Out On A Limb
October 7th, 2009
Cousin Fletcher thought he was above it all.
(submitted by Linnea)
Tags: grandparents, great outdoors, old timey, pose, strange, trees
Out On A Limb
AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com
Spreading the Awkwardness
It’s the original Adams Family – note the woman second to the right. There’s an extra HAND between her and the third guy !!
No, that’s the woman’s hand. She’s holding something, that’s why it’s so awkwardly positioned.
If you look closely at the guy in the tree, you can see an onion tied to his belt. It was the fashion at the time.
Haha! This could be an older version of one of my family photos! Yes, they’re used to his zaniness. Yet the mother complains that they can never get one decent, normal family portrait! Not one! (The menfolk are all secretly cracking up inside.)
This is the most obvious photo shopped document I have seen.
;P
Rob
OMG, I so want this family to adopt me. There is still room in their family tree for this nut. lol. I vote this to be the best faimly photo ever.
I smell an “Awkward Old-Timey” category coming
Just shows ‘we’ have not changed much over time.
What a GREAT family photo! They actually look like they’re having a good time and are happy to be together. All of the photos I have from this time period have my family looking like Grumpus Wumpus.
Ok, well I guess not much has changed. They’re still pretty grumpy. Of course, if we didn’t have to spend so much time at Marney’s….
Ah, Marney, wonder how many family gathering’s she’s wrecked lately. Thanksgiving is only 36 days away; shouldn’t she be sending out overly detailed, completely ridiculous letters about now?
um … and by 36, I mean 48. Silly me and my counting skills!
I have this idea in my mind that everyone from this era was stern and mean (based on all the photographs I’ve seen) so it’s refreshing to see someone with a sense of humor.
The reason for this is the people had to sit forever to get a photograph taken. A smile was harder to maintain than a plain look.
You try sitting several minutes in one position without moving and see how happy you want to stay.
Rob
I ran into the same phenomenon in Uganda this year. The older people will not smile for a picture due the poor dental care that resulted in missing teeth. But in person they are warm and friendly.
It’s David Blaine’s great grandfather doing his big, man lays in a tree for 30 days trick.
The only thing going through me mind right now is the Salem Witch Trials…….is he related to John Proctor…..:)
HEY! It’s actually the Seagull family and there’s cousin Fletcher Lynd in his most comfortable, happy place.
The Dade family posed at its annual gathering for the Uncle Fletcher harvest. Shake the tree just right, and the ripe ones fall.
I think the captions on the photos are almost funnier than the pictures.
My favorite part is reading the comments … those tree puns were cracking me up! Some of you people are hilarious!
Uncle Rufus was warned to stop passing gas at family gatherings.
Clearly photoshopped!! Kidding.
New AFP category: Tree suspension
oops, 2nd from the RIGHT
I’m fixated on Great Aunt Euphemia – 2nd from the left — is that some sort of Corpse Bride voodoo rag doll she’s holding?
Then again, it also doesn’t look like her right arm, the sleeve is different, like a third arm extending out of Uncle Fester’s back is holding it
AND she’s the only one smiling fiendishly.
Cousin Fletcher was always the class clown.
I thought it odd that no one was laughing about this ludicrous tree pose. Perhaps he was the crazy man in town who barged in on their photo op. Someone convinced him to pose in the tree and hoped he would not show up in their picture. Oh, but wait. Back in the day they didn’t smile in photos because their teeth were bad, so maybe he was their crazy family member.
By the way, the woman in the stripe dress was ahead of her time – Project Dirt Road.
Aaah, third girl from the left, your ankles are showing.
You tell her! Hussy!
Oh but, country folk are always so silly.
Is that a chicken or a ham Grandma is holding?
Ghost alert: whose phantom arm is that around grandma’s waist???
(Grandma= lady w/ no teeth, far right)
What is the lady second in from the right holding? That picture made me really lol, not just say it.
I’ve been wondering the same thing! Was reading comments to see if anyone else noticed it. Hmmmmm….. chicken? cat?
The townsfolk wanted to do something diffferent for the “before-we-hang-the-varmint” photo.
Actually nobody noticed him in the tree until the picture was developed. Scared the whole family.
omg, LOL… that would be REALLY creepy!
Cousin Fletcher was always a little batty.
