Deep roots

[darkemeralds]

(Crossposted to bicycles)

Back in 1895 or so, Miss Gertrude Cone (later Gertrude Yost, and my mother's mother's mother) put on her best outdoor gear and posed with her elegant ladies' bicycle at the side of the Willamette River in Portland.



It's the hat that just completes the picture.

Comments

[dine]

what a great photo, and a terrific link between you and your roots!

[darkemeralds]

The photo has been in the family all along, but it never really registered with me till I started riding a bike again myself. My sister, a much more avid cyclist than I am, bears the greatest physical resemblance to this grandmother, and has always had a special place in her heart, and on her wall, for this image. She even had a sepia-toned photo done of herself in the same pose a few years ago.

[kis]

Lordy! Fancy trying to ride a bike in that skirt!

[darkemeralds]

I ride my bike in a skirt kind of like that routinely. It's not quite as long, but almost. With the step-through frame (formerly known as "a girls' bike"), a covered chain, and a skirt guard (that extra string mesh covering the top half of the rear wheel), riding in a skirt or a long winter coat works quite well.

Mind you, sweating a lot in that velvet top would be problematic. My solution to that sort of thing? Slow down.

[tehomet]

What a fab picture of your great-grandmother. It's nifty that cycling is in your blood, so to speak.

I love the hat, too. :)

(Incidentally, that makes twice in my life I've laid eyes on the surname Yost. The other Yost of whom I've heard is the writer of the series Boomtown and Justified.)

[darkemeralds]

Yost is a not-too-uncommon surname in the US. It probably ultimately connects back to the Norman surname Joyce. I think in the case of my family it made a detour to the Netherlands and arrived on these shores as Jost or Joost before being anglicized with the Y.

I can't say for certain that cycling is in the blood, but independent-minded women are certainly well-represented in the family line. :D