Seattle City Light: Radio Dispatched to Alki [1968]

“Come in, Truck 82…”

A Seattle City Light service truck makes a visit to a view home in Seattle’s Alki neighborhood in 1968.  The serviceman is wearing his lab coat and white service hat.  Back in the days before cellphones, he would have been sent there by a gruff-sounding dispatcher barking over the dash-mounted Motorola radio in the vehicle.  The Range Service Truck: A mid-1960s Chevrolet van – like this one – done in Utility Yellow.  In the garage: A 1959 Ford Galaxie convertible.

Built in 1954, this “Mid-Century” home design is common in neighborhoods and suburbs surrounding Seattle:

The roof line and brown on the siding in the first picture are nearly identical to my suburban house – which was built in the late 1960s.  Today that Alki house still stands, now with garage doors on the car port, and frankly still possessing a tremendous view:

And the radio-dispatched yellow van?  Most likely retired and scrapped.

Beret in The Barrio [1967]

From the camera lens of James Jowers, this photo captures a very urban neighborhood scene in New York City.  The man in the beret is sitting on a `57 Chevrolet, while there is a `59 Chevy across the street.  Jowers shot a series of NYC photos at an important time in US history – the 1960s.  Check out a collection of his work here on Flickr.

Jowers’ pictures and copyrights from this period were donated to The Eastman House in 2007.

Mom and The Harley [1951]

This photo was a surprise to me and my sisters.

While it wasn’t a surprise that our Grandpa Harlow rode a Harley-Davidson in high school, we were all amazed to see our Mom pull something out of the archives showing her on the back of a big twin!  Location: 9th and Gamble in Anchorage AK – still a US Territory when the picture was snapped around 1951.  “The edge of the city” at the time, my Mom said.  Behind her and friend Don is my grandpa’s Chevy Fleetline sedan.  The Chugach Mountain Range to the east is looming over everyone in the background.

Looking at Google Maps, we see that the same view in the current day is very different!