Photo by Muffy Aldrich
The Modern Guide to The Thing Before Preppy

Thursday, January 28, 2021

Scratchy Photos from the Late 1950s: New England Skiing

Father - Photos from Family Archives


Mother

Mother on Right

Father


 

18 comments:

  1. The real deal. Cable bindings. Lace boots. Mohawk Mountain?

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  2. Love it. I grew up skiing in Western Mass. in the 60s and 70s. Started with lace boots and cable bindings. Recall my parents telling us how their parents used to have to walk up for each run. Still remember my dad taking me up the T-bar on the bunny slope for the first time. When we got to the top and looked down it was as though I were looking down Tuckerman's Ravine!

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  3. The way it should be! Thank you so very much!

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  4. Love, love, love vintage ski photographs and illustrations! Managed to get out myself early this morning for a couple of hours of X-country skiing along ungroomed trails just around the corner from our place here in Mid-Michigan. All by myself save for a young woman and her dog. Just the quiet whisper of the skis traversing the snow. And all without a klutzy fall. Glorious!

    Best Regards,

    Heinz-Ulrich

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  5. beautiful! you can almost feel the fresh air. they look so happy.
    thanks Muffy!

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  6. Great pictures. I particularly like your father's togs. When I learned to ski in Virginia in the late '70's, one could generally spot the better skiers by their clothes. Those with scotch-guarded jeans, rag wool sweaters, puffer coats, leather mittens with shiny insulated liners, Moriarty hats were generally the better skiers while those with the bright neon ski suits hit the bunny slopes.

    A couple of years ago I took the family out to Breckenridge with similar attire with the addition of a toned down helmet and an American Made LLBean Baxter State Parka.

    Cheers,

    Will

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  7. Replies
    1. Could be. Maybe Butternut. It’s not a big hill. Mohawk, I’d guess.

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  8. So far as missing our loved ones, I just hope Andy Warhol is right when he said: "I never think that people die. They just go to department stores."

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  9. Rustic. Informal. The sport in question has become, as so much has, so dominated by the luxury-seeking tastes of the nouveau riche that all the charm has dissipated. How do one go about recognizing a (real) WASP? The phrase "genteel poverty" comes to mind as one deliberates upon the rustic, decrepit patina. And here it is--in action on a slope.

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    1. Ski equipment, like medical care, has, gratefully, improved over the years. People live longer and ski more easily and more safely. You needn’t, also, let luxury dominate. Ski the mom & pop places. They’re out there; Pico, Magic, Mad River (talk about “patina”). Out west... Wolf Creek, A Basin, Alta, Powder Mountain. And there’s always Turner Mountain in Libby , Montana. 2100’ vertical open Fri Sat Sun only. Buy your lift ticket at the snack bar. No blow up cans of anything outside the lodges ar these places!

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  10. Yes, the ski equipment is much easier to use now. I have skied for maybe 50 years. Now, lift lines are shorter and lifts are faster. You can get a lot of runs in now midweek. Try skiing a mom and pop place like Bromley one day and then try something like Stratton the next. Both are great.

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  11. In the late 1950s my father took my sister and me to ski in the Poconos in Pennsylvania every weekend. He wore a Burberry Trench Coat and his regular work Fedora, along with his father's sweater from college, chain-smoking Winstons and gliding like a king. He had lost an eye in the War and had a hard time discerning moguls but was nonetheless a terrific skier. Leather boots hard and wood and metal cables, bamboo ski poles and scratchy pants are my other memories.

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  12. Memories of Molitor boots, Marker bindings and Kastle skis

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  13. Wonderful period photos. In the photo "Mother on right" Who is on the left?

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  14. If you live in New England you have a tremendous amount of options for all budgets. I'm not sure if RI has ski mountains, but even little CT has a few. You don't have to drive all the way to VT for a great run (unless you live nearby), Massachusetts has a ton of places to ski and their are so many funny Mom and Pop places to have adventures. And because NE states are so small and easily accessible you can live in one state and cross to another state in a matter of minutes. Outsiders (non NE) view the area as full of luxury ski places only accessible to the monied class. Not true at all. And if you go during the week, lift tickets can cost in the teens. The outdoors is for all of us and NE proves it. Plus snowshoeing and XC skiing. Plus, lots of towns have used winter equipment sales. We do it very well here in NE.

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