Arizona, 1951

When our Portland Bloggers group met up at Little Prince of Oregon for our annual shopping adventure last March, Linda of the blog Whatsitgarden, and the Etsy shop Littleplantpots gave me this black and white photo. Don't those ladies look thrilled to be standing by that huge saguaro?

Handwritten on the back of the photo is: Feb. 17, 1951 — Near Tucson, Arizona.

I came home and put the photo up on our fridge, where it stayed for months. Many months. Our fridge has become the traditional American catch all of reminders from the dentist, a calendar, a gift card, as well as a few photos.

Sometime over the summer Andrew decided he wanted to visit a couple antique stores, he was looking for some old black and white photos to use in handmade Christmas cards. We thought it would be fun to drive over to Vancouver, WA, have lunch there and a hit a couple of their shops. While shopping he picked out a photo for me, and when we got home he put it up on the fridge. It stayed there for a couple of weeks, then one morning when I walked into the kitchen to get my first cup of coffee I noticed he'd taken both of the photos off the fridge and laid them on the table, next to each other. I guess I should share the photo that he'd picked out for me...


Isn't that a great photo? Anything seem familiar?

Here they are side by side.

I don't know that I would recognize her if not for that hat. Well, and not that I did recognize her. The photos were on the fridge for quite awhile before Andrew picked up on the fact the same lady was in both of them. On the back of the newer photo is this: Cotton field — Feb (date illegible), 1951 — Somewhere in Arizona.

Pretty crazy right? Two different people gave me photos that have the same, unknown to me, person in them. It got a little less odd when I asked Linda where she picked up the first photo and it turns out they both came from the same antique store. Still, strange...