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Ryan Walsh

@itsryanwalsh

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🛸 telling stories @zeptepicreative
♥️ Easton, PA + a PB&J
👇 View the map of postcards!📍

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

how did we end up here? ✨

🇮🇹 lake como adventures with my love ❤️

shot on our favorite lil guy 📸 #fujix100 #fujix100v

Loved mixing this track with my favorites @frenchkiwijuice 🎶 Moments Pt. 1 + @leonardodicaprio 🎬 from Inception

#fkj #inception #lakecomo #italy #fyp #postcard taken in Lake Como, Italy by @itsryanwalsh

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a year ago

🌚

full moon • 3.14.25 • easton, pa taken in Easton, Pennsylvania by @itsryanwalsh

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2 years ago

There’s a 100 acre museum in Easton & most people drive right past it…

The Historic Easton Cemetery is a beautiful place that deserves to be cared for & honored, just like the stories of those who rest there. ✨

In the summer, the wonderful staff & volunteers at the @historiceastoncemetery host tours to help raise funds & awareness, and to give back to the community.

I’m very thankful for all that they do, and I wanted to make a short video series to help bring awareness to their urgent need of help! 👇

The cemetery is facing the largest challenge of its 175-year existence. 💔 As the death care industry sees sees lower revenue from cremations, many historic cemeteries find themselves struggling financially…

Easton Cemetery is no different.

If you want to learn more about how you can help, visit their website 📲 thehistoriceastoncemetery.org/support

& stay tuned for • P A R T 2 • V I S I O N A R Y

❤️ @zeptepicreative taken in Easton, Pennsylvania by @itsryanwalsh

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2 years ago

“WAKE UP! Listen carefully..” 🤌 Day 18/100 📍 South 3rd Street • Easton, PA • circa 1910

*HUH?! WHAT?!* -you realize youve fallen asleep on a mannequin inside Laubach’s Department store. Dad’s ALL up in your grill. (wtf dude?)

“I need you to go down to Hellick’s on South Third. Get a pound of coffee beans & bring me the change. Straight there & back. Got it?” —somehow Mom hears this from across the store— “BY HIMSELF?!”

“He’s old enough.” -Dad *micdrops* - *AM I STILL DREAMING?!

With 50cents in hand, you burst onto Northampton St. & take a right toward Centre Square like you’ve done this 1000 times.

You turn the corner & ZOOOOM! A trolley rattles past you full-speed. *holy shi-* - A horse & carriage comes barreling through the circle - “SLOW DOWN JACKASS!” an old man across the street yells out.

*deep breath. I can do this.* For the 1st time w/o Dad beside you, you actually LOOK at the city.. Trolley wires overhead. Tracks in the street. Wagons squeezing past. Factory smoke rising over the river. Trains moving in the distance... It’s a lot to take in.

Somewhere down there is 113 S. 3rd St. - Hellick’s Tea Company - Three blocks away. *GULP* Finally you walk through the doors & are met face-to-waist with a police officer in line. *DOUBLE GULP*

“30 cents, please!” -The coins peel off of your sweaty palms & into the cashiers hand. She gives you change & a brown paper bag.

With the fresh loot safely tucked under your arm, you turn back towards Centre Sq. feeling 40 years older. You’re halfway there when a shiny 4-wheel land-yacht catches your eye. Is that a Model 66??

The driver revs the engine. VROOOMM!! followed instantly w/ SPLAAAT! 💩 The horses hitched at the jailhouse do NOT appreciate humanity’s latest achievement like you do.

You walk back into Laubach’s looking like you just crossed the frontier. Dad takes the coffee & change - “Good job… but you smell like shit.” (he aint wrong 🤷‍♂️) He pushes the coins back at you.

“Take that change & ride the trolley home. We’ll see you in an hour. I hope.” -Mom’s head SNAPS toward him.

20¢ richer, youre gone before she can object. 😎

Follow the 100 postcard journey! 😁 @itsryanwalsh taken in Easton, Pennsylvania by @itsryanwalsh

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15 days ago

It’s a warm fall Sunday in 1907 ☀️🍂 Day 17/100 📍 Easton Cemetery Gates • Easton, PA • circa 1907

You’re sweating through your hand-me-down jacket for reasons that have NOTHING to do with the weather. You’re in church.

