#43, What ever else changes Coca Cola endures.
The one in Caribou, Maine is typical for New England. They clear-cut the crap out of Maine and the other New England states back in the day and that was true in parts of it even in the 1940’s. New England is much more picturesque today than it has been through most of its settled history. The trees and wildlife are mostly back now.
The set of photos in Brockton, MA wasn’t taken very far from where I work. It isn’t terrible now by national standards but the area is basically an immigrant slum now and one of the worst areas in Massachusetts.
These are really incredible, so full of life. There’s something very hauntingly beautiful about the color of #47.
Actually, courtesy of the Library of Congress.
There are 1,600 color images in that American Memory FSA/OWI collection, all available and searchable on the LoC site. They’ve been up for quite a few years. I think that the American Memory site is one of the country’s great public resources.
It looks like tobacco to me. It definitely isn’t rhubarb.
The large leafed plant in the log cabin garden is tobacco.
These photos bring back lots of memories. I can remember some things from 1945 (very spotty bits and pieces before then) and those photos certainly stirred memories.
The old guy in picture #40 looks like he’s about 70 so he would have been born about 1870. Slavery was abolished in 1865 so this guy is likely a first generation free black man.
My boyfriend forwarded this site to me a couple of days ago–just amazing. I was actually late out the door to work because I stopped to forward it to a bunch of people.
My grandmother made a similar comment:
Good Lord, a shocking lack of hair products back in the Olden Days!
I love #6, with the news headlines hand written on butcher paper and hung up in the windows.
#49 = distilled 190-proof essence of badass.
Also, acetylene torches haven’t changed a bit.
Darn nifty.
That is from my parents era and it is hard to believe we have come so far in 70 years. We were so industrious during the war and post war eras.
Can you elaborate on this a little?
So the outfits in photo 12 were made from material taken from animal feed bags or flour bags—like the bags on photo 30?
Was the pretty print on the inside of the bag or the outside? What about trademarks and other printing on the bag?
I had to look extra close to make sure that the two older girls in the background were actually different, and not one girl reflected in a mirror.
I can look at old photos like this all day (and I have).
It’s so cool to look at the long forgotten details in the corners, and to look at the faces of real ordinary human beings from another era and imagine myself being there, perhaps as a little child, running around and having a good time.
For those who don’t wander near Café Society frequently, I started a thread there a few weeks ago about a fun photo from the Jersey Shore in 1905:
Article about how feed and flour came to be packaged in cotton.
The company name might be printed on the very top or along the side, in small enough letters so the fabric wouldn’t be wasted. Like now, when you buy fabric by the yard, the manufacturer’s info is printed along one edge, using about an inch of fabric space.
These fabric designs are being reproduced and are popular with quilters.
Awesome!
A whole 'nother world I never imagined. Thanks for the link AuntiePam.
The oldest girl in the picture #16, a relative of Napolean Dynomite?
My favorite picture is the dinner table (#17). Love the Karo on the table – back when syrup came in paint cans. Also note the plain wooden table topped with linoleum to dress it up and give it a presentable surface. I still have a couple of old tables done up that way from the farm where my mother grew up in the same era.
And canvas sneakers aren’t entirely absent from this series. Note the Texas kid with the cool canvas hi-tops in pic #29.
I have to say that the “girlie show” at the state fair in Rutland, Vermont must have been a great disappointment to the fellers. (#11)
Also, I miss the days when old guys out in the country always wore overalls. 