Safety Pictures

My Grandfather, JTW “Trubie” Mitchell, taught safety classes in Pittsylvania County (and shop, agriculture, foreign language, and other classes). As illustrations for his safety classes, he staged photographs of fake “accidents.” In the picture above, my father, Henry Helvey Mitchell, pretends to fall out of a chicken house (if you look closely, Henry is laughing).

Trubie also took photographs of real problems — car accidents, children with broken legs from farm accidents, maimed limbs from working with farm equipment, etc. (I may post some of these pictures later.)

My Mitchell Grandparents, 1930

Mary Helvey and JTW (Trubie) Mitchell with friends in 1930. This was several years before they got married. The photograph may have been taken at Emory College in Emory, Virginia, but that is not confirmed.

The license plate says Virginia 1930, and Harris Motor Co., Pulaski, Va., is on the wheel cover. I have not yet been able to find any more information on that business.

Found Pictures

From time to time, I buy pictures on eBay, or find them about to be picked up by the garbage truck, or someone gives me a box that they don’t know what to do with but can’t bear to throw away.

The above picture is one such image — I’m fairly certain it is a European mountain, but don’t know which one. (I made the picture a bit more artsy, using various computer programs.)