When you walked in you saw HER. Elouise. Your grade-school crush. Somehow Dad leads you to the pew DIRECTLY in front of her. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

You feel her light-blue eyes melting the back of your head. She quickly becomes a witness to your collar trying to strangle you. (u wish it would)

Stand. Sit. Kneel. Stand. Kneel. (AGAIN??) Who designed this wedgie-inducing ritual??

Your 4yr-old-sister snaps you back to reality. Shes been coloring a masterpiece beside you. You wish life was that simple again. It’s tough being 12.

“May you go in peace.” 🙏 (FINALLY. FREEDOM!) or so you thought.. God had other plans… You hear Elouise say YOUR name. You freeze.

*She knows my name?!* You turn around. “Hey! You left these.” She’s holding a box of Crayola crayons.

“N- no, those aren’t mine—“ .. she turns the box over 👉️ “They have your name on them?” 🤷‍♀️ —SHIT!— “Ohh yeah.. they WERE mine. I just gave them to my sister.”🙇‍♂️

She smiles. “Well here, tell her to keep creating!” —Her fingers touch yours as she hands them over. *you ascend to heaven

“We gotta go!” -Mom calls out (WTF NOO!) You look at Elouise like its the final scene of your life together. She whispers to her grandpa & turns back to you, “We’re headed to the Easton Cemetery now. We go on Sundays to say hi to Grandma. Want to come with us?”😊

You look at mom. Mom looks at dad. Dad looks at her grandpa. Grandpa smiles. *WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!* 5min later youre knee-to-knee with “Ellie” in a horse-drawn carriage trying not to melt again.

You wait in line outside the cemetery’s ivy-covered Gothic gateway on 7th St. Grandpa tells you of his former Lafayette professor, Dr. Traill Green, who helped create this beautiful, park-like cemetery, back in 1849.

He hands over a ticket at the gate as you roll into the magical 50-acres of rolling-hills. The best day of your life has only just begun. taken in Easton, Pennsylvania by @itsryanwalsh

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19 days ago

big ideas in a tiny town ❤️ taken in Easton, Pennsylvania by @itsryanwalsh

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20 days ago

There were Wawas before Easton?! 🤯 Day 16/100 📍 Junction of Lehigh & Delaware River • Easton, PA • circa 1940

Imagine standing here WAYY back! Before Easton, before the Lenape.. Mother Nature had been working her ASS off to carve this valley.

During the Ice Age she melted some glaciers up north. They flooded this area with water & WA-LA! We got a couple of rivers to tube down! 🦦

Before Easton existed, the rivers were water-roads for the natives. If you think 78 sucks during rush hour?.. Imagine your “highway” is a freezing river with a deadly current, and there’s not a single Wawa in sight...

OR WAS THERE??!.. “wawa” was the word for “snow goose” used by the Lenape/Delawares. So there were actually Wawas EVERYWHERE! A beautiful bird, im sure.. but nowhere NEAR as magical as a coffee+sizzli combo!!

The “confluence” is where all the action happened. No.. not the overpriced apartments- the spot where the 2 rivers run into each other & go.. “well alright then, I guess we’re doing this together now” 🤷‍♂️

So when Easton gets poppin in 1752, this area gets PACKED. Fishing, ferries, boats w huge logs, heavy supplies… & definitely some wawas! It was CHAOS.

but THANKFULLY someone got fed up & said “DAM IT!”… so they did!

In 1829, the Easton Dam was built as part of the Lehigh Canal system. Its job was NOT to make a cute waterfall.. (u did anyways queen 💅).. it was to raise & control the water so canal boats could move through it.

**blinks** Railroads end the canal era **many mules become unemployed

see.. the Lehigh & Hudson River Railroad bridge in this 1940 postcard had been center stage since 1890. It changed the game & over 130yrs later its STILL doing its thing!

BUT! more importantly.. you see the ppl sitting?

Apparently someone came along & goes, “yo this spot is actually kinda dope!” so ppl start coming to chill here & that eventually evolves into Scott Park!

Today you’ll find families, runners, tubers, events, swingers (wait what?) *people swinging, concerts, movie nights, you name it.. all here by the river.

