderous. The cig smoke rose to the ceiling, adding to the fog of stale air and aroma of spilled beer. The entertainment early in the evening was very Bavarian. Strong gents tried to pull each other over using rings attached to one finger. They also carried big rocks around the stage using a rope in their teeth. Finally, pretty Bavarian ladies sang ballads and high-stepped.  

The Bürgerbräukeller no longer exists. It was demolished in 1979 as part of a redevelopment program in Munich. I am glad I had the opportunity to see the infamous beer hall.

Dachau

The National Socialist (Nazi) government established the Dachau concentration camp in March 1933 at an old munitions plant in the town of Dachau, about 10 miles northwest of Munich. The camp remained in operation during the entire time of the Nazi government. American troops finally liberated the camp on April 29, 1945. 

 "Arbeit macht frei" ("work sets you free") gate

This infamous gate was stolen in 2014 and recovered near Bergen, Norway, in 2016. The mysterious thieves were never found. This slogan is one of the more cynical and cruel examples of Nazi propaganda. Most prisoners found freedom in death.

Dachau was ominous and horrifying, especially on a gloomy March day. I had never been to a site like this before. How could this happen? A few months before, I read William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, possibly the definitive record of the 20th century's darkest years. But this monumental record of the dark years does not give answers.

Long-term readers may remember I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. Please click the link to see these pictures. 

This ended my short visit to Munich. Next: the train ride to London. 

Winter Stopover in Munich, Germany - from the Archives 1979

En route to the UK and my eventual flight back to USA, my next stop after Salzburg was Munich, Germany. I had visited Munich many times when I was a child, but do not remember much from these earlier trips. A childhood friend lived in Munich, but his apartment was too cramped to accommodate me, so I booked a modest (= cheap) room in a pension. Winter travel in Europe was very convenient in this way in the old days. 

The Munich Haupbanhof is a bustling transportation center with trains coming and going all day and through much of the night. You can catch a train to almost any city in even the furthest corner of Europe, although connections into the Balkans can be a bit sketchy. The bahnhof is a mixture of add-ons and reconstructions, without a coordinated architectural look. I do not know if the main platforms still look like my 1979 photograph.

If World War II had resulted in a different outcome, we might have seen a totally different station and rail network. Adolf Hitler envisioned an incredibly ambitious Breitspurbahn (broad-gauge railway) network using 3,000 mm (9 ft 10⅛ in) track. The system would connect the far reaches of the Reich, with lines leading to India (!), Baku (= oil), and even to Fairbanks. The railroad stations for these new super trains would be enormous ornate domed buildings, with gigantism being the overall motif, similar to the plans to rebuild Berlin. The double decker rail cars would be equipped with lounges, a cinema, and luxury restaurants (similar to ocean liners). Railroad engineers and economists knew the plan was utterly hopeless, but nevertheless, some 200 engineers and officials worked on plans during the war. They were the lucky ones, because this job kept them out of the Eastern Front. 

View from the Rathaus of the Frauenkirche (Nikkor 28mm ƒ/3.5 lens with orange filter)

Marienplatz

Whenever I visit an unfamiliar city, I try to find a high tower or hill from which to see the setting. Marienplatz is the historic center of Munich, a gathering place since Henry the Lion founded the city in 1158. I love visiting cities where history engulfs you. Most tourists come to Marienplatz when they first arrive.

Marienplatz

Chilling out at the Rathaus

A nice day in the sun. As I recall, old ladies in Germany always wore thick heavy coats, even on comfortable days with sun.

Unhappy Greeks wondering what happened to their bodies

Leo von Klenze (1784–1864), architect to the court of Ludwig I, built the Munich Glyptothek. Unhappy Greek, Roman and Etruscan heads and bodies hang around. Will these guys will ever return to their original homes? Are their bodies still back home?

Chinesischer Turm at the Englischer Garten. 1-litre beer steins?

