Bill, Benron, Iowa

Pam’s Pictorama Post: This fine fat furry fellow hails to us from 1910 Diagonal, Iowa. He found his way to me via the wonderfully thoughtful Sandi Outland (@curiositiesantique, an antiques emporium in Texas) who sent me this. Some of you readers might remember that Sandi sent me an utter great holiday card with a period photo on it which inspired a post found here. She is also of the fascinating angry snowman collection which inspired the purchase of a card I wrote about here.

Sandi tucked this in this nice reproduction Felix valentine, shown below. I have often thought I should have a specimen example of this card and she has saved me the trouble of doing so. Thank you again Sandi!

*This Valentine based on a popular period one of Felix.*

Bill, the cat of our card, appears to be a solid citizen of the tabby cat category. Although I have not had a personal association with a tabby since childhood, they are dependably nice cats. The two that graced my childhood were Zipper and Tigger.

I wrote a bit about how Zipper and I as a small child would watch our fish tank together and he would “pat” the fish on the glass, guilty thoughts going through is mind! (Post found here.) He came to us as a starved and tormented stray, so small he was in danger of slipping into the crack in the backseat of the car. He grew into a swaggering dominant male of the neighborhood, holding parties with his kitty cronies in the garage, late night raids on a neighbors eel box! (Zipper’s story can be found here.)

Zipper was gone by the time Tigger came into our lives. He was one of a litter of kittens of our cat Winkie, a great tortoiseshell. My mom was generally a responsible and determined neuter and spay-er of our cats, but somehow Winkie got away from her in advance of being spayed. We kept the four kittens: the tiger Tigger, a marmalade named Squash, and two grays – Ping and Pong.

Tigger who had rather perfect markings was a good natured cat. She ran away once and was found in a neighbor’s barn, but sadly eventually wandered away again not to be found. I have always hoped she found another home, perhaps less bustling and with fewer cats than we had claim to at the time. I think she wanted to be an only cat.

Bill, the fellow in this card, appears to be in charge of a store. My guess is that he spent many a contented hour chasing mice (perhaps even the occasional rat) there and was soundly rewarded for his work in this area. Still, he does not appear to have lived on mice alone. I don’t know if he is just sitting on his tail oddly or if it was docked for some reason, but he is a splendid looking fellow, evidently in his prime here. Behind him is a wonderful wooden box emblazoned with Independent Baking Co. Crackers(?), Biscuits, Etc. Davenport, Iowa. I would claim it for my collection any day offered.

The card is addressed to Miss Sarah Stock, Storm Lake Iowa, Box 734, written in the most beautiful script. It was postmarked and dated April 26, 1910 from Diagonal, Iowa.

*Back of card. Beautiful hand – look at how the “t” in storm forms the “L” in Lake! Still, is hard to read!*

Despite the beauty of the script I am having some trouble reading it, however it appears to say, Dear Sarah, I read another letter from you this morning. I spose I’ll have to answer that to I just finished one last night, let me introduce you to Bill police patrol of Benton Ia. He looks wise. I presume to you like cats as well as I do. I can’t read his name (and no, he didn’t seem fond of periods) and I am open to suggestions. (For some reason I have assigned the sender to be a man, but it could be a woman.)

Although I have come close on several occasions as it happens I have never traveled to Iowa. The university there was under brief consideration for grad school, but life intervened before it got to the visiting stage and my grad school education never materialized. The Jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra played there on tour and that was the most likely way I would have found myself there as an adult, but alas it never happened. The animal hospital I work for now is highly unlikely to send me there, although I guess you never know in life – I could make it there yet.

La Jeune France

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Rainy morning here at Deitch Studio in Manhattan. I was warned about the weather, but still managed to be disappointed when I awoke to it this morning. Sometimes rain can make me feel very cosy, but other times it is just a bit discouraging and I’m afraid I am leaning in that direction. It is early March however and here in the Northeast I guess we just have to take what we can get. It is a many cup of coffee morning as I sit here writing you all. As always though, it is a pleasant rabbit hole into the past to spend some time with one of my photos.

I don’t own many, but I do have a real affection for photos that show a store or establishment and its owner/workers and wares, especially magazines, photos (especially photo studios) or in this case postcards. They are little time capsules in a particular way.

