Not to get into a rut or anything, but Hiatal weeks always have a Thrift-Store B&W photo section. Eventually they all go here, in the Miscellany department. I forgot I had that site! It’s not bad.
So what do we have today?
Very 20s. Maybe early 30s. I think. I don’t know enough about the suits of the era to be able to tell you.
The kid could still be around. But it’s unlikely. Interesting to speculate what he saw in his lifetime.
I colorized this one.
On the back it says:
Taken at the Leamington Hotel for the A&B Senior Prom, January 10, 1948, Saturday Night. Jim Hall and I. The photographer would catch me talking!
So she was born in 1930. I wonder if they got hitched. Hey, it happened.
This is a staged photo, obviously. It has some code I don’t understand, but probably made it easy to retrieve or identify.
The couple in the center is obviously the star of the scene:
The backup team:
Larger version here.
A reminder that things overlapped: people from the previous generation inhabited the latest and most modern of locales.
WHERE is this place? It's wild. Larger version here.
The gals on break, or socializing in a church basement, or something.
On the right: In that era it seemed as if all women turned into my grandma after a certain age.
This is charming . . . but heartbreaking. The ordinariness of it all, the blurry action, the simple childhood joy of a girl and her dog:
This one I colorized, and it turned out well.
What’s heartbreaking, in the usual way of all old photos, isn’t that the time has passed; that’s a given. It’s that someone gave the pictures away.
The bartender! Ladies and gentlemen, name your pleasure.
Dude goes heavy on the DeKuypers, so we’re talking some sugary tipples.
“I’ve had a relaxed and accepting view of life ever since the bullet creased my head and spared me.”
The Hawaiian Vacation summed up in one picture:
That guy looks familiar.
In fact, the more you look at the guys, the more you think wifey had a type.
I’d never heard of these pills. From the folks who brought you Pepto-Bismol:
Ah, a magazine. Can't resist.
There’s no date, so that means I have to look through 500 Time covers? A great weariness has descended. No, wait, we can search the magazine itself.
From the story:
Lozenges containing benzocaine and trade-named Flavettes helped three-quarters of his patients cut down smoking and still keep their weight down, Dr. William L. Gould of Albany. N. Y. reports. Since the lozenges also contain licorice, ginger and oils of anise, wintergreen, coriander and cloves, they naturally spoil the appetite for tobacco and food as well.
Feb. 23, 1953.
Now, it's Peanut Time!
That’s a brilliant slogan. And it’s not even a slogan. It was just sitting there for decades waiting for Don Draper to look at the product for an hour in a bar, smoking, then make one move with his pencil that redefined the very name of the thing itself without changing its essential nature.m
You can’t neglect the core product, though. This is rather clever:
For the next one, it might help to know some company history:
Planters was founded by Italian immigrant Amedeo Obici in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He started his career as a bellhop and fruit stand vendor in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Obici later moved to Wilkes-Barre, opened his own fruit stand, and invested in a peanut roaster. Obici turned peddler within a few years, using a horse and wagon, and calling himself "The Peanut Specialist".
And so, this rather serious sell:
“Pittsburgh, 1914.” Why? Why not Scranton, 1908? Because Scranton sounds funny? By 1913 the company had already decamped to Virginia. This guy could’ve been a depiction of the founder, but they decided against it.
And now, the one that really requires the viewer to know who the strange yellow creature is:
That's one of the most unsettling things I've seen in this entire collection. But not as bad as Two-Head Backus.
Which is yet t come.
We conclude with this week's Hiatal Contest:
A 1924 newspaper contest that went on forever.
I couldn't find the answer key, so we're going to be on our own.
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