Angel of Peace (Friedensengel)

One could spend weeks in Munich taking in the art, architecture, and culture. Well, that applies to most of Europe. Definitely go there - watch, absorb, eat, enjoy, live life.

To be continued next week.

Winter Stopover in Salzburg - from the Archives 1979

Introduction

In March of 1979, I took the train across Europe en route back to USA. I had spent seven months in Greece and the Middle East, but reluctantly had to return home to find a job (one of those irritating life events). My first stop was Vienna, which I described in a 2020 post (please click the link). Salzburg was my next stop. My grandparents took me there in the 1950s or 1960s, but I cannot remember any details.

The Urban Decay reader may wonder why I bothered to revive 45-year-old negatives. They are casual tourist snapshots. Online, one can find a million (billion?) snapshots of Salzburg. Am I attempting a nostalgia flashback to another era, when I was young and energetic? I was exploring the world around me (as I still am despite my dotage). Was I was beginning to form a photographic technique or vision? Regardless, please let me share these pictures from a long-ago trip with you Urban Decay readers. But be forewarned, there is no urban decay in this series.  

An American in Paris Salzburg. Note the giant tie.

Salzburg

Winter in Salzburg is quiet and peaceful (or at least it was in 1979). There were few tourists, and the tourist office found me a room in a modest pension (with delicious Frühstück, of course!). Being winter, some stores were closed, and fountains were protected with wood covers. I had no specific itinerary, so I walked to the castle and wandered the streets.

Road to the Hohensalzburg Fortress (11th century)

Hohensalzburg Fortress (Tri-X film, 28mm ƒ/3.5 Nikkor lens)

Mozart's Geburtshaus, No. 9 Getreidegasse

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birthplace is a major tourist attraction. If you are a Mozart fan, some of the best recordings are on the Complete Mozart Edition, a 180 compact disk (CD) collection released by Philips Classics Records in 1990–1991. These amazing CDs are cheap on eBay.

Philips Classic Records Complete Mozart albums (compact disk)

The era of big glasses

Berchtesgaden

Alter Friedhof (old cemetery), Berchtesgaden, Bavaria

I took a one-day outing to Bavaria. I had met an American teacher with a class, and she generously invited me to join the group to see the salt mines and the town of Berchtesgaden. We descended deep into the mines by riding wood sleds down a rail. I developed a splitting headache from the air pressure. The miners used to flood caverns and then pump the brine to the surface. After we came up to the surface, we wandered around the picturesque town of Berchtesgaden. The class was very generous to invite me. 

This ended my too-short stopover in the Salzburg area. The next morning, I boarded the train and headed to Munich.

These photographs are from Kodak Tri-X 400 film from my Nikkormat FTn camera. This was a heavy beast for travel, but that is what I had, and I was stronger then. Tri-X was always a reliable travel film with plenty of exposure latitude. In that era, train stations did not have X-ray machines for your carry-on bags. I scanned the film with my new/old Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 film scanner, operated by Nikon Scan 4.03 software. The film has numerous scratches and defects, many of which I cleaned with the heal tool in Photoshop CS6. 

Around Olympia with Kodak T400CN (Abandoned Films 13) (Oly 08)

Introduction

Dear Readers, it happened again. I intended to no longer use expired films because of the risks of blotches or other issues caused by old age and improper storage. But a few months ago, an eBay seller included a complimentary roll of Kodak T400CN film in an order. I loaded it in my Leica IIIC camera and tried it around town. 

T400CN was a 1990s C-41 black and white film. It could be processed in common C-41 chemistry almost anywhere on earth (such as by any 1-hour processing kiosk) and yield black and white prints. I used it a few times in the past. When fresh, it was very fine grain and high resolution for a 400 speed film. Other companies also marketed C-41 black and white films, but today, only Ilford XP2 is left. 

Kodak discontinued T400CN in 2004. The Professional Portra 400BW film was similar (or the same?) and was discontinued about the same time. Kodak replaced them with BW400CN, which I have used in my Abandoned Films series. The last few rolls were more grainy than when they were fresh, so possibly the BW400CN changes chemically when old. Of course, other factors, like the brand of C-41 chemistry, may affect the appearance of the film. Has this T400CN aged more gracefully? 

