I'll bet you didn't know there was a baseball team at Gilbert. The Gilbert Cubs, they called themselves, and they had uniforms and everything. They played other small community teams in the region, I guess. Aunt Ethel, who was three years younger than Uncle Earle, told me that she learned to pitch to help the boys practice. She was a lifelong baseball fan.
These photos, taken a century ago in 1912, are of Earle Dobson and a friend, Charley McCoy, who lived with his mother, Aunt Maud, in Little Canyon. The photo top left is identified as Earle. The next photo, top right, is especially interesting. Charley catches the ball while Earle is on the ground, but note the two shadows in the foreground.
Bottom left, Charley jumps while Earle is on the ground.
I think these pictures were taken in the front yard at the farm looking eastward. I didn't think so at first -- thought the terrain looked too flat. But I changed my mind. The gate looks like the gate to June's property, and I think the camera angle make the ground seem flatter than it really is. KW
5 comments:
Wow. A photo of Charley McCoy, the stepson of my Grandfather Wedlock. Great candid pictures of long ago and far away.
I love how small towns used to have baseball teams and bands, and a band shelter in the park. Travel was tedious, difficult and expensive so they made their own fun!
Great photos.
Of course I didn't know, LOL. I don't even know where Gilbert was/is! Great photos, though.
So, we think the photos are posed? In the jumping photo it looks like he's going for a bare handed catch instead of catching with his gloved hand. They look pretty cool in their uniforms!
Oh yes! Earle and Charley are cavorting for the camera. They are posed at least to that extent. But the action shots are pretty cool, don't you think? Maybe Aunt Ethel was pitching balls while Grandma Ina manned the camera.
I wonder just where those farm teams were. I like Chris' point that the small towns made their own fun.
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