Whatever Happened to the Forties?
What’s one of the best things that can happen to a mystery writer? Well, to come up with your own personal mystery, of course. And that happened today.
I’m in the process of building another Book Trailer and Bogey Nights (the book) involves a few issues from the 1940s. It becomes a long, drawn out issue to try to find graphics on the Internet, but what else are ya gonna do? What’s a trailer without graphics?
So, I have this huge old trunk my grandmother gave me, and it’s chock full of old photos. This trunk has three layers and enough photos to last a lifetime (or maybe several lifetimes). There are photos from the 1800s on up to the 1990s. You can find a photograph to suit just about any occasion. There are ornate vintage greeting cards dating back to the early 1900s and plenty of aged postcards. In addition to family photos I’ve found pictures of a train wreck, scenery, and shots my grandfather took around the world when he was in the Navy from 1904 – 1907 (he was quite a bit older than my grandmother). I even found (to my horror/fascination) a photo of a firing squad shooting some people. How’d you like to find that stuck in the middle of the likenesses of great-grandparents? There are plenty of pictures of people just goofing around. Yes, they used to do that in the old days, too. They were “staged” photos of a boxing match, a man proposing marriage; that type of thing.
This trunk is so full that every time I go through it I find things I’ve missed every other time I’ve gone through it. Today I found a small diary, and a pad of paper on which my grandmother tried her hand at writing poetry. I’m very family-oriented so these things are important to me.
However, back to business. I’m looking for candid photos from the 1940s. I find some group family shots, but that’s not the type of thing I need. I finally see an old album resting in the bottom of the trunk. It’s full of old greeting cards from the forties and I know I’ve found what I was looking for. Eureka! Oh, really? The cards are followed by page after page of those little black tabs that people used to use to hold down the corners of photos – and that’s it. There are lots of tabs, but no photos. They’ve all been removed. Picture me looking perplexed.
Now, I come from a family of photographing fools. They took pictures of everything they could aim a camera at, including a buggy being pulled by an ostrich and my great aunt trying to look sexy in a woolen bathing suit. Yes, this is the same great-aunt who was seen drinking out of a perfume bottle which I mentioned in the Thanksgiving blog.
Okay, I’ve got the group family shots from the forties, and pictures of my brother and sister and me, but this isn’t what I need. So what happened to the 1940s? Where did all the pictures go? The people who could answer that question for me are all gone. Those who are left won’t know the answer. An era is missing. How can you lose a whole ten years?
Maybe I’ll never know the answer to this little mystery. Or maybe I’ll find something informative in the trunk the next time I go through it, although I have overwhelming doubts. And maybe I’ve just stumbled on an idea for a new mystery. Ideas come from the darnedest places.
You’d think a mystery writer could figure this one out, wouldn’t you?
Until next time, I wish you a New Year of good health, prosperity, and… Well, maybe a little mystery of your own to solve. They can be so much fun.
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Categories: Research, Solving a Mystery, Story Beginnings, Story Ideas, History, Fiction Writers, Marja McGraw, Books, Humor, Family, Reading, Authors, Mysteries, Fun, Mystery
Tags: Marja McGraw Blog Fiction Writers Authors Books Mystery Blog Mystery writer Mystery Humor Fun Writing Mysteries Sandi Webster series Cozy Mysteries Chris Cross Family Story Ideas Research The Bogey Man Marja's Mystery Blog Oak Tree Press story beginnings Photographs Vintage Photographs Personal Mysteries
Oh, oh, I hope there was nothing incriminating in those missing photos. Or, if you're like me, maybe you wish there was. Some of us crave a horse thief in the ancestry--just to liven things up.
Happy New Year, Marja.
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Like you, I'd love to find a true mystery involving the missing photos. Uh, on second thought, since it would involve family, maybe not. Happy New Year to you and yours, too.
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An old trunk! Yeah, that's the kind of thing I'd love to find.
In "Mixed Messages," Lawrence frequently goes through the old trunks in his mother's attic to discover everything from old love letters to Civil War memorabilia.
Possibly, I'm living vicariously through him?
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Patricia, Thanks for stopping in. I've had this old trunk for years, and yet every time I go through it I find something new. Fun!
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This reminded me of the times in the 1940s and 50s when my brother and I would visit our grandparents' farm and go upstairs to look through old family albums. In one album there was supposed to be several pages of the track medals our father won when he went to Oklahoma A&M in the 1920s. Sadly they were missing and no one in the family knew or admitted they knew who took them. It has always been a mystery to me why anyone would take them. I know they meant a lot to my father and to my brothers and me.
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Tricia, That's so sad. These are the things we treasure, and when the disappear it's heartbreaking. Thank you for stopping in and sharing.
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Loved your post and mystery, Marja. I have all my family's old photo albums dating back to the 1880s, and there are also some missing pictures as well as people whose identities are a mystery. (Great photo of the ostrich pulling the wagon, btw.)
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Thanks, Jean. In that same trunk I found a real honest-to-goodness $3 bill. You just never know what will turn up. That was one of my great-great-aunts in the buggy with the ostrich.
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Marja, this really hit home. My mother left me 32 photo albums which I treasure, but like you, once in a while some are missing. My mother was very private. She burned all my Dad's letters from his Navy days during WW II, which annoyed me no end. What a treasure those would've been. He used a code in his signature that they'd figured out earlier that let her know about where he was. I so wanted them. Thanks for reminding me that others have the same losses from their past.I really enjoy your blog.
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Thank you, Velda. I'm so sorry about the letters. They really are a treasure. My grandmother was pen pals with a couple of men during WWI. One of the men wrote the most interesting letters, telling her things that were happening almost as they happened. I keep those in a special place.
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My dad has been going through old family photos to distribute to the kids and other family members. Some of those old photos are pretty interesting. What a great idea, getting an idea for a novel through old photos.
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Well, Stephen, I hope you receive the most interesting of the photos. They can be inspiring. Thanks for stopping in.
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This is an author who I follow. So please enter me for a chance to win her book.
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Hi, Jane,
You are entered for a chance to win 'MOONSHINE MURDER'. Thank you for commenting...
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