This photo came to me via @missmollystlantiques on Instagram. In reality, a while back, she had sold me another photo in front of a photo shop and to my horror somehow sent it to the wrong person – who sadly did not send it back. She refunded me, but I was quite bereft. Then recently she sent me an offer of this photo since it was the same idea and asked if I wanted it, and here we are.

This woman (the proprietress?), stands in the door of a store called Young France. She has a sort of tunic jacket that perhaps is of the kind you might don each day in the store to keep your own dress or blouse clean. I like the bright buckles on her shoes which make me think she was probably a snappy dresser.

A look under a magnifying device reveals some small religious statues (a small Virgin Mary), medals and postcards in the large window. I think many of the postcards are vaguely religious in content too, although the top row are botanical ones. Some also look like the type of photo postcards that leave room for a bit to be written on the front, a small circle of photo at the top. I believe maybe some are photo cards that are fun – I believe I see one of a cat in a hat! There is a display of landscape photos of a souvenir type, on the doorframe next to her, hanging from a string.

There is a sort of display drawer under the window. They have locks and I cannot make out what is in them. The bottom of the window display also house some objects and other than a vague outline of a book, I cannot see what those are either however. Perhaps someone else would know immediately from the name and type of items what precisely this store was – souvenir items? In that case the religious items seem odd, but the reverse is also true.

Like many photo postcards, this one was never sent and it has no writing on the back. While the image on this card don’t really quite make the usual Pictorama qualifying parameters, it slips into the collection, filed in my mind under slice of life pictures.

A Big Kitty Family Affair

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I guess Pictorama rules are made to be broken, although there aren’t really many. Generally speaking the cardinal rule of Pictoama is that I own the object under discussion. I had barely set the parameter when I broke it back in the earliest days of this venture. (That post, devoted to some wonderful Norakuro toys can be found here.) However, since then I have pretty much stuck to my guns on that and if I have done it subsequent before today, I cannot remember when.

*From a very early, not in my collection post!*

However, I have an excellent reason for bending the rules today. An email came to me via the blog asking about what I call the giant cat chair photo postcards. I own several of these – many fewer than my photos of folks posing with Felix which seem to have started earlier (a few Felix tintype posts here and here), gone longer and reached the shores of Australia where folks posed with him in Katoomba among other resorts. (One of these posts can be found here.) I even have evidence of a giant Felix who appears to be directing traffic in Kualo Lumpur. (Here!)

*Pams-Pictorama.com collection. Felix in Kuala Lumpur.*

However, folks with the big kitty seem to have been exclusively in Great Britain. (We were simply backward here in the US, weren’t we? I haven’t seen the slightest evidence of any of the above. Nary even an early Mickey. Huh.)

Back to our story. Chay Hawes, a denizen of Great Britain wrote to say, My mum was looking through some albums and said “here’s my dad on this weird black cat thing at the seaside” (he’s the boy in the middle of the cat leaning towards his mother) so I typed “weird black cat photo margate” and amazingly your site came up as the first hit. I didn’t expect to find out about the cat so quickly! (Pictorama is always here to help with the important things. Posts about Margate and black cat goodness, including this very kitty, can be found here and here.)

Margate as a beach resort seems to have been redolent in photo ops and looking over my collection and former posts there seems to have been more than one of these giant black cats, an outsized Felix and an odd unidentified clownish character at a minimum. Black cat luck seems to also be particular to sailors so perhaps its seaside location upped the ante on black cat fortune.

*I have a bit of a weakness for these, especially as plates, but not in my collection.*

He asked if there was anything in particular affiliating black cats with Margate. There are copious postcards and bits of souvenir china which feature the felines and boast good luck. While I can find nothing which specifically ties good luck black cats to Margate, I am reminded that the Brits are well ahead of us in their affection for black kitties. I believe I have opined before on the subject of black cats representing good luck there whereas we take the very backward position that they are bad luck.

*One of many Margate lucky black cat postcards. Not in my collection.*

One particular superstition I discovered this morning is that in parts of England if a bride receives a black cat as a gift on her wedding day it is believed she will have luck in her marriage. I say let’s all move there! Happy black cats must abound. They are also thought to bring prosperity in Scotland if found on your doorstep or porch. (I’ll add that with Blackie and Beau in the family, we know we are lucky and prosperous indeed!)

*Not a great photo but here Blackie and Beau meet for the first time last summer. Recognition that they are indeed both black cats seemed to be in the air.*

I believe that Mr. Hawes’s photo is the first that I found in the wild so to speak – not being sold but a family photo, still being enjoyed by the family. It is also rare in that it is dated and noted on the back as below.

