Showing posts with label Old West. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Old West. Show all posts

Thursday, January 27, 2011

20 Scary Old School Surgical Tools

I just saw this article and I was pretty shocked. Most of them make you shout "OH MY FUCKING GOD!" and make your best awkward/ disgusted face.


My favorite is the Tobacco smoke enema. Apparently this is where the popular saying of blowing smoke up someones ass comes from. What's yours?


Enjoy!


http://www.surgicaltechnologists.net/blog/20-scary-old-school-surgical-tools

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Ghost of Boothill Graveyard




"This is the photo that changed my opinion about ghost photos," says Terry Ike Clanton, who runs the TombstoneArizona.com website. Clanton is an actor, recording artist and cowboy poet, and is also a cousin of the legendary Clanton Gang who clashed with the Earps and Doc Holliday at the famous gunfight at OK Corral. Clanton took this photo of his friend at Boothill Graveyard. The photo was taken in black and white because he wanted Old West-looking pictures of himself dressed in Clanton's 1880-period clothes. Clanton took the film for developing to the local Thrifty Drug Store, and when he got it back was startled at what he saw. Among the gravestones, just to the right of his friend, is the image of what appears to be a thin man in a dark hat. By height, the man appears to be either legless, kneeling... or rising up out of the ground.




"I know there was no other person in this photograph when I shot it," Clanton insists. And he believes the small figure in the background is holding a knife. "We thought this was a tie at first, but after further review, it appears to be a knife," Clanton says. "The knife is in a vertical position; the tip is located just below the figure's right collar. If you're not convinced that something is weird here, look at my friend's shadow in the photo. It appears to be going back slightly to the right of him. The figure in the back should have the same shadow, but it doesn't!"

Friday, November 6, 2009

Harvey Girls




Passing through Barstow California one can visit an original Harvey House as seen in the photo above.


The origin of the Fred Harvey Company can be traced to the 1875 opening of two railroad eating houses located at Wallace, Kansas and Hugo, Colorado on the Kansas Pacific Railway. These cafés were opened by Fred Harvey, then a freight agent for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. The café operation ended within a year, but Fred Harvey had been convinced of the potential profits from providing a high quality food and service at railroad eating houses. His longtime employer, the Burlington Railroad, declined his offer of establishing a system-wide eating house operation at all railroad meal stops, but the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway subsequently contracted with Harvey for several eating houses on an experimental basis. This led to the creation of the first restaurant chain ever.


In 1883, unhappy with the conduct of his rowdy male service staff (who often picked fights with the customers and arrived at work drunk—or not at all), Harvey implemented a policy of hiring only female waitresses. He sought out single, well-mannered, and educated ladies, and placed ads in newspapers throughout the east coast and midwest for "Young women, 18 to 30 years of age, of good character, attractive and intelligent." The girls were paid USD $17.50 a month plus room, board, and tips to start, a generous income by the standards of the time.
The girls were subjected to a strict 10:00 p.m. curfew, administered by a senior Harvey Girl who assumed the role and responsibilities of house mother. The official starched black and white uniform (which was designed to diminish the female physique) consisted of a skirt that hung no more than eight inches off the floor, "Elsie" collars, opaque black stockings, and black shoes. The hair was restrained in a net and tied with a regulation white ribbon. Makeup of any sort was absolutely prohibited, as was chewing gum while on duty. "Harvey Girls" (as they soon came to be known) were required into a one-year employment contract, and forfeit half their base pay should they fail to complete the term of service. Marriage was the most common reason for a girl to terminate her employment.




In a mythology that has grown around the Harvey Houses, these female employees are said to have helped to "civilize the American Southwest." This legend found its highest expression in The Harvey Girls, a 1942 novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams, and, more notably, the 1946 MGM musical which was inspired by it. The film starred Judy Garland & Angela Lansbury,it was directed by George Sidney, and introduced the Johnny Mercer song "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe."




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