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| Joyce Barry, all-round cycling champion of NSW, 1936 |
This little advertising card was with some 'found' photos that turned up at the Genealogical Society of Victoria. (I've been gradually scanning the photos and uploading them to Flickr.)
Joyce Barry, from Australia, must have been a natural all-round athlete as well as a champion cyclist in 1936. I really like the text on the reverse side: "Cycling on my 'Malvern Star' in the fresh open air keeps me slim and ensures that delightful bloom which no cosmetic could impart." Apparently her well-proportioned weight of 11 stone was admirably distributed over an athletic yet essentially feminine frame.
We have quite a few cyclists in our family. They enjoy riding long trails, riding to work, mountain biking and riding just for fun at a more liesurely pace. We have one family member who is blind and competed in cycling events at the paralympics. And we even young grandchildren who enjoy riding to school and at the local playground. But I'm not posting photos of any of them.
I've chosen instead some photos taken in one back yard at Kerang over several decades, posed photos of family members. And in the background the bicycles are leaning on various garden constructions, unnoticed by the photographers.
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| Shirley Phelan with Phil, Alan, Shelley and Kay. |
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| Kay Phelan on the scooter, Phil and Alan in the background. |
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| Shelley Phelan |
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| Renee McCasker with Jane, Lorraine Phelan with Kerrie. |
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| Kay Phelan |
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| And finally, Shelley and Fiona on a tandem made by Alan. |
I suggest you take a trip over to Sepia Saturday to see some more cyclists.
I notice that Miss Barry has won "honors for footrunning...." What is footrunning? What other kind of running can there be?
ReplyDeleteLove the homemade tandem!
All those bikes in the background! The mother looks a bit tired in the stairstep pose. I guess she probably was.
ReplyDeleteThat first picture is of the same era as the one of my mother in my post this week, Interestingly she is about the same age too. I enjoyed all your family photos as well.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite is the ballerina under the trees - with the sprinkler & bicycles in the background. She looks so lovely and dainty you can almost, but not quite, ignore the rest. :)
ReplyDeleteDerbyshire postcard photographer and publisher Frank Scarratt intentionally left his bicycle in plain view in many of his photographs, presumably to provide a bit of human interest and scale.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea, the bikes in the background. Kerrie has an interesting backside.
ReplyDeleteLove those Malvern Stars! Naturally Joyce Barry would have been riding one :-) I could barely recognise you in your 20s?
ReplyDeleteGreat mix on the theme. Miss Barry's "well proportioned" frame looks like she was a formidable racer. No "sit up and beg" for her.
ReplyDeleteI love that totem pole pose! Kay, the ballerina, looks like Cinderella.
ReplyDeletewhen I was a kid on the farm in southern Iowa we had a lot of bikes. We could ride back into the farm field just for pleasure on a dirt road. The bikes made a quiet sound on soft packed soil. What kind of bird would be in the birdhouse in the one photo.?
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