Bert and Slim in the winter
By: usermattw
Tags: photography, Rapid City, vintage photography
Category: Bert & Slim, Men, Pairs, Women
What it is:
Three snapshots, two measuring 3 x 4 inches, and the other measuring 4 x 6 inches. The larger one has traces on the back of having been mounted in an album.
What I know about it:
These photos are undated and unidentified, but I’ll talk about their identities below.
Comments:
Living in San Francisco, I forget that the dead of winter means worse weather for most people than it does for me. In honor of those who are slogging through snow and bitter cold, here are some winter pictures. We previously met Bert and Slim in this post. Here they are again, apparently a bit younger, looking smart and seasonal, and, as always, happy together. As I’ve sorted repeatedly through my boxes of loose snapshots (they came that way, mind you), gathering ideas and samples for this blog, I’ve learned a bit more about Bert and Slim. For one thing, I’ve concluded that Bert is the woman and Slim is the man. (She’s in the white coat here. I don’t know who the other woman is.) I’ve also noticed that a number of their snapshots (though not these) were developed at photo places (like drugstores) in Rapid City, South Dakota. So I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that at least part of their lives was spent living in or near Rapid City. Could these photos be in Rapid City? Is this even their house? I don’t know. Yet. Having figured this out, I am now able to spot developer’s stamps from Rapid City on other photos and try to figure out if they are related to Bert and Slim. I might, for instance, find a Rapid City logo on the back of a photo of this house that I wouldn’t have recognized otherwise if Bert and Slim weren’t pictured. And there was a picture of an interesting-looking old man standing on a city sidewalk near a brick wall that I just recently realized was a Bert-and-Slim photo when I found pictures of them in exactly the same spot. It’s fun to look at a photo I’ve glanced over ten times before and suddenly spot the clue that allows me to associate it with Bert and Slim (or any of the other groups or families in my collection). It’s allows me to add another piece to the puzzle of who they were, at the same time realizing that I’ll probably never know the whole picture. After all, I don’t even know their real names.
Pics of Then 
How amazing that you’ve been able to connect these images of the same people at different times of their lives. Really interesting. I’ll bet you feel as if you know people like Bert and Slim after seeing them in pictures living their lives. Great post. 🙂
Thanks, Jenna! Yes, it’s a lot of fun, sort of like a treasure hunt, where each prize is another piece of a puzzle. But the closer I get to understanding them, the more I realize there is that I don’t know. I’ll definitely post more, and hopefully you’ll see what I mean.