Chay says his mom is good about labeling photos and they have nice albums full as well as some wall space devoted to them. It has inspired me to do more with some of the family photos found in Jersey as I organize the house there. Mom and I went through many, but of course have found a bunch of them since she died and now no one to help me identify the folks within. (In fact, heading to NJ now.)

Few of my photo postcards of this genre have any notes and none have been mailed. I go on record by stating that I controlled myself admirably and did not beg him to sell it to me. It is a gem though!

The photographer was having a splendid day in the way he set the kids up on the chair, presumably between their parents. Mom wears a lovely fashionable outfit and an especially nice hat. Dad sports his cap and a pipe. Dad is in front of some sort of sign I am a bit curious about. The children all have a remarkable family likeness. It really is a wonderful family photo! The kitty might be a different actual one than any of the others I have as his white mouth (almost bejeweled looking!) and toes are very prominent – claw paws on this kitty. He has nice whiskers as well.

Chay also noted that his still young grandfather was shown clad in uniform a few short photos later. A sobering reminder that our family photos are snatches of time, a story told in pieces but a story nonetheless.

It gives me great pleasure to know that this photo resides with the family and enjoys status as part of family lore. Thank you so much Chay for writing in and sharing this photo!

Borzage Birthday

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: It’s a today is my birthday post. We’ve had some other post on the day or very close – here and here. The day will be spent, as is our habit, wandering around downtown, poking into stores or flea markets – precious few of both left here in NYC though! Kim will sport me to lunch and if we are in the East Village that will be a plate of perogies or matzoh brie. If it turns out to be Chinatown (which will likely still be ringing in the Year of the Dragon so maybe not) it may be dumplings. I will give a full report next week – which will also be a Deitchian Valentine reveal – an event unequaled except by the holiday card annually!

*From last year’s birthday post! Pams-Pictorama.com collection.*

However, despite birthday prep, I do have a post for you today – this rather spectacular press photo from Lucky Star, an all-time favorite silent film directed by Frank Borzage. Kim and I found it on eBay about 10 days ago and snatched it up as a birthday gift (another one, a toy, to follow in a subsequent post – such riches) for me and I just opened it this morning. (I have written about these films at more length in posts here and here.)

In Lucky Star Charles Farrell, who is playing the main character becomes confined to a wheelchair after fighting in WWI. He is seen on the faux snowy set with Borzage. (The artifice of the snow is especially evident under the the fence in the front.) There is something about the nature of the artifice on an early Borzage set that I love – like a painting or a diorama. The snow is my favorite however and this film has about a third of it in the snow including the wonderful climax at the end. For a long time Lucky Star was not easily available but now you can (and should!) watch it on youtube here. The cottage in the background, this little bridge and pond which is seen at various seasons in the film, and the rickety fence are all Borzage perfection.

*From Lucky Star. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.*

There are some contemporaneous pencil notations on the back, but nothing of note. There is a very unfortunate modern sticker with the name of the film which concerns us as the glue may do a chemical chew through over time. One corner has a pushpin mark in the upper left corner.

Like my scant other stills from Lucky Star and another great film called Lazy Bones – the developer was sloppily applied and the result is odd bleaching and an unintentional sepia tone in the upper right corner. The lower left is the worst though, with a bit of uneven printer alignment too, a blob of chemical ooze is recorded on the lower right. (I have not watched Lazy Bones on youtube but you can try it here. It features Buck Jones in an atypical role – just darn great!)

*From the opening of Lazy Bones. Not in my collection.*

By coincidence, but perhaps also a bit of a tribute considering the purchase of the photo, last night over dinner we caught up with a later Borzage film we’d never seen via youtube as well – Until We Meet Again. (Find it here.) It would be hard to put this in the same category as the silents above, although some of Borzage’s signature aspects remain - star crossed romance, those interesting sets. Sound film, 1940. There is a rushed, low budget quality to it that works against it. Still, I was glad to see it. His films are still showing back up after years of languishing. We saw The Lady in an Italian silent film festival (via the internet) in ’22. It was good, although not really memorable. (The youtube of it is a wretched print and I cannot recommend it.)

