Absolutely no idea where this photo was taken, all I can say is nothing about it looks very British, the bike is German, the foliage looks vaguely tropical or at least in warmer climes and the building perhaps Asian though just maybe from the Dolomites or even South America. And the family? No idea.
What is easy though is to identify the bike as a very distinctive NSU, either a Max or a Super Max. It looks rather well used, though is evidently cherished enough to include in a family photo.
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| Make up your own back story for this photo of a family and their NSU. |
I love these pix. The motorcycle has a pedestrian slicer. I wonder what nations besides Britain used them? Is there a hint of mountains behind the trees? Everyone is dressed up. Two of the men in the photo have cameras, as does our photogapher. So it is an occasion worth recording. If the photographer is male we have six men and only five women and only one of the men in the photo is young enough to be the partner of one of the young women on the motorcycle. Probably the bold girl in the print dress is unmarried and her father is the photographer (she wouldn't pose like that in front of a more distant male relative). She is so central to the photo (grandmother is looking at her sitting on the motorcycle) that this is likely her 16th birthday. Her sister is seated behind her and is the wife or girlriend of the one young man in the photo, standing holding his camera on the top step. The girls' grandfather is barely visible behind them. Grandmother is obvious. and just behind grandma's head is the girls' mother (wife of our photographer). The woman in back and the man in shades are likely an older aunt and uncle feeling somewhat ancillary to the event. This leaves only the two men seated at right. They are the good friends of the family who have ridden up on the motorcycle to join the family for the occasion. Their motorcycle is considered a novelty, perhaps even to them, as they are paying attention to it. Having just arrived after the ride they are sitting to rest.
ReplyDeleteFor sure this is not England. the balcony and the edge to the window suggest continental building.
ReplyDeleteThat front tyre is well worn, and has been run under-inflated,its not a British made tyre. The womens dress is not of the English 1950s,nor are their hair styles.
The older lady is very house frau.
The bike has plenty of road muck on the forks, and I am puzzled by the headlamp which looks larger than the compact lamp on the two I have had through my hands in the 1970s.
The girl on the bike has embroidered slippers, not common here, and the guy in the front holding the camera is wearing socks no englishman would be seen dead in. Not a teacup in sight.
My guesses, Germany,Austria,Switzerland.
Yes, the elderly woman at center reminds me very much of my own grandmother, a German war bride brought to the U.S. after World War I. The formality of dress, perfect grooming and the number of cameras (Germans made the best, we thought in those days) strikes me as very German. Everyone seems in a good mood. The motorcycle, perhaps because it's worn, seems to be more part of the amusement than a cherished item. "Can you believe he's still running that thing?"
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