Even though it has informed the world we live in, the past is a stranger. After enough time has passed, it may as well have never happened. While some of it might be recognizable to us, there are going to be remnants of times gone by that are just oddities to us now.
It’s good to go back and take a look every now and then, however, just to see how much life has changed – or how little.
The Olympics used to be about more than just sports.
I know we want to giggle a bit at this image, but these judges at the Olympics are scrutinizing a sculpture to determine if it’s medal-worthy.
From 1912 to 1948, medals were awarded to works of art inspired by sports in five categories: painting, sculpture, music, literature, and architecture.
Times Square came to a standstill for half an hour back in 1998 as folks watched the finale of Seinfeld.
Little can bring the normally bustling Times Square to a halt, but there it is. It’s hard to believe that was over 20 years ago.
Not even the Blitz could prevent this British milkman from making his deliveries.
It’s hard to tell if his upper lip is suitably stiff, but he certainly seems to be keeping calm and carrying on with British aplomb.
A young George W. Bush worked the phones for his father’s re-election campaign in 1992.
Of course, Bush senior is the last one-term president. Apparently, the humble political experience served the younger Bush well, however, as he won a controversial presidential election in 2000 and then re-election in 2004.
Speaking of presidents, when the Secret Service has to rush into action, they don’t take half measures.
These agents are responding to an emergency at Augusta National Golf Course in 1983, hence the casual wear.
A distressed man named Charlie Harris had stormed the country club’s gates, disarmed several Secret Service agents, and taken seven hostages in an attempt to speak with President Reagan. Harris ended up spending five years in prison.
Circa 1935, these two nurses worked with the Red Swastika Society in Shanghai, China.
It’s important to remember that before the rise of the Nazis in Germany, the swastika was an ancient symbol associated with good luck and well being and is prevalent in Indian and Asian cultures.
The Red Swastika Society is still active today, running schools in Hong Kong and Singapore and engaging in other charitable works.
Just a young, fun-loving Star Wars cast recreating the iconic poster in a hotel room in 1977.
What really makes it is Carrie Fisher leaning into the cinnamon bun look of her hairstyle in the film. How many kids ended up doing the exact same thing, too?
Human chess matches have been played for a long time.
Here’s one taking place in St. Petersburg/Leningrad in 1924, with the sides directed by a pair of masters. It’s unknown which side took the day.
Alexander Dabell ran a store out of a whale carcass.
In 1842, Dabell bought himself the carcass of a beached whale at auction and turned it into the gift shop at his amusement park in Blackgang Chine, on the Isle of Wight.
Sometimes history needs a push.
And Bishop Desmond Tutu was just the man to give it a nudge. In 1989, he led a group of his supporters on a jog across a whites-only beach in South Africa, in defiance of Apartheid.
A lesbian couple on their wedding day in the 1930s.
Obviously this marriage wouldn’t have been officially recognized at the time, but this couple wanted to celebrate their love and devotion to each other all the same.
I’ll take “Things That Wouldn’t Fly In 2020” for $200, Alex.
A rather obvious, uncreative marketing ploy by Southwest Airlines saw flight attendants decked out in short shorts and go-go boots in the ’70s.
These kids all have two things in common.
They all have long hair, and they’re all not going to class because their hair got them barred from school back in 1971.
A little more than a decade later, these punks were in their glory in Hungary.
Considering Hungary was under Soviet rule back in 1982, this might have been more than a controversial style, too, but they were part of a growing subversive movement dissatisfied with the government.
Queen Elizabeth II clearly had a memorable encounter with Tunisian President Bourguiba in 1980.
It might not have led to an international incident, but the president’s emotive style sure looks like it has gotten a reaction out of the monarch.
The Queen appears to be less unimpressed with actor Paul Hogan’s break from protocol.
You know him better as Mick “Crocodile” Dundee, of course, but this was in 1980, before he had made his big international splash, so meeting the Queen in a sleeveless shirt and shorts was quite the move on his part.
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Kids in Harlem play around a street sprinkler in 1946.
Ah, the simple pleasures of a sprinkler in the middle of summer. You don’t even need grass, just a group of friends.
“Children going to school having to cross a river by pulley in Modena, Italy. 1959”
WWII devastated many bridges in Europe, and it took a long time to get them up and operational again. In the meantime, people did what they could to get around, just like these kids on their way to school.
Not so fast there, headline.
This newspaper celebrated the signing of the armistice ending WWI, but was published on November 7, 1918. The armistice wasn’t actually signed until November 11. No wonder someone hung onto it.
This letter describing the conditions of a diphtheria outbreak in the late 1800s is chilling.
It goes into detail about a mother going “insane” with grief at the loss of her daughter, and how the undertaker had to bury the child all by himself, alone in the graveyard due to the disease.
