I stumbled across the photo above showing some vintage watermelon fun on Flickr. It’s an image simply titled “At the Palisades” and the person who posted it described it as a photo “of my husband’s family although I have little idea of whom in particular.”
The date of the image isn’t specified, but using my virtually nonexistent sense of fashion history, I’d date the photo somewhere in the late 1920s – possibly mid-September of 1928. The “Palisades” in the photo’s title is probably a reference to the beach in Santa Monica, CA although there was a Palisades beach in New Jersey then, too.
What struck me as interesting about the photo, aside from the fact that everyone was under strict orders to hold up their watermelon for the snapshot, was the seemingly formal dress code for beachgoers back in the early 20th century. Certainly more formal than on today’s beaches, that’s for sure.