Blue Truck, Red State: vintage photos

Friday, August 21, 2026

Waitin' for the Weekend: Friends of Walter F.

Beach forecast: sunny, warm, and studly.
Kenneth Carson, Galveston, May 14, 1938 --
one of Walter's many friends.

Something different this week: a poignant series of photographs of handsome young men at the beach and elsewhere, taken between 1937 and 1941. The photographer, who appears in some of the photos, was one Walter R. Ferguson, who apparently had a job that enabled him to roam the South as "your TAFT representative," whatever that means. He stayed in very nice hotels, too.

The photos record his travels, first to seaside towns, starting with Jacksonville, Fla., and westward along the Gulf Coast to Beaumont, Texas. Next he shows up in St. Petersburg, Fla., and Miami, then travels up the East Coast all the way to Norfolk, Virginia. The following year, he visits Charlotte, Birmingham, Jackson, and Dallas, then goes up to Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville in Tennessee. And meets studly guys everywhere. And they gladly let him take their pictures!

It's obvious that Walter was good at striking up friendships wherever he went; he must have had a charming personality. The smiling young men he photographed seem to be enjoying his company, too. Apparently, nothing more is known of Walter and his friends, but the photos seem to tell a story. What do you think that story was?

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

These vids were posted on the YouTube channel homosexualhistory.

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Friday, August 7, 2026

Waitin' for the Weekend

"No Shirts + No Shoes #1" by Clint Collide:

Oh, where have all the summers gone . . . ?

Où sont les sables d'antan ?

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Friday, June 5, 2026

Waitin' for the Weekend

Hooray! June has returned with beach weather and fun in the sun. Here's "He and Him" by Vintage Photomontage:

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Friday, April 17, 2026

Waitin' for the Weekend

Caution - a few scenes of old-fashioned nekkid swimming.

"If I Had a Boat" by Osvaldo:

M.P. says if they're only swimming, it's not porn. I'm glad to get clarification on that.

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Prayer for Peace

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, harmony; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that I may seek not so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.