Ha! Get it? Batty? Hanging in the tree? Like a bat? Get it?? Wow, I crack myself up…
Let everyone know that this is the OTHER Mary. I am the Mary with only witty comments and would not stoop to puns. Yepper, you’re barking up the wrong tree here, people.
Real punsters don’t need to to ask if others get it or laugh at their own remarks. I’ll go out on a limb and ask you to please leaf.
With shudder speeds being what they were in the 19th century, can you imagine how long cousin Fletcher had to hold that pose in the tree? The way his hands and face are a little blurry, I’d have to say quite a while.
It’s making me shutter just thinking about it…
He overexposed himself on that one, eh?
XD
I just peed myself a little…
When was smiling invented? People in these old photographs always look angry, even when someone is hanging out in a tree over them.
This photo was taken BEFORE the arm shelf was invented.
I love this – it shows that people have always been people – in the old days they all stood still because it took so long for the picture to develop – but they still had fun!!!
Obviously this is the family that laughs together…
I’ll bet cousin Fletcher was the life of all et togethers. He probaly inventing pulling a quarter out of kids ears
that’s just wacky!
Talk about being ahead of his time… the photographer’s intent was to photoshop the tree out of the photo to make it look like Fletcher was floating above everyone. It wasn’t until he developed the photo that he realized that not only was Photoshop not invented yet, neither was the computer.
Two bonus internets to you, sir!
Hugs to Michael!
When Uncle Carl got stuck in a tree, the family found a perfect photo op.
This is a great old photo; the man in the tree just adds a little extra.
I think what I like most about this picture is that the people in it are smiling. They’re breaking that turn-of-the-20th-century rule that when you’re having your picture taken, you have to look like you just heard that a close relative died.
I do not know why, but my first thought was that Fletcher could be a Christopher Walkin character.
Truth was, he didn’t need Prozac, just more cowbell.
(This pic would have been funnier if he hadn’t dropped the crossbow.)
No, you’ve got it all wrong. This is an historic photograph of the worlds first, and only, case of levitation caught on camera.
Now that’ll teach me for looking at the last picture first. I take back the comment that this is the only case of levitation caught on camera since seeing What Goes Up. LOL
Embarrassed of Cousin Fletcher’s ability to levitate, the family had a tree-limb photoshopped into the pic.
I would actually love to know the story behind the picture it is so unusual. Most of the other family members seems entertained. It seems that he would have had to be still in that tree for a long time, as back then they just didn’t take “snap” shots.
I’m getting a Salem Witch Trial feeling here. This is indeed an awkward picture (and creepy too).
Perhaps I’m going out on a limb here, but…that dude’s in a tree.
I think you should just leaf it alone.
Funny!!! You two should take a bough.
That was really sappy.
No Christina, you’re definitely barking up the wrong tree.
Yes, perhaps it is time to branch out a bit.
wood y’all just stop!
Fir Pete’s sake, stop all the punnin’, oaky-dokey? Or else you’ll get the back of my palm! I’m trying to spruce up this thread, so don’t birch, just ash yourself, “Willow this make me poplar?”
:/
You’re all barking up the wrong tree!
I’m rooting for all of you.
Is that Lee Van Cleef standing next to the guy sitting down?
Master Ninja Theme Song! chikachikachika!
I was thinking more of the “The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly” days, but yes, THAT Lee Van Cleef.
OMG!!! I <333 that show!!!!
There’s always a unique branch in the family tree…
Seriously though, there’s nothing like a grown man on a badly-supported tree limb above children.
Everyone got a good laugh at the towns first attempt at dealing with a horse thief.
i think it was rigor mortis that kept him in that tree…
Question is, was the rigor mortis in him or the tree?
That’s kind of what I was thinking too lol.
That’s how they stored dead people back then. In the spring, they’ll bury what the crows didn’t fly off with.
Oh Mary…that made me laugh so hard, I almost tooted at work.
That is so ridiculously awesome that someone would be up in a tree at this time period.
My thoughts exactly. Ahead of his time.
I agree…this is an awesome photo!
That was my very first thought too! Lawd, I do love this family.
Agreed, this rocks my socks.
For Pioneers to show a sence of humor is awesome!
Photobombing was exceptionally difficult in the late 19th century.
Guess what, guess what? Whimsy and comedy are not modern inventions!
Cousin fletcher just couldn’t quite fit in where he wanted to initially…