thisbody wrote:

'I've never seen gas prices like these:'

From Death Valley...

 miamizsun wrote: Surprisingly,  there all in really good shape. It's just that one one of the Langley that I used and abused that took the hit.
The bow that's missing off the photo is what I'm concerned about. I'm hoping the piece is stuck where I keep those pictures. And then I can reattach that bow on it.

 KurtfromLaQuinta wrote:

great pics and you can get those restored fairly easy

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: Peter Pumpkin Head.

 Manbird wrote:

the one on the left? Or the one on the right?

 Proclivities wrote:

Is that you? Because if it is...

I just found this clip from "The History Guy".  Which by the way, he has some great history videos pertaining to... history...

In that video at 10:20, there's a shot from a Cruiser looking up at the U.S.S. Shenandoah.  It has to be the same time frame of the picture I have.
You can see the planes flying around it...

 pilgrim wrote: Why thank you.

I have a lot more, but not as interesting as those.
I pretty sure I have one of an really, early aerial shot of North Island Naval Air Station at Coronado, California. I'm sure it wasn't called that in 1925.

 KurtfromLaQuinta wrote:

All of these are a treasure - thanks for sharing Kurt!

More "Top Secret" pictures my grandfather gave me.
This is the U.S.S Langley. The first United States aircraft carrier...

When I was in grade school; I'd take this photo all the time to show off to my friends.
Unfortunately, I wrecked it because of that.
Here's some planes taking of and landing on it..

 haresfur wrote: It was probably from me.
They used to hang those planes on a hook under the airship.

 KurtfromLaQuinta wrote:

I'm pretty sure I've seen the airship and biplane one somewhere on the interweb.

 KurtfromLaQuinta wrote:

Wow, wow, WOW!  

There were quite a few more photos my grandfather gave me. A lot of them were stamped "Top Secret" on the back side of them.
A couple of the U.S.S. Shenandoah...

I occasionally watch “Mysteries of the Abandoned” on the Science Channel. It really should be titled “Things Left Behind by the Nazis”.
There are some pretty cool places they investigate on that show.

In a recent episode, they covered subjects just in the United States. One that caught my eye was one on Amboy, California. For some reason
that little town of Amboy has popped up in my life quite a bit.
The first time I ever heard about Amboy, was when my parents, my brother and my (maternal) grandparents stopped there in 1959.
I’m not sure why we were going through that town. Must have been some sort of vacation.
My parents drove their ’54 Pontiac on that trip. I was 4 years old but vividly remember lots of cars and trucks everywhere. This was still
Route 66 at this time. A very busy two- lane road. I never got the chance to ask my parents why we were in Amboy that summer of ’59.  My
brother doesn’t remember either.

I hadn’t been there for quite a while... but since moving to this desert in ’69, I’ve driven through there a lot more in the last 54 years.
It’s a shortcut from here heading to points north. A straight line to Las Vegas. Not that I go there much.

Amboy is in the middle of nowhere. And since Interstate 40 bypassed the town in 1973... it became a ghost town. This “Mysteries” series did a
great job explaining the story...

Mysteries of the Abandoned episode (season 9, episode 48) 

I told this long story for a reason. My grandfather who went on that trip back in ’59 with us gave me a bunch of cool, old pictures that he “acquired” back who knows when from when he was in the Navy between WW1 and WW2.
I was in grade school at the time. In those pictures, were photos of that little town in the middle of nowhere from 1925. When it was really in the middle of nowhere. Just before the Joad's traveled through it.
One of my trips I made through there in the mid 70’s, I brought those pictures with me and talked to the “owner” of the town. Actually, his card said “Justice of the Peace, Mayor and Postmaster”.  He was blown away by the aerial photos I had of Amboy. I got his address add made copies that I sent him. No email back then.

Again, I’ve been through Amboy many times since then. And I’ve seen the town slowly go downhill. Then one day, a few years back, I read in our local paper that this guy Albert Okura had purchased the town. I found out he is the owner of the Juan Polo Chicken chain and was based in San Bernadino, California. I gave him a call and told him I had some really old pictures of Amboy. He saw the copies that the previous owner had posted in Roy’s Cafe in Amboy. He invited Debbie and I to his base in San Bernadino which is the original McDonald's store. He made better copies of those old pictures and had lunch brought in for us from the local Juan Pollo.

So, when I saw that episode of Mysteries of the Abandoned, I noticed they had a couple of my pictures in the story. No photo credit to my grandfather though.

Some of the pictures that were on Mysteries of the Abandoned...

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote:

very cool, i really like the 3 frame progress ones toward the bottom. his website cool too https://xavibou.com/

I could imagine this guy becoming very popular very quickly (keep scrolling down to see the portfolio).

I assume this phot was taken some time in October, 1972, and not processed until the following February.  Out of focus but a nice photo: