Crazy as a Cool Fox

Contemplation
Salem Willows, Massachusetts

Thursday Challenge is a weekly thematic collaboration of photo bloggers. This week's theme is "mood." For more moody photos click here.

Leaf Shadows
Ropes Mansion Gardens
Salem, Massachusetts

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

A few years ago I wrote a post on the north jetties of Salisbury Beach entitled "Going Over the Bar." I included two postcards of piles of boulders extending out into the Atlantic Ocean. Since then I found a card in my collection of its mate, the south jetty at Plum Island. Both jetties help to hold the navigation channel of the Merrimack River where it is. This card show's people frolicking on the rocks perhaps fishing or watching the surf  on the beach. An adult and child getting their feet wet at the water's edge and a few juveniles are playing around in a rescue boat.
I'm curious as to why there were so many postcards of a pile of rocks. Really the jetties are simple a pile of boulders thrown on top of each other in one straight line extending and curving a bit out to sea. They are about 1/2 mile long.
There wasn't much skill involved in building them. They don't seem to be carefully placed on each other. I imagine the first jetties were built from a…

Old Ships
Salem National Maritime Historic Site
Salem, Massachusetts

The "Friendship of Salem" (left) shares her berth with the "Peacemaker" on a foggy day. This was posted for Thursday Challenge. This week's challenge is "old." For many more photos with this theme click here.

Front Door Shadows
Salem, Massachusetts

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

The Sepia Saturday prompt this week shows a store front
What you are looking at here in both the postcard and more recent Google earth photo is Pleasant Street in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Number 11 Pleasant Street is on the left side with the blue store front. It's the home of Annie's handcrafted jewelry.
Pleasant Street has always been to my recollection a one-way street with the traffic headed toward the church you see off to the right. But from the postcard view the traffic looks as though it flowed both ways. There was even a street car line. I suppose horse and carriage and street cars were not as powerful and bulky as automobiles are nowadays.
The building immediately to the left was once an S.S. Kresge (forerunner to today's K-Mart) and J.J. Newbury, both 5&10 type stores. Immediately to the right was Eaton's Apothecary, one of Newburyport's last independent pharmacies. (There is one left)
Further on the left, the five story brick building, was a sho…

Crane Reflections
North River
Salem, Massachusetts

Thursday Challenge is a weekly thematic collaboration of bloggers. This week's theme is "favorite."
This is one of my favorite photos. For more favorites from other photogrpahers, click here.

Shadows of Columns
Essex County Superior Court
Salem, Massachusetts

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

This is another set of photos which I have culled from my mother's photo albums. She had gathered together not only what were a few of her own class photos but had managed to get one of my father's class photos.

The top photo is my mother's 6th grade class at the Currier School in Newburyport, Massachusetts. She is in the middle row at center in the dark dress and a ribbon in her hair. I love the knickers and high socks the boys are wearing in the first row. This was shot in 1936.

In the bottom photo, shot in 1927, my father is on the right. His teacher's hand is on his left shoulder. He is 10 years old here and looks so shy. My mother had labeled that this is Mrs. Thompson at the Central School in Rowley, Massachusetts. She also labeled the names of two of his best friends and schoolmates. My father lived directly across the street from this location and would have been able to walk home for lunch. The uniform of the day seems to be the "sailor" style in whi…

Big Bell
Gordon College
Wenham, Massachusetts

Posted for Thursday Challenge. This week's challenge is "sound." This bell once rung out from a church steeple in Boston. It now sits in a gazebo on the campus of Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. For more photos related to sound click here for Thursday Challenge.

Archway Shadows
Salem Armory
Salem, Massachusetts

If this shot looks familiar check out my last week's shadow shot. It's taken from the same spot at a different time.
Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2.

Most states have a state fish either by tradition or governmental proclamation. Alaska claims the king salmon, Iowa claims the channel catfish, and Wisconsin claims the muskellunge, as their official fish. Twenty states claim some form of trout. Sixteen of them claim some form of bass, and four of them claim the walleye. But only one state claims the codfish. The cod is the official fish of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

This codfish is not just any old cod. The one pictured is known as the sacred cod. There is a likeness of the sacred cod hanging in the Massachusetts House of Representatives directly across from where the speaker of the house presides. The cod was considered so important that Cape Cod was named after the abundant fish in 1602, 18 years before the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth.
There have been three sacred codfish. One of them was burned when the old state house burned down 1747. One of them mysteriously disappeared when the British occupied Boston during the…

Beach Motion
Dead Horse Beach
Salem, Massachusetts

Thursday Challenge is a weekly thematic collaboration of bloggers. This week's theme is "motion."
For more photos of motion click here for Thursday Challenge.