A full-circle moment for a place thats been a connector for ages ❤️

Follow the 100 postcard journey! 😁 @itsryanwalsh taken in Easton, Pennsylvania by @itsryanwalsh

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22 days ago

Guess what? 🤫 You live in a post card ❤️

📍Birds Eye View of the Easton-Phillipsburg Toll Bridge • Easton, PA • circa 2026

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to remind you that right NOW is a moment in history. ☀️ Carpe diem! taken in Easton, Pennsylvania by @itsryanwalsh

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23 days ago

Wow I never knew this! 😮 Day 15/100 📍 Cottingham Public School • 811 Northampton St. Easton, PA • circa 1908

“GET UP! No more skipping school!” -mom in 1895

“since when??” -you (in bed) in 1895

“It’s a new rule! Let’s go!” -mom (secretly rejoicing)

*WTF* -you (still in bed)- “Who made this stupid rule?!”

“The STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA! Now put your pants on before they take your allowance!” -mom (half-kidding)

..(up til 10sec ago) being a student at Cottingham Public School has been a dream! You love school. You get good grades. You have your own desk, your own teacher, actual textbooks, music class & a legit high school to move onto!..

sounds like “yeah. duh. BOring”…but this was revolutionary a few decades earlier!

Rewind to 1853.. School exists, but it’s WAY less organized. (hard to believe, i know 🫣) There were NO public school buildings, NO grade levels, and NO clear path from a “neighborhood school” to a “high school” 🤷‍♂️

But THEN a strapping young Lafayette grad, William White Cottingham, shows up & he gets BUSY!! He becomes Easton’s Superintendent at age 28 & spends the next 60 YEARS helping create Easton’s public education system. The school board unanimously re-elects him until his death in 1913. (brutal & beautiful)

& you may think.. (like i did) “Ahh well he just helped the smart kids!”.. But as Id come to learn - im an asshole! 🤣 and Mr. Cottingham wasn’t! 🙏 He knew not everyone would be college-bound, so he developed a “commercial curriculum” for students to thrive in other ways. He was also a key player in creating Easton’s public library.

Mr. Cottingham really was ‘that guy’!!

About 10yrs after he passed, the new high school stadium was named in his honor.. & it’s the reason the name hits me different. The name is a feeling.

Its a runny nose on a crisp fall Friday night, screaming into the hazy stadium lights. Your classmates on the field, drum line at your side, and best friends under your arms.

“Cottingham” is the kind of word that doesn’t mean much until you grew up here… then it means everything. & now it means even more. ❤️

Follow the 100 post card journey! 😁 @itsryanwalsh taken in Easton, Pennsylvania by @itsryanwalsh

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24 days ago

Can you imagine this? 🥹💍 Day 14/100 📍 Bixler’s 4th & Northampton • Easton, PA • circa 1910

Its a brisk fall Saturday in 1908. You’re 18yrs old & today is THE day. Youve been working all summer at Simon Silk Mill. Long hours in a hot building full of loud, dirty machines. You’re fkg over it, man!

Youve been giving up HOURS of your life for a paycheck & trying not to blow it all on Seitz beer, trolley rides, & trips to Dorney Park w your buddies. Why? Easy!.. A girl.

Youve known her since Cottingham elementary. The two of you are inseparable. You’ve already done the stressful part of asking her father.. now it’s time to make it official.

You dont Google “best engagement rings near me” .. You already know where youre going. Bixler’s, baby!!

You hop on a trolly down Northampton St. sweating through your dad’s old cotton suit. You’re itchy & nervous but you look GOOD!!

The jewelry in the giant storefront window catches the sun & damn near blinds you. Suddenly that stack of cash in your pocket feels WAY smaller.. *GULP* .. “oh god, i hope i have enough.”

You push open the corner door on 4th & Northampton and walk in. It feels intimidating, but familiar. You’ve been here with nearly EVERY family member... for Dad’s new watch.. Grandpa’s gold bracelet.. Your mom’s weird collection of brooches. Bixler’s was THE place.

A 4th generation Bixler welcomes you in w/ a smile. His family’s store has been in Easton since 1785 so your deer-in-the-headlights stare is nothing new to him.

“Engagement ring?” - *WTF HOWD HE KNOW??* - “Y-Yes sir.”

“What’s your budget?” - *JACK SHIT* - “Umm. Not much..”

