On my second trip to Warsaw, in addition to visiting the Historical Society, I also wanted to stop in at an antique store a few blocks away (I know that's a shocker, right?). Just inside was a case with postcards displayed, a couple of which I purchased because they were of Warsaw, and one of McKeesport, PA during a flood. I didn't even know that McKeesport was ever so flooded as to warrant a postcard!
In a bowl on the other side of the store was a mess of photographs, and occasionally I like to sort through old black and white snapshots. These, it turned out, looked like the former contents of someone's family album - not just random selections from random albums, mind, but as if one photo album had been stripped and the pictures deposited in this bowl for sale.
Among those were several that clearly depicted the same people in a few different locations, and I chose 39 - yep 39! - to buy.
The most obvious location was Mount Rushmore. I mean, can you mistake that hewed rock face? Rock face - see what I did there? ANYway, places, and sweaters: the woman in the center of the photo is also shown below in that sweater.
The bus became a "tell" in the photos. Besides matching visages between images, I also culled the shots that showed this bus - or one very much like it. That several snaps featured the bus, with similar tour groups, it seemed to me that I "had something," though at the time of purchase, I didn't know what.
Somewhere in the American SouthWest - that bus again. As I started to really examine the photos, I found that some of the bus' detailing was legible. On the side is "Indiana Railroad." Now, I've heard of a lot of odd things, but I think this is the first time that I've come across a railroad company that was so diversified that it had its own tour buses to charter. Somewhere I found a little back-story, probably wikipedia, about the Indiana Railroad, and it was a traction conglomeration that could, at its high point, move passengers from the Chicago area all the way to the Ohio River. But it didn't survive as a rail concern very long after 1945, and the advent of more automobiles (again, ironic on this website, no?)
Maybe not as warm as Arizona in this photo, but I'm pretty sure it's the same trip.
The beginning of the trip? Possibly. Unfortunately, I've yet to make out the wording on the signage over the sidewalk, least ways not enough to be able to attempt discovering what town had a particular retailer. Again, probably the same bus.
"Hey, how's 'bout I take your picture whilst you're up there on that wall?" One of the few with any inscription, this woman was identified as:
"Ind. girl."
(The condition of the physical prints that I bought is pretty good, save for this one. It doesn't appear that anyone defaced this photo intentionally, but the "Ind. girl" was scratched up. I did some reconstruction for clarity's sake.)
Then a different tour to what I believe is Florida. In other photos (not included here) are some additional landmarks that are, I found after a bit of "Googling" in fact in the Sunshine State. The bus, while not the same as in the previous images, sports the same bit of labeling in the back windows. It was between the two rear-views that I got a bit of additional information, and also a question.
Between these two tour logos I was able to discern enough of the lettering to think I was looking at tours by the Indiana Rural Youth.
But who were they?
Google it!
Turns out that the Indiana Rural Youth and Young Adult Association was an active organization from the late '40's to the early '70's, for men and women from ages 18 to 28. Among other things, the Rural Youth hosted tours: from Hawaii to Austria, to expose young Hoosiers to a world they might not see otherwise.
A little more "digging" on-line also showed that they do have reunions. A few e-mails concerning the 2014 reunion and I had a contact - adviser Mike Jones - who invited me to send copies of photos to their reunion committee; if anyone recognized the people in the images, he would forward that information to me. Sadly, no one recognized any of the people in these snaps.
I can only imagine, though the following photographs have no tell-tale bus, that these people were probably along on a Rural Youth tour. The vantage of Rushmore is too similar to not have been. That, and they were together in the same bowl for sale.
The only other snapshot with an inscription. On the reverse these young women are noted as:
Mildred Kreutzjans
Hildegarde Beasus
and Joan Mangans
If the inscriptor followed the usual form, noting the participants from left to right, then Joan and Hildegarde are also prominent in these photos:
Here, with an unidentified snazzy tomato, who looks to be wearing a name tag (unreadable, alas) -
and here with this hep cat, who looks like he's aiming to take over the bank.
And lastly, the obligatory "group shot," which does really seem to follow on with an organization on tour to somewhere warmer than Indiana. Friends? Family? I may never know, but at some point I would like to find a "home" for these, so that they will be able to further someone's historic study.
And, no, I don't think the big guy next to Hildegarde in this photo is the same hep cat from the previous one. I looked at their features with a magnifier, and while they might be related, I'm pretty sure they're not the same fellow. And this big guy is pretty big, too, though Hildegarde might be wearing lower shoes here.