The Carnival's In Town

17th EDITION

Smile For The Camera
10 September 2009

Let's call this class to attention, as my 6th Grade teacher Miss Minter would say. I think we all loved "School Days." The new lunch pail and that giant box of crayons. This carnival was a pleasure.

Again, you have outdone yourselves presenting a very interesting and varied group of photographs depicting you, your friends, ancestors and their "School Days."

Let's open the cover of this edition of Smile For The Camera's album of "School Days." It is September after all.

Cyndi Beane Henry's submission, COG - "Smile for the Camera," posted at Mountain Genealogists shows "A photo of the Texicanwife from her high school days. Along with a little reflective poem, also by the Texicanwife." I loved the poem Cyndi. When looking in the mirror I often reflect on the same things.

Lorine McGinnis Schulze always has wonderful photographs and she doesn't disappoint in Lambton Park Toronto School Photo 1919 posted at Olive Tree Genealogy Blog. "Gangs of New York comes to Toronto Canada! 1919 class photo of my mother's cousin Doris Simpson with her schoolmates." I think many of our ancestor belonged to this gang.

Wendy Littrell presents Readin? and ?riting and ?rithmetic posted at All My Branches Genealogy. "School signals the end of summer, beginning of football season, the changing of the weather, the time to curl up with a hot mug of hot cocoa and a good book, and a reason to start making my chili!" What would our ancestors say if they knew we were posting their report cards for the whole world to see?

Missy Frye's School Days: Smile for the Camera posted at Missy's Genealogy Blog is a photograph of her 1974 Halloween Carnival. She was a flower girl! And an adorable one at that.

Dru Pair presents Memory Monday: A Demonstration of Love posted at Find Your Folks. Professor Dru writes a heartfelt article about the love and care shown to her by a group of high school friends. Friends still. You made me feel good, Dru. Often, life is good.

Midge Frazel presents Grandmother's School Photo posted at Granite in My Blood. Grandmother's School Photo is an old-fashioned look back and elementary school group photos. Is this an all-girls school or maybe a Sunday School class sitting on the steps of a house? Whichever it is, it sure is cute!

Cindy Curtin presents Wordless Wednesday - Back To School!! posted at Everything's Relative - Researching Your Family History. The Fourth Grade Class, Rockville, Maryland Elementary School. Ah, youth and a great photograph!

Henk van Kampen shows us a group of third grade MULO (high school) pupils from the Klokkenberg MULO in Nijmegen in his post School days at Roots. The start of school is the same all over the world and Henk shows us the photographic proof.

Frances Ellsworth tells us she survived the School Pictures Record How We Grow posted on her blog Branching Out Through The Years. I too remember the night before my school photograph and for me it got worse with age. Frances and her three sets of photographs obviously got better with age.

Linda Hughes Hiser introduces us to three life long friends that's friendship began in elementary school, in her ticket to Smile for the Camera, 17th Edition "School Days" posted at Flipside." There was a time when this country was less mobile than today. You could form a friendship in the first grade that lasted a lifetime. Is it possible now?

Carol presents Smile for the Camera, 17th Edition, 4 Generations of School Photos posted at Reflections From the Fence. A beautiful generational family album of school photographs. Great job, Carol! (I love the title of Carol's blog. I can see my Grandmother hanging on the fence.)

Sheri Fenley's ticket to Smile is a 1908 class photograph titled School Days in Kansas posted at The Educated Genealogist. What makes Sheri's photograph so interesting is that it is a postally unused postcard. Many amateur photographs during this time were made into postcards. Sometimes school districts or teachers used this as a remembrance for the students.

Sue Edminster presents Graduation Day, 1910 posted at Echo Hill Ancestors Weblog. A graduation photograph of her father holds some very interesting genealogical clues. She says, "The students and teacher are all wearing ribbons clearly showing the year as 1910. Sadly the rest of the ribbon isn’t readable." Sue, would your father have attended a Catholic school? The ribbon looks as if it may say St. Ann and appears to be the signatures of all the students pictured. Do you have a higher resolution scan that could be enhanced?

Fellow Missourian Jenna Mills of Desperately Seeking Surnames (love the name!) counts the ways a child grows in Bittersweet Journey of a Child's School Days. From the photographs that tell the story, to the the numbers. Jenna, you've got you ticket!

Charles Hansen presents I smile for the Camera, School Days posted at Mikkel's Hus. "Hard to believe this was in 1960, but the school was torn down in 1989 and a new Whitman was built (third Whitman school). The new building looks like a concrete warehouse with a few windows, but the school district saved a bundle by building all the schools the same." Welcome fellow Washingtonian! Great job!

Leslie Ann at Lost Family Treasures would like to post her old school photographs, but they're in Idaho and she's in Florida. She does have one, though, and it's a treasure. Thanks to her kindergarten teacher we get a look at Leslie Ann on her last day of kindergarten in Smile For The Camera - School Days. Having even one "School Days" photograph is a good thing.

Ken Spangler has a damaged photograph of his mother in School Days - Atlanta, Texas - 1949-50 posted at Beyond Fiction. Now Ken, I'm not a restoration artist but I thought you might like a look at Mom without the crease.

