Sepia Saturday - Snow

No doubt all my fellow Sepia Saturday bloggers will write this week about barrels, beards or bricks. So it is likely that I will be the only one to take snow as the motto for #163. But before I am off to a slippery start, first something about the picture. The gentleman with the beard is clearly taking a break while posing for the photographer. The other gentleman is more mysterious. Is he guarding the barrels or waiting for the bus or ... The half open curtains in the bay window suggest that maybe a child is looking at a completely unexpected white world. The lettering on the sign board indicates that we are looking at a grocery. I was not too sure about the meaning of the preceding letters (NCH). In fact I had no idea. 
A quick check on Google learns that this is a picture taken in Keene, New Hampshire after what is called 'the great storm' on March 13, 1888. The man cleaning the street is Mr. C. -what's in a name- Dustin. Possibly he owns the shop which is the Boston Branch Grocery. The type of business also gives some direction about the purpose of the barrels. The man in the black coat somewhat surprises me. He looks like a person from the 1950's and not from the second part of the 19th century. I did not know those hats existed then.
So much for the theme picture, I'll come to the point: snow. 
I am blessed with some well filled shoe boxes. And fortunately also with some family pictures made in snowy circumstances. The first one shows my mother taking a rest in the snow.

A lady in distress?

One could also say she is trying to attract attention after having lost her balance in the slippery snow. But somehow I don't think that is the case. I guess she's about 20 years old here so this could be 1937.  I don't know who the photographer has been. Possibly my father but I don't know whether they knew each other already. But it is the kind of photo you make when you go out for a walk with your girlfriend. And then the location. I think the elevations on the left hand side could be the dunes. In the background there are city extensions/limits which would fit in with the situation in the western part of The Hague then. 
There was snow that winter. The video below was shot at the no longer existing airport Ypenburg near The Hague in March of that year. It shows people skiing there while being towed by a car; the vid takes 37 seconds to look at.

But there is more shoe box snow. Both pictures below have been taken at the same location in The Hague. I recognize the "garden" of our house in 614 Goudreinetstraat also in The Hague.

F.l.t.r. my brother, myself and my mother

The photo's have been taken on the same occasion in probably 1948. The appartments in the background above are situated in the Appelstraat.

Me and my Mom with my little brother peeking around the corner

For those known locally, the houses that you see are those on the Thorbeckelaan. 
With my last not so sepia picture I like to compliment Alan with the timing and the choice of this week's theme picture. I took it from our balcony this morning. And I can assure you that we don't have any white tiles here. 
The picture also proves that snow in Keene NH (New Hampshire) is just as white as it is in Castricum NH (North Holland). At the same time it means that certain things remain the same, even after 125 years.

Castricum on February 6, 2013

As I said before, for the barrels, the beards and the bricks you have to go see my fellow Sepians. I'm sure they have been busy shoveling all their literary inspiration together here.