Because of the age, I decided to expose it at EI=120 rather than the original specified 400. I took the film to Photoland at The Evergreen State College. They called me after 3 hours to report that it was ready! I scanned it on my Nikon Coolscan 5000 scanner. The advantage of a C-41 film, either color or B&W, is that the infrared ISRD function can identify scratches and correct them. It is a convenience because you do not need to touch up as many flaws on the film with a heal tool. Unfortunately, this does not work for traditional black and white film. 

This was also a test of my Leica IIIC camera and its 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens. In the past, the IIIC suffered from a zone that was out of focus on the far right. I suspected that the film was buckling or not lying straight in the rails. I added another nylon washer on the post that pushes the film canister up into the body. The reloadable Leitz film canisters, which were common in the 1940s, may be marginally taller than modern commercial 35mm film canisters. Even if the film lay perfectly flat (which never happens in any 35mm camera), the Summitar has field curvature, so the best focus curves towards you at the sides of the frame. 

Yes, I know, this experiment had too many variables. There were too many degrees of freedom to be able to isolate contributing factors. But you readers can decide if it all worked out. Here are some random scenes around Olympia, Washington. Click any photo to see it at 1600 pixels wide.

Olympia

Impending storm, East Bay, March 2, 2024. The Capitol is in the distance. 

Farmers Market, Olympia, March 2, 2024

Where did all the hail come from? Olympia certainly has interesting weather. What happened to spring?

Unused tracks off Olympia Avenue in the drizzle - where did spring go?

Former Golden Gavel Motor Inn, mid-century architecture at its finest. The unit is being renovated. (5cm Summitar with light yellow filter.)

Traditional wooden houses, view from Legion Way (with medium yellow filter)

Gas meters, Olympia Avenue

Gas meters scanned in full color RGB

I scanned most of this roll using 16-bit grey scale. But my Nikon Coolscan 5000 occasionally shifts to the default setting of full-color RGB (meaning 3×16-bit). I like the effect. It resembles selenium or one of the red toners. I may use this more with this T400CN film, but it would only be effective for certain subjects (artsy-fartsy stuff). 

This is a crop of the scanned file. It shows how much detail this film can capture. And this is from a lens designed before World War II! Note how this film does not have grain in the same way as a traditional black and white film. This, and all C-41 films, have dye clouds, instead.  

Door at 215 Thurston Avenue

Emerging from the 7th Avenue tunnel

Nature

How does this film work with nature topics?

Spurgeon Creek from the Chehalis Western bicycle trail south of Olympia

Olympia Avenue tree (with light yellow filter)

Industry

Foss Waterway, Tacoma

Tacoma is full of interesting topics. I will be returning!

Summary

T400CN film: I am pleased. This long-expired film was fine-grained and recorded a large exposure range. It does not look like traditional black and white film, and it may be less contrasty than Fuji Acros. But T400CN is more convenient to get processed if you have access to a photo lab nearby. Next time, I will expose at EI=100, so two stops more than the original 400. (A few years ago, I tried Ilford XP2, the only current C-41 B&W film, but did not like the results.)

The Nikon Coolscan 5000 film scanner: It is higher resolution than my Plustek 7600i. And the Coolscan has a higher dynamic range, meaning it extracts more data from the film. Also, the Coolscan does a focus adjustment with each frame. But the Nikon Scan software is clunky in a 1990s manner and needs a computer running WIN XP or 7. I will test Silverfast 9 on my Mac for future use, or may try a Windows emulator and load the NikonScan on my Mac. The native Mac versions of NikonScan would not run on the Intel chips. 

My 1949 Leica IIIC:  The extra washer on the bottom post may have solved the problem of the buckling or curved film. It is nice to keep this old family friend in operation. The 5cm Summitar is an impressive lens, especially considering that it was designed in the 1930s.