Old Photographs

Click to view full size, Carman Junction Branch Line

VW Busman posted a wonderful photograph on his blog. 

Lasalle River Ramblings, Ramblings of One Sort or Another


It was taken near his boyhood home of Charleswood, Winnipeg, Manitoba.  It is the Carman Junction branch line previously owned by CNR, but now owned by C.E.M.R  The line goes from Winnipeg to the town of Carman, Manitoba.  I take it from snooping around the Internet that Carman Junction is actually the station connecting this branch to the main located on Wilkes Avenue near the intersection with Harstone Road.  VW Busman took the picture in 1974.   I would never have guessed that this photo was taken near Winnipeg.  It seems to be way out in the country.  More snooping about the Internet revealed that there was a train collision near here back in 1956.

hcpconsulting.ca, Red Board At Carman Junction

What I like about this photo is the play of light in it.  You must view the photo full size to get the effect.  We didn't know that VW Busman is an Impressionist yet that is how this photo strikes me.  It seems to emphasize the play of light in the natural world, one of the hallmarks of Impressionism.  Every thing on the left side of the fence has a different quality in the light reflected back to the viewer than the area to right of the fence.  The fence also seems to be the demarcation between objects and background.  The rails and to a lesser degree the ties have an intensity of brightness that grabs the eye and makes it want to look off into the vanishing point and instills a bittersweet loneliness in the heart.  You look off into that unending distance and you just want to walk forever down the line.  What inspired a young man in his late teens or early 20s to climb a signal tower and take this photo?   He couldn't have known that 37 years later and a 1000 miles away, a man stepping through the threshold of the autumn of his life would stare at his photo in the middle of the night and feel wanderlust.

Click To View Full Size

VW Busman's photo reminded me of several others.  This one is on the cover of Judson Jerome's book Flight From Innocence.  I have no idea where this photograph was taken but I would love to drive down that road.



Edit 5-7-11:  (This edit was lost also).  The cover photo was taken by Carl Mydans and is courtesy of the Library of Congress.  Mydans was a photographer for the Farm Security Administration and later a photojournalist for Life. 



Wikipedia, Carl Mydans










Edit 5-7-11: I just edited my post.  Instead of making the changes I wanted it deleted everything from this point down.  I lost two photos and my text that was below this point.  It almost happened to me the other day with the Hulton Bridge post. Fortunately I caught the problem before I published.  I closed out page without publishing and did not lose anything.  What the hell is going on?

Repost Of Lost Content:  The content below has been re-posted after the loss noted above.  It will not be exactly the same as the original content.

My father took the following two photos at my maternal grandfather's farm in Porter Township, Clarion County, Pennsylvania back in 1952.  It shows to a lesser degree the same play of light as the railroad photo above. .

These photos tug at my heart.  A place lost. The house is still there owned now by people out of the family, but the farm and outbuildings are gone.  The ground was destroyed by poorly restored strip mining after the family sold the farm in the early 70's while I was in the service.  I remember of seeing it when I first got out of the service.  The out buildings had all been torn down.  The spoil pile from the strip mine touched the house.  I wanted to cry and vowed I would never go by the place again.  Ten years later I broke the vow and went back to have a look. The ground was somewhat restored but nothing like it was. Black busted shale with scrappy pine trees growing on it.   I doubt you could farm it now. A very nice couple bought the place from the mining company that destroyed the land. They remodeled the house and built a very nice multi-bay garage. They are happy with their place, and I am glad for them. Yet a piece of me died with the loss of the farm.  It was not valuable, a hardscrabble affair on poor ground with bad water, but some of the best memories of my childhood occurred on that farm.  As I said a place lost.

Here is my mother's family re-union in 1952 at the farm.  My Dad took the picture.  All the adults in this photo are dead with exception of the tallest gentlemen in the back, and the two women seated to the right.  I am the first kid on the left, and my mother is behind me.

This is the same house as the photo above in about 1897 with my great grandparents.  My grandfather (wearing the tie in the 1952 photo) is the child with the white shirt behind the sheep.  The oldest son holding the rifle died of malaria in the Philippines.  The kid with the large ears was a neighbor.