It's Been A While

Some of you may have noticed I haven't been posting here lately. For a while I've been losing interest in taking outfit photos, and also talking about vintage in general. There are so many blogs out there on the subject that do it so much better! I just wasn't feeling the need to put in my two cents on the subject anymore. Even so, I was still interested in blogging, so I decided to create a new blog to see if this interest would stick around. So far, it has. So now I want to share the link with you, knowing I won't simply abandon it in a few weeks. It's more general to my life, and you won't see nearly as much of my face on it. There's much more in the way of film stills, travels (in progress...going to Las Vegas, Alaska & Napa in the coming months!), mail stuffs (I'm an unabashed letter writer), and surely some vintage here and there. And of course just me rambling and taking photos. Also, I will be continuing my Route 66 posts! (Which is why I haven't posted in April yet--I'm getting Part 3 together finally!) Anyway, please do pop over and say hello, if you wish. 

tea and oatmeal.

Rachel, x

My Road Trip Adventure, Part II: Arizona and New Mexico

This is part two in a series about my travels on Route 66 (and beyond) in July 2012. See Part I here.

Part II covers the Grand Canyon to Gallup, New Mexico.

We reached the Grand Canyon just before sunset. The park was buzzing with tourists from all over the world, rushing toward the canyon's edge before the sun disappeared. A small rainbow greeted us briefly before being swallowed up by the clouds.

{This is a photo-and-text-heavy post, so please click through for more!}

Bomb Girls

I've had this post queued for ages, so I figured I may as well post it already! These are from a Canadian series about gals working in a munitions factory during the Second World War. It wasn't the best show in the world, but it sure was pretty! Take a peek~

My Road Trip Adventure, Part I: California and Arizona

If you look at a modern day map, Route 66 no longer exists. In the western states, it's been replaced by a thick red line labeled I-40, which turns into the I-44 and the I-55 the further north it goes. It's not until you look really close that you see the three grey offshoots that are still marked 66--all in California and Arizona. These last remaining pieces of America's most famous highway look quite a lot different than the Interstate-replaced route; while the 40 barrels straight on through, taking the fastest route from A to B, Route 66 meanders through the mountains and valleys, prairies and fields, connecting small towns to big cities, taking travelers through parts unknown. Route 66 wasn't worried about being the fastest highway--from the time it became an official highway in 1926, it just wanted Americans to see and experience their own country.

And eighty-six years later, that's just what I was going to do.

{this is a photo-and-word-heavy post, so click through if you don't mind!}

The Trans-Continental Foot Race

Oh gosh, I feel like there are so many things I want to make a post about, only I haven't had any darn time for it! I've been writing up a storm (well, that may be an overstatement) and I've been reading a lot of fascinating stories about Route 66 too. My absolute favorite story, one that I've been dying to share here, is of the Trans-Continential foot race (or the "Bunion Derby"), a scheme cooked up by the guys trying to promote use of the newly-formed highway. It was a coast-to-coast marathon that offered a $25,000 grand prize to the first competitor to run from California all the way to New York, if you can believe it, and took place in 1928. Over 200 men entered the competition, even though the price to participate (between the entrance fee & the money needed for a one-way ticket home from NY) was an incredible $125!



At the starting line there were men wearing everything from work boots to moccasins, and a few that even went barefoot. Runners came from all over the world to participate; some where professionals, and others had no experience at all. Over the course of 84 consecutive days, the contestants found themselves running anywhere from 30 to 70 miles per day, through wind, rain, heat, and humidity. The race was poorly ran by a man named C.C. Pyle who only cared about making a profit, so the runners suffered for it: they were given awful food by a cook who was fired partway through, and they had to sleep in everything from tents to chicken coops. Everyday more men dropped out out the race; only 55 crossed the finish line.

I suppose the most important person in this story is Mr. Andy Payne, an Oklahoma-born farm boy with Cherokee ancestry who won the race at 20 years-old. He wasn't a professional runner, but entered the race because he was broke and unemployed, and "thought he could do it."

Andy Payne

At the finish line, Andy said he owed his success to cornbread. (Eat more cornbread, kids!) Once he collected his prize money (which was hard to do, since Pyle was hard-pressed to give it up), Andy went back to Oklahoma and married his sweetheart, Vivian--who was his old high school teacher, haha! (She was only one year older than him.)

I had so much fun reading about this fascinating and sometimes wacky event that I was actually a bit annoyed that I had never heard about it before! This is the kind of thing that could have spiced up a high school history lesson, just due to the sheer audacity of it. I also can't believe a film hasn't been made about it yet, which gives me an idea...

Oh, and I have to tell you about one more runner: "Wildfire" Thompson from Arkansas, who ran in red flannel underwear and wouldn't change out of it even though it made him look "more like a hobo than an athlete." During the last few laps he ran backwards for a while as a show for the crowd, and then he hung out for weeks after the race was over, just jogging around Madison Square Garden. When asked what he was doing, he said, "When all the misery's gone, you feel kind of lonesome and lost." Aw.

Read more about the race here & here & in Route 66: The Mother Road by Michael Wallis.

The Fair-Haired Maiden of the West

It’s definitely possible that I watched the entire first season of Hell on Wheels last weekend, because I am currently obsessed with the era, and I've been yearning for something to fill the Deadwood-sized hole in my heart for a while now. Alas, it only built a tiny foot bridge, too rickety & slipshod to get from one end to the other; but it’s something, I suppose.

This post is dedicated to the lovely post-Civil War fashions of Ms. Lily Bell, the coolest chick west of the Mississippi!