Greta Koehl presents Smile for the Camera: School Days posted at Greta's Genealogy Bog. From my mother's old photo albums and through the generosity of a couple of cousins who shared pictures with me, I have been able to find photographs showing the old building of the school attended by some of my mother's siblings, a couple of her sisters from their high school days, and a picture of one of the teachers there who married one of her brothers."

Geniaus presents Flowers and Sunshine Cheer our Pathway..... posted at Geniaus. "The Class of '65 at St. Vincent's College had a happy time at school." The oldest Catholic girls school in Australia. It was established by the Irish Sisters of Charity in 1858. I loved this submission. From 1956 to 2008, no one has changed a smidge.

John Newmark's Smile for the Camera: School Days posted at TransylvanianDutch is a real winner. John, I too am amazed at what your maternal grandparents, Martin and Myrtle (Van Every) Deutsch saved. This was a truly beautiful post filled with photographs and ephemera. I really enjoyed your submission.

Earline Bradt presents Smile For The Camera #17 - School Days posted at Ancestral Notes. "Here is one of my favourite school pictures, wearing my "beef stew" dress that my mom made for me." What is a "beef stew" dress you ask. You must stop by Ancestral Notes to find the answer.

Jasia, the Queen of the COG, and author of Creative Gene is Remembering Those Elementary School Days.... "September always reminds me of going back to school. And for me that brings happy memories. I always enjoyed the school environment and looked forward to going back to school every year." I know just what you mean.

Caroline Pointer of Family Stories is so talented. Her Family Stories: Hurry Up To Look Back is the not to be missed submission. "A look back at my family's school days. Even though we may hurry up only to look back, sometimes we take a little memento of the past with us on our journey forward."

Craig Manson gives us an excellent history lesson in Good Schools A Staple of Ancestors? Lives posted at GeneaBlogie. The information, the photographs, and those perfect sources are brilliant. And so is Craig!

I had the pleasure of meeting Gini Webb of Ginisology at the SoCal Jamboree. She is a beautiful person inside and out. In her submission for Smile Gini tells us about her family photographic tradition started for her Grandchildren. Now, get those pictures out of the camera, we want you to prove you're a Grandmother. I just don't believe it!

Everyone knows I am an unabashed fan of Brett Payne, The Photo-Sleuth. I love the new profile photograph created by his daughter. You must see it. Brett can only do a post if he gives it his all and School Days in Den Haag is no exception. "A sequence of class photographs showing my Oma over a period of almost two decades, first as a scholar, then at teacher training college, and lastly with a class of her own."

Becky Wiseman gets the prize for the most dedicated Smile participant. She is submitting while on the road, now in Kansas. My very brave blogging friend has set off on the journey of a lifetime. You are one amazing woman! How I envy you. Please let me know when you reach Seattle. Her submission lists some excellent past posts to review and a priceless sketch in kinexxions: Schooldaze posted at kinexxions.

Carol Genung demonstrates that they don't make them like they used to in Smile for the Camera, 17th Edition - School Days posted at Illuminated Ancestries. How can we tear down our history?

Be jealous, be very jealous! While we toil away on our blogs, Donna Pointkouski of What's Past Is Prologue is touring the world {sigh}. She didn't go away without leaving her submission for Smile, Back To School. Take a look at her grandfather, James Pointkouski, and his 8th grade class at the Horatio B. Hackett public school in Philadelphia, 1926. Granddad was a cutie.

foonoteMaven closes the album cover on this edition of Smile For The Camera with History Hidden In The Shed posted at Shades Of The Departed. As always the ghosts of the street where I live are here to Smile For The Camera.

Thank You All!

Thank you to everyone who participated in this fantastic 17th Edition of Smile For The Camera and welcome to all the first-time contributors. We had several. It is evident from each and every photographic submission that a great deal of time, effort, love, and research went into each contribution. As Randy Seaver would say, please take a moment to stop and comment and show your appreciation!

Now The Call For Submissions!

18th EDITION

Smile For The Camera
10 October 2009

The word prompt for the 18th Edition of Smile For The Camera is "Travel." Planes, trains and automobiles. Horses, mules, carts, and wagons. Bikes or on foot. Show us your family and how they traveled. This is going to be a good one, I feel it in my luggage. Admission is free with every photograph!

Your submission may include as many or as few words as you feel are necessary to describe your treasured photograph. Those words may be in the form of an expressive comment, a quote, a journal entry, a poem (your own or a favorite), a scrapbook page, or a heartfelt article. The choice is yours!

And speaking of traveling, there will be no Smile in October, the Travel prompt for Smile will be due 10 November. I am traveling to Montana for my son's wedding and then I'm off to Yellowstone, Deadwood, Mount Rushmore, Glacier, and back home. How many antiques stores do you think there are on this trip?

Deadline for submission is midnight (PT)
10 November 2009

HOW TO SUBMIT:

There are two options:

1. Send an email to the host, footnoteMaven. Include the title and permalink URL of the post you are submitting, your name, and the name of your blog. Put 'Smile For The Camera' clearly in the title of your email!

2. Use the handy submission form provided by Blog Carnival, or select the Bumper Sticker in the upper right hand corner.

See you at the Carnival!