Cindy Dodd Tomasulo was shocked by the reception received when she posted some of the photos her father, Bernard LeRoy Dodd, took as a young man living in Bakersfield during the 1940s to a Facebook group. She received hundreds of likes, comments and shares.

The former Tehachapi resident, who is now retired and living in Mexico, came across the photos when sorting through family memorabilia. At first, she assumed two albums she found were just full of family photos. On further inspection, she realized they were her father’s first photos, which she knew were taken in Bakersfield.

Although a few of the photos were accompanied by notes, most were not. But members of the “Kern County of Old” Facebook group helped identify a few people in the photos, or put a name and model year to the vintage motorcycles and autos. Some could even identify the street that a photo depicted — and many enjoyed seeing earlier versions of iconic Bakersfield structures and some that are no more. With more than 57,000 members in the group, the photos reached a lot of people.

“What a treasure trove,” one person commented. “A blast from the past,” and “tremendous time capsule” were among other notations.

Melinda Barber suggested that four gentlemen sitting in a restaurant in one photo might be oil field workers.

“I believe they are friends of my grandaddy,” Tomasulo responded. “He worked in the oil fields for years.”

Granddaddy was Haydon Earl Dodd, who moved from Missouri to Bakersfield with his wife, Anna Louisa, and son Bernie sometime before 1938. He worked for Mohawk Oil and his wife was a teacher. Bernie’s smiling face can be seen in class photos taken at Williams School when he was 11 and at Horace Mann when he was 12.

But by the end of ninth grade, young Dodd discovered photography and saw no reason to continue going to school.

“He dropped out of school because of his love for photography, and never looked back,” his daughter said.

The first photo he took, developed and printed himself, was of his dogs — Skippy, Vicky and Dutchy — in January 1943. He was 14. He wanted to make money and as his skill increased he found he could do that with a camera.

Shooting in black-and-white and doing his own darkroom work, the teenager sold photos to The Bakersfield Californian and The Bakersfield Press, another newspaper of the day. Photos of accidents, social events and sports fill his albums — along with luscious period scenes. The photos of young people, especially, are noteworthy. They look happy and carefree despite the fact that — like the photographer — they were growing up during the Great Depression and World War II.

Dodd earned money, and was apparently a man about town as well. His scrapbook includes pit passes to the Bakersfield Speedbowl and Bakersfield Stadium — and a pass for the Hollywood Thrill Circus, a traveling event he covered in 1946.

A sticker on the back of one photo identifies it as the work of “Bernard Dodd Commercial Photographer” at 1805 Palm St., Bakersfield, which was his family’s home near Beale Park.

Other memorabilia provides insight into Dodd’s increasing skill. In November 1946, only six months after his 18th birthday, he went to work in Inyokern at the U.S. Navy’s new Naval Ordnance Test Station (now known as Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake). As a member of the Metric Photography Unit, he was authorized to discuss and witness tests of Operation Bumblebee and Project Lark, both part of the Navy’s wartime effort to develop surface-to-air missiles.

At age 21, around 1949, he was issued a press card by the Associated News Service. And in 1952 he was ready to try his luck in the big city, Tomasulo said. He settled in Gardena, a city in Los Angeles County, and eventually opened a camera store there.

“My mom walked in one day to drop off a roll of film and when she walked away he told his friend, ‘I’m going to marry her!'” Dodd and Patsy Lee Rice were married in June 1954.

Tomasulo was not quite 6 years old when the family was on a camping trip to Tehachapi Mountain Park and her parents learned that Reisinger’s Photo Studio was for sale. Wanting to get Cindy and her brother, Brian, out of the city, the Dodds purchased the business and moved to Tehachapi in 1968.

“They were amazing partners in the Tehachapi business,” Tomasulo said of her parents. They operated Dodd Photography on East F Street in downtown Tehachapi (where Southern Shooting Supply is now located) until 1987, when Bernie Dodd died at age 59. Patsy died the next year at 56.

While operating their studio, the Dodds helped hundreds of Tehachapi residents chronicle their lives with photographs. From senior portraits to engagement and wedding photos and family pictures of every kind, Dodd Photography was the principal photographic business in Tehachapi for nearly 20 years.

Sadly, the archives of that business were not retained. But fortunately, Tomasulo’s recent find may help some families discover images of past generations — or at least provide a glimpse into Bakersfield’s past.

Many people commented on the photographs she shared on Facebook, suggesting the photos need to be in a museum.

Dianne Hardisty, The Californian’s former editorial page editor, noted that much of what was left of The Californian’s historical photos have been given to the Kern County Museum.

“Your father’s photos certainly would enhance the collection,” she wrote. “The Californian Foundation (now Virginia and Alfred Harrell Foundation) contributed several thousands of dollars to the museum to construct a research center on-site. The center makes these images accessible to the public and researchers.”

In December, Tomasulo said, she plans to bring the photos to Bakersfield where two individuals she met through the Facebook posts will ensure that they are preserved and digitized. She’s still in shock from the response the photographs generated.

“I didn’t even know these existed until long after his death,” she said. “Surprise!”