I’m not entirely sure what it is about Borzage that speaks to me so specifically, but I will always go out of my way to see any of his work. It’s a combination of his esthetic and storytelling that speaks to some part of me deeply. Maybe I was a fan in a past life – seeing each of the silents as they came out. If you follow that logic, I will still be watching them, again and again, in a future life too. Meanwhile, it’s one of those “big” birthdays, so I will let you know what I think after I have digested it a bit.

Another Fine Felix Photo

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: While I always find a Felix photo postcard day a rare treat here at Pictorama, I am never sure you all quite share my enthusiasm! Today’s addition to my ever growing collection of these cards is the result of a tip by one of my Instagram pals, Baileigh Faucz Hermann (@baileighfaucz.h) who I have purchased photos from in the past (a few of the posts about those photos can be found here and here) and I couldn’t be more grateful.

As is usually the case with these, this card was never mailed and there is nothing written on the back.

*Pams-Pictorama.com collection – an addition to the collection back in ’22.*

While it appears that this postcard could have benefitted from less tired developer back in the day, it is still a prize for this roving eyed Felix who exhibits a sort of overbite and who stands quite chummy with this small child who is only barely contained in his chair. It probably isn’t an utter reach to say that the child is in swim shoes and perhaps a beach costume of sorts.

Behind the kids and Felix is a wooden table with an attractive pot, some stairs. The grounds seems to be sandy so likely a beachside resort. The child’s chair is just his size an Felix is the right size for him too.

****

As I write this, I am on a NJ transit train on a Friday night, heading to Fair Haven after a long week at work. This is the first time I am going to New Jersey since the time we were all here over the holidays and since I started at the new job. So much has happened it seems like more than a few weeks!

*Geraniums which have died back and now are getting ready to go back out in the spring!*

The new job is starting to take root. I am finding my way around better – although yesterday I went in an out door and I must remember that hospitals are like restaurants that way! Still, people are getting used to me and I am getting used to them too. I don’t yet have a place to pick up breakfast, but I have laid in supplies for lunches for the week via Trader Joe’s down the street.

Meanwhile, the train is crowded and it is already dark out as it is early in winter, although it seems the official word of the groundhog this morning is that spring is on the way,

“Snow Time” ’18

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I am always very pleased when the gift of a great photo for the Pictorama library falls into my mitts and this year it came via a holiday card from our friend in Texas known here by the moniker of @curiositiesantique, aka Sandi Outland who works there. (This doesn’t happen often, a photo coming to me this way, however I do remember recently posting about a splendid photo postcard I found in my pile which turned out to be sent to Kim by Robert Crumb. Really would have picked that photo myself. That post can be found here.)

Sandi and I had a wonderful, lengthy holiday DM exchange over antique angry snowmen (photos, cards and items) which actually lead to last week’s kid in a snowman costume post which can be found here. She collects deeply in this area and recently sent a photo of her mantle, piled high with grumpy snowman goodness. I may not be able to contain myself and maybe the house in Jersey will be decorated in grumpy snowmen next holiday season. We shall see. Meanwhile, I am trying to tempt her into coming up for a Brimfield fiesta with me. (Talk about larks! More to come on that and future post I hope.)

*This was the book we were discussing. Kim bought it for me at a con we were at a few months back and Bob Eckstein was there selling them!*

While I have never had the chance to visit Dallas and enjoy an in-person peruse of the physical store I have followed their Instagram account now for many years. The shop is owned by Jason Cohen, and I have chatted with Jason and Sandi on the phone over numerous purchases. In addition to what catches my eye on my the feed, they keep an eagle eye out for my cat related interests, and as a result a jolly box arrives from them periodically. (Some of their goodies can also be found online here. Right now there’s a bronze statue of greyhounds romping and a pirate bank, both which I find very tempting in different ways. See below.)

img_8818

Sadly the photo did suffer a small bend in transit, but in no way does that diminish its appeal. Someone has applied the tiniest bit of sparkle along the line where the snow meets the building, on the bottom of the one girl’s shoe and coat and also and under the sled. (The one under her foot leaves me wondering if she is wearing skates or does it create that impression? Why would she be sitting there with skates on?)

Of course it has all the elements you want from a snowy scene, they are bundled up in their winter best and they have this great little white dog perched on their wooden sled. They are clad in perky hats, heavy coats and scarves. Behind them is a back stair and a somewhat indistinct house. It is an old fashion typewriter that inscribed it at the bottom. The photo has been mounted on cardboard so I don’t know what the back is like and that cardboard mounted on the card stock. Sandi told me she had been saving it for me and I am most grateful.