“Don’t worry. We’ll make it work!” - *YOU CAN BREATHE NOW* - “Th-Thank you.”

He starts pulling out rings... Too expensive. Too fancy. Def not her... WAIT! What about that one? *he raises an eyebrow, smiles & hands it over* - Thats it. Thats the one.

“That’ll be $22.50” - ur shook. Thats more money than youve EVER spent in your life... And you couldn’t be more excited. It’s showtime. 😎

If you want to find a little piece of Bixler history still hiding downtown, look among the giant crayons 🕰️

Follow the 100 post card journey! 😁 @itsryanwalsh by @itsryanwalsh

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a month ago

This takes a dark turn 😥 Day 13/100 📍 National Guard of Pennsylvania, New Armory • Easton, PA • circa 1908

1st off, just look at this thing.. Massive stone walls. Turret towers. Giant arched entrance. This bldg makes absolutely ZERO sense today... but 120yrs ago this was a proper flex!

In 1905, Pennsylvania had just created an “Armory Board” to build National Guard armories around the state. They wanted them to look “strong & tough”.. so yeah.. this is what we got. 🤷‍♂️

but im not hating! This wasn’t some castle clubhouse (would be a cool nightclub tho..) It was the new HQ of Easton’s Company I, 13th Regiment 🫡

If Facebook groups existed then, the comments would’ve been a war zone..

‘Yay’bors were like 👍 “the city finally feels safe!” - “loving all these fit, handsome men running around!” - “our beer sales are at an all-time high!” 😄

‘Nay’bors were like 👎 “the city feels like a prison!” - “whats with all these loud stinky men running around??” - “they’re drinking all the damn beer!” 😠

See.. in 1907 the armory was the place where the local National Guard were doing drills, storing guns & gear, and probably still talking shit about Lafayette beating Lehigh 33-0 in 1906 🤣

b/c remember! these werent just “soldiers”.. they were regular Easton/Lehigh Valley dudes. They had jobs, families, girl problems.. normal-guy stuff!

& that’s what makes the next part hit harder 😣

Less than 10yrs after this post card is printed, these local soldiers are mobilized to the Mexican border in 1916. In 1917 the U.S. enters WWI

Some Easton families had their son’s name carved into memorials instead of seeing him walk back in their front door at Christmas 😔 Kinda changes the way you look at the goofy castle huh?

RIP fellow Easton bros 🙏

Eventually The Guard moves & the “armory” has a rough time. It’s used like a warehouse for yrs until Easton declares it “blighted” in 2011 - aka “this place is trashed, somebody please save it” - and luckily, someone did!

Hopefully something cool comes of it, but til then, my 7-year-old self will continue seeing it as Easton’s life-size PLAYMOBIL set. ❤️

Follow the 100 post card quest! 😁 @itsryanwalsh taken in Easton, Pennsylvania by @itsryanwalsh

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a month ago

Can you believe this?! 😮 Day 12/100 📍 Approach to Eighth Street (Park) • Easton, PA • circa 1910

When I found this post card I assumed this local French riviera HAD to be destroyed long ago… Like how many times have I driven down Northampton St. & not ONCE have I seen this?? 🤨 no way it exists..

**proceeds to google maps- “8th st park” … 6 minutes away. 🫨 WTF?!

Turns out that when they were paving 8th St it was too steep to have cars go down it! So on the lot between Pine & Northampton they said, screw it, let’s make it a park! (my heart 🥹)

And they didn’t half-ass it either!! Terraced grass.. flowers.. benches.. It was literally post card worthy!

Around 1908 they put these cement steps in.. and I guess at some point one of them disappeared 🤷‍♂️

BUT HOW COOL IS THIS?!.. when I pulled up to film this there were 2 city workers weed whacking, taking care of the property!

100+ years later & we’re still looking after this weird little forgotten slope. It gave me a little bit of hope back. 🥲 and it’s what I’m loving about doing these..

You realize sometimes the old thing isn’t always demolished… sometimes it’s just sitting there quietly.. covered in a few weeds (& Backwoods wrappers).. just waiting for you to notice it ☺️

Follow along as I find the locations of a 100 vintage postcards 😊 @itsryanwalsh taken in Easton, Pennsylvania by @itsryanwalsh

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a month ago