The video seems as if it was taken when the sun was shining! Unless you've lived over there, you don't realize how rare of an event that really is. Pretty cool seeing what the world was like, once upon a time... that ship has certainly sailed, in regards to cleanliness of the streets and the environment etc.
I love these old days vids. Just like we used to do they get dressed up if going out into the public. Blows my mind that the Queen we know wasn't even born yet. There is another old vid of the 50's show "I've got a Secret" where there is an old guy that was actually present in Fords Theatre and witnessed the Lincoln assassination. Wowzer, from that to being on TV. That's crazy but true.
Yeah, I've seen that... it was on What's My Line, or one of the shows like that...
In my lifetime, I have gotten to talk to someone who was born in the late 1870s, in Northern New York State. We talked for quite a while about the Civil War, he was telling me stories that had been told to him in his youth by his Uncles and Dad that had actually been there in Combat. I was in college and the old man was in his 90s at the time.
I was hiking up in the Adirondacks, and the trail went thru what had been an old farm, that looked to be abandoned. There was all this old junk on a large wrap around porch, a couple big old barns. I was walking around and looking at things and looked in thru a window on the house, and you can imagine my shock, when I see an old man in there.
I thought I'd seen a ghost, until he walks outside and says hi to me. Then offered me some water to drink if I wanted some.
It was the home he was born in and raised in, and in his 90s, he was the last of his relatives. The land was part of the National Park in Northern New York. There was a large fire that swept across Northern New York in 1902, and that is when the Federal Government acquired the land, after most farms were burnt out. This one survived, and kept functioning until everyone else had passed on.
NY State Police, would fly in, in a helicopter once a week to check on him. All the junk laying around, was stuff the state police would bring up in the helicopter, from local Good Wills that had been donated, but needed repair. So that is how he occupied his time. NO TV, radio etc. Good Will would donate food for him to eat, and the State Police brought it via helicopter to him. Sure was a friendly old guy. He loved to have hikers pass by and gave him someone to talk to.
Made several trips up that way during my college years just to see the old guy. He was still alive by 1975, when I graduated college and I never made any more trips up that way.. He would have been in his late 90s.
Seeing that thing on What's My Line, always reminds me of that old man. He would talk about the things his Uncles had told him about their time during the Civil War and a lot of the times, I could finally tell the battle that they had fought in. That had fought in Northern Virginia and that was home for me.
Another moment of being able to talk to people that had experienced history, long ago... or to hear stories told about our history, from people who had been there, who had told it to the old person tell you about it. Like a time bridge.
I count that as some blessed experiences I have had the joy of having, in my younger years.
In the military I worked in an Army Hospital for two years. Many of the patients were WW 1 vets, who were in their 70s back in those days. I've talked to a 1000 or more of those guys.. Even had patients who had served as far back as the Spanish American war, who were in their 90s.. and even Mr Trainer... he trained troops during WW 1 because he had "combat" experience. When I asked where he got combat experience before WW 1, he told me He had spent 18 months with General Pershing, chasing Poncho Via from one end of Mexico to the other. This experience was when I was busy shaving the guy, when he was 98 y/o, so we could take him down to X Ray, as he had a barium enema scheduled. Brooks Army Medical Center, Ft Sam Tx. Old boy joined the Army in 1907, chased Poncho Via in Mexico, trained troops for WW 1, had been in the Cavalry when he first joined, and retired in 1937 flying B 10 Bombers based out of Alaska, and before that in the Philippines. What a resume. Fortunate enough to have known some of these types of guys.