*My dad couldn’t have resisted this little bronze which makes me tempted to buy it!*

If I were in New Jersey I might be able to dig out a photo of me and my sister in the snow with our dog and sled, circa 1968 or so. At the time we were in a house in a town called Englewood in north Jersey. It had a backyard I remember as huge, with a rock garden going up a hill. That incline was probably just enough for us on our version of a wooden sled which was the classic wood and red paint model of the day. We were stuffed into the snow suits of the day – amazing we could stand up and walk in them at all.

*I really thought this was a cowboy at first and I would have really had to have it. Still, a pirate bank is very good.*..

Meanwhile, our German Shepard (Dutchess) shown in that photo loved to play in the snow with us. My father would make little snowballs and pitch them to her and she would leap up to grab them in her mouth – must have been cold! She was very young at the time though and my memory is that she was always up for any play with us kids outside, all seasons.

It’s a snowless, but gray January day here in Manhattan as I write this. However, contemplating all this fun in the snow has me considering braving for a run or at least a stroll later.

Snowy

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: It has been well publicized that New York City has been snowless (some might say snow free) for a 700 day streak which we just broke last week. There is (some) snow on the ground as I write. As a generally glass half full kind of girl I like snow and usually can immerse myself in the romance of it. It’s pretty. It covers the city in a temporary blanket of white, briefly hiding a multitude of sins. Of course on the other side you have to accept drippy messy days as it melts and a reality of black ice underfoot.

My first day of work was the snowy day and I have ended up wearing my snow boots to the job each day. This job and I have an odd track record for extreme weather as I interviewed during a historic rain which triggered mass flooding in the city. I’m not sure of what the broader implications are for the meteorological effects of my working at this animal hospital are going to be under the circumstances! Considering my commute is a walk a little more than a mile each way to and from work, weather is going to matter. (There is a pokey bus, but I am generally too impatient to wait for it.) This week’s snow was a mostly decorative not inhibitive one.

*A bigger snow out our window from 2022.*

In anticipation and celebration of impending snow I picked up this odd postcard. I have never seen a similar snowman costume and I wonder how long this kid, or any kid, was a willing participant. His hands are entirely covered in the cotton batting that makes his suit. The snowy batting gives him the requisite round head and suggests a rounded body, especially if you add in his arms. Those thorny looking sticks remind me of something Krampus carries. A crushed and not quite jaunty hat with a bird atop finishes the look.

The writing declares, Happy New Year! There is a sort of a full moon behind him with a few more birds atop it. If you look carefully you can see a dark line to define it was added and also that there is a white layer of snow gathered on top. Snowflakes in the form of white paint cover the surface as well, offering some depth to the very artificial scene.

This card was mailed on December 27, but the year is indistinct. It may be 1908. It is addressed in pencil on the back to, Miss Margaret Cosgrove, New Hampton, Orange Co. NY. The sender is harder to read, but is something along the lines of Bob Bruening Batt HH St. TA AEH. It is also marked, Soldiers Mail in the same hand and stamped As Censored and noted in a different hand, in pen, O.K. E.P. Woodard, 1st Lt. 21st F.A.(?) There is no personal note however.

While my first instinct is a childlike enthusiasm for the white stuff, it does impede my running and generally gums things up and slows them down. In New Jersey the driveway and sidewalk have to be cleared. Somehow the world no longer really stops for a snow day the way it did when you were a kid and school was called off. However, I will try to cultivate a cheerful attitude about it since I think we see more snow ahead here in New York City in the coming months.

Barker Brothers – the Long Shot

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today is another installment of my nascent collection of yard long photos. These came to me via @reds_antiques on Instagram. He is a splendid west coast dealer and somehow I have managed to purchase a number of lamps and photographs from him. I suspect if I lived closer I would also be purchasing furniture from him but I have contained myself thus far. (Full images below – click on them to enlarge.)

These photos caught my eye one evening while scrolling through my feed, and after corresponding decided to purchase the lot of them so that they would stay together, although I knew it was my intention to only frame the two very large ones. (A video look at each below too.) There are a clutch of far less interesting group shots taken in a studio.

