Historic Hood River
Happy Birthday, HHR!
Notes
I really don’t know much about this undated Alva Day photograph, but I like their style. Sure, there are some loaves of Franz wheat bread and dishes of what might be chicken salad, but they are practically untouched. Everyone has gone straight for the pie, the German chocolate cake, the brownies, the ice cream and berries. And none of this “which one would you like.” Everyone seems to have all of the desserts on their plates at the same time. I’m not sure about the cans of condensed milk, but perhaps that’s for the coffee.
Ten years ago I made an experimental post of this image, intending it to be a private communications channel with a couple of local historians who I hoped would help me identify some details in our photo collection. We hadn’t yet started scanning what I believed to be 5000 images. But after I released the link into the world, first through Hood River Weather, I discovered how much local knowledge is out there, and how quickly you all would extract every detail from our images.
Our digital image archive now contains more than 20,000 images, almost 2.5 Terabytes of data, and there’s plenty left to scan. We’ve explored 2600 photographs in detail on this site. We’ve had over 3 million image views from all over the globe, and the average viewer spends 3.5 minutes wandering through the collection on a visit. You’ve left over 20 thousand comments identifying family members or noting clues to the date or location, providing useful resources with further information, or just commenting on the snapshot of life we’re viewing. Early on I described this site as an effort to crowdsource history, and I think that’s exactly what has happened.
So a sincere “thank you” to those of you who comment every day, or just occasionally, or who just enjoy wandering through the archives on a rainy day. You’re all furthering the mission of Historic Hood River and the History Museum of Hood River County.
And if this image seems a little familiar to you, we saw this table from the kid’s end on our 7th birthday. But we’re 10 now, so we can visit the grown-ups end of the table to see what they are doing. Turns out they’re doing the same thing the kids are doing, though maybe a little less messy.
Wendell
These are the types of family get togethers I remember as a child. They were huge and the food was enough to feed the entire town and all home made, nothing coming out of boxes or store deli’s that is for sure.
Note the men are all dressed in dress shirts and ties. Curious as to what is in the lard bucket, maybe butter (naturally the real home made stuff) for the bread. Days must be passed for home made bread.
Love those white shoes the man has one. Definitely summer in old Hood River.
Marilyn
A lot of the men appear to have the same haircut.
Big thanks to you Arthur, without you we wouldn’t be able to enjoy this project. This is the first place I go every morning to start my day.
Suej
Happy birth day! My first sites to go to in the morning are HRW and HHR. Both so interesting and informative, thanks for all your effort in recounting and saving the past.
L.E.
This would have been the era of "best thing since sliced bread". Probably a real treat to have a loaf of store bought bread on the table.
If there are fresh berries on the table, I bet the canned milk is to pour over a bowl of berries.
We have seen the young man at the head of the table. I bet we could find him in the archives of 2600 photos.
Hard to believe it has been 10 years since you first posted the photo of the Rand Livery stable which captured our interest and love of HR history.
Arthur, you and this site are the best thing since sliced bread!
nels
And the woman hanging on to the squirming babe in arms, yet smiles for the camera.
Fantastic depth of field on this wonderful picture. Thank you so very very much Arthur. I can only imagine how much work this ongoing project has taken you. But it is a gift to the ages and the future of Hood River. This will only grow in value. And it makes the beginning of my day grounded and happy..
Will
I second these comments. HHR is always a morning highlight. Thank you for your dedication and work – it will be a source of knowledge for generations to come.
Rico
What’s up with the apparition of the kid on the far right?
By the standing kids elbow. And Yes! Thankyou for the history HHR
L.E.
Those miserable coffee/tea cups! They were the proper cup for formal gatherings. They held about two sips of coffee, which turned cold by the time you took a sip and you couldn’t put your finger through the handle. If you did, it got stuck.
Bobby Saunters
Thank you for all the great work! historichoodriver.com opens automatically every day when I launch my browser and the daily image and story is a highlight of my day.
ArthurB
Good catch on that ghostly apparition to the right. He looks like even more of a ghost in high resolution. I think he realized he couldn’t be seen so he was running to get in frame.
L.E.
The story of Franz Bread. I can’t tell if it is a paper wrapper.
https://www.franzbakery.com/HTML/story.html
LMH
I’m sure everyone would understand that the women in this group deserve much of the credit for their hard work in putting together such a feast. It was not easy to put together all those homemade items. I’ll bet the ladies did so without much help from the male attendees and made no complaints and were happy to perform their tasks.
L.E.
There are probably no paper plates being used so think of all the dishwashing that will take place.
Arlen L Sheldrake
Agreed, this site is an absolute treasure and an example for others in the history field to follow. Many thanks to Arthur and others along with the Museum for this resource. And, thanks Arthur for the statistics….I will use them to hype what we should be doing with our PNW railroad history including the concept of crowdsourcing history….a form of oral history