Barker Brothers Annual Picnic, 1919. Pams-Pictorama.com

As always, I know these are hard to fully appreciate in this presentation although I have tried valiantly. These are a full 48 inches long. Unlike my earlier purchases these were not framed so I took them to a local New Jersey framer my mom used to use. They were speedy and did a nice job. After some discussion we landed on gray mats although I had thought to do them without and needed to be talked into the necessity. They are already so large, I didn’t want to make them a bit larger, but I like the way they look now in the end.

Barker’s Brother Picnic, yard long photo. Pams-Pictorama.com

Although my original thought had been only New Jersey themed photos in this house, I decided I could extend myself to beach and pier scenes when I saw these! Nothing like a good old amusement pier. (Not sure I have every recounted my days visiting the remaining scrap of amusement pier in Long Branch, New Jersey as a kid and then teenager. Among other things friends worked at the Haunted House and outdid themselves to scare us if we came through!)

Below are a few details of each.

The thing I like most about these photos are the amusement rides behind the people – oh that roller coaster (Blue Stream) and that interesting castle, wonder what that was. This is the Santa Monica Pleasure Pier in case you cannot catch the name which is on both.

If you are trying to figure it out, these are not the same year. The smaller of the two, the one with a white border, is dated August 23, 1919. The other one does not appear to have a date – there are some numbers near the studio . Clearly though, both represent the Barker Brother’s Annual Picnic which was clearly quite the affair. The larger of the two (as noted) does not have a border and is printed oddly and it looks cut off, especially on the bottom.

For the record, Barker Brother’s Furniture Company of Los Angeles was founded in 1890 and was in existence for about100 years, folding in 1992 after a bankruptcy filing a few years before. The building, once fairly remarkable, is still extant (renovated in 2020) in a somewhat reduced appearance.

Lastly, these were both taken by M.F. Weaver Photography at 1196 West 38 Street, Los Angeles. Miles Weaver (1879-1932) started his career as a prospector. His photographic career, which began in 1910, came about with the death of his father in-law and moved to Los Angeles (from Santa Maria) in 1916. The studio became one of the largest of this genre of photos – taking pictures of banquets, army troops, religious revivals, beauty pageants, movie stills and even the early Academy Awards. After Miles’s death in 1932 the studio was run by his wife and sons until the 1960’s when it dissolved.

My quest continues! I am especially interested in acquiring some landscape ones up next, but we’ll see what comes my way.

Christmas is Coming Cat Card

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s is an odd photo postcard I picked up recently. In 1902 Kodak introduced photo postcard packages were able to print their negatives right on them and I imagine that this card, sent in 1905 seems to be of this genre.

As I envision the making and using of these cards (something I actually have spent some time pondering) I wonder if they made a little pile of them at a time or only printed the one off. Will I someday be searching through eBay or a pile of photos and find the exact card but with a different message? (Imagine my surprise!) It seems like it could happen, but it never has to date.

This card, as is declared decoratively at the top, was sent on December 21st, 1905 from Berlin, New York. After some serious study, it appears to have been sent to Mr. J. E. Whiteker in Barnstead, New Hampshire. (There’s one word I can’t quite figure out – center? outer? Barnstead.) There is also a notation in pencil in the upper right corner, 7/27/75 15￠.

Shown as a plump puss with a fairly satisfied look on his face which belies the message to some degree. He is perched on some sort of print fabric and behind him there is a check tablecloth piled high with books.

The message on the card appears to read as follows, Dear Brother (?) This is the cat that didn’t kill the rat – we didn’t get a good picture. (Serve?) him a good Xmas dinner and make him grovel for it. “A personal Christmas to you from us. Herbert. Clearly a message of great holiday cheer.

Inability to execute a rodent notwithstanding, kitty looks pretty well fed and happy. A smile lurks in his genial expression. At a glance, he doesn’t really have the promising appearance of a rat killer, although with cats looks can deceive I suppose.

This sort of stripe-y tom is reminiscent of several of the New Jersey crew I inherited. Milty, a stray from Newark and Peaches, rescued from a basement in Long Branch, both fall into this distinctly indistinct category of cat. Most notably, our outdoor man, christened Hobo by me a few years back, fits this bill as well. (Peaches hates Hobo and looks the most like him!) The ongoing Hobo story is known to Pictorama habitués, but his tale is below.

I can’t remember precisely when Hobo showed up except that I believe it was after mom adopted Stormy, a gray and white kitten who was also being fed at the backdoor. Like my mom’s other rescues, she showed up persistently and was looking increasingly poorly when mom trapped her with the intention of spaying and releasing her. She turned out to be a very shy, but good natured kitty and she never returned to the outdoors. (She still chases her tail, like our Cookie!) Therefore, Hobo probably came into the fold around April of ’22.

Hobo, a bit of a reprobate, has resisted trapping. He’s a wily fellow who, when he is around, will ask for meals several times a day, leading me to think he has worms and wondering if I might slip something for them into his food. Last year this time mom was fairly focused on trying to get him trapped and in before the winter, but try as Winsome and I might we could not entice him in, making me wonder if he had been trapped in a cage before.

*Peaches and Hobo. Next to Peaches is a favorite toy rat which is often a gift on my bed when I am there.*

Unlike the others mom eventually trapped and adopted (I inherited five cats, plus Hobo from her when she died in April – yes, plus two here in NY), Hobo has the real earmarks of a life lived outside. I’m sure he looks older than his years and of course living the outdoor life, while sort of swinging and intriguing, is likely to drastically reduce his life span. (A Peaches to Hobo comparison below!)

Over the summer I had a video texted to me by a horrified Winsome who came across Hobo feasting on a rat! Evidently he had also brought her a dead mouse – gracious acknowledgment of the many meals she has given him. Clearly however he was supplementing his protein with a bit of a la carte dining. I had the opposite reaction and said he deserved a promotion and give that cat some treats! (We are not far from the water and we are always somewhat in danger of being overrun by rats.)

Sadly, Hobo seems to be on the lamb these days and hasn’t shown up in more than a week. Winsome reports daily and has tried leaving food out for him in case he is visiting at odd hours. It isn’t the longest he’s been gone and I believe (hope) there are other folks in the neighborhood who feed and look out for him. (We’ve seen him picking his way, very dignified, through other yards and down local streets.) We are decamping for several weeks in New Jersey and I am hoping he reappears then if not before.

Edit: I received an update tonight that Hobo showed for a late dinner! We’re very glad he is back in the fold.

Swimming

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: This photo has been on my desk for a long time and it drifted to the top of the pile today. As I write on a chilly November morning, summer and swimming is already a distant memory while the long winter days of January, February and March lay, daunting, ahead. It reminds me that it has been many years since I have been swimming in the ocean, or even a smaller natural body of water.

I thought about taking up swimming during the pandemic. I think I would need a few lessons to get to the point where I am swimming laps successfully. I may still do it. Long term the low impact of swimming may make better peace with my arthritic body than the endless pounding of running.

This photograph has a remarkably dreamy quality. The way the definition of the water disappears, yet there are just a few people going way out to the horizon line. The four women are wearing old-fashioned bathing caps, but even the somewhat saggy bathing suits don’t mar the timeless quality of the image. We see their reflections, but not below the surface. It manages to reach across time which is what the best old photos do for me.

Years ago I wrote a post (found here) based on the quote, save something for the swim back, and that quote comes to my mind when I look at this photo. The post was about the struggle I was having in the fall of 2019 where I did feel I was drowning at times. Little did I know how much would change in the next six months when March of 2020 rolled around.

This image feels like the liminal space between things – those times where we are parked in one of the great waiting rooms of our lives. That’s not to say those periods are fallow. I wrote several times about the time I spent caring for my mom during her final illness. (One of those posts can be found here.) While it was a world away from everything else, it was a time I learned a lot. Time seems to slow and morph. It is a period that seems to be outside of the ongoing time-space continuum of my life otherwise.

I have been in a similar space again recently as I began to commit to leaving my current position at Jazz at Lincoln Center and moving to another, very different one. That weird period when you realize that you are probably leaving, but you haven’t committed yet and are not ready to tell anyone. You stop investing in the future of what you are doing beyond a point because you won’t be there to do it so you are mentally treading water. However, after six and a half years I gave notice right before the holiday and more about that adventure in coming weeks for readers who stick around.

Lastly, to note: this is a photo postcard, but it is mounted on another piece of cardstock. I did not purchase it so it has the rare distinction of not being of my choosing as is virtually everything posted about here. Pictorama is pretty much wholly curated by me. However, this card arrived in the mail last December and there is a note from the fellow cartoonist Robert Crumb to Kim on the back. And we decided however, that the photo merited its own place here in Pictorama.