As noted previously, this is 13th Street looking north from N Street. The girl and flags are gone and the curbs have been modified, but otherwise, the scene is virtually the same. I've attached a shot of the same perspective taken on March 22, 2010.

That's a '42 Chrysler. The '41 had a taller grille.

Thanks. I'd forgotten that rationing didn't cover the non-Eastern states until almost 1943.

My granedfather didn't have an A ration. He had a nearly unlimited ration. He was a vital war worker, working in the Southern Illinois oil fields. And a horse ate his soybean 1943 license plate. He backed the car up to the fence by the horse field and the horse ambled over and took a big bite out of it. He had to get a replacement.

The first plate in the front is a beautiful 42 Kansas Sunflower plate from Brown County. The next behind is from Lincoln, Nebraska. I can only see a corner of the next one, but it looks like Hastings, Nebraska (14). The next plate up the street is Sedgwick County, Kansas. The last car up the street looks surprisingly like a 41 California plate, but I can't make it out well enough.

Considering an A ration in 1942 was 3 gallons a week, they must have saved up their gas to all get into Lincoln?

[There was no rationing yet in the Midwest. (Which why none of the cars have ration stickers on the windshields.) On May 15, 1942, gasoline rationing began in 17 Eastern states. The allotment was three gallons a week. It wasn't until December 2, 1942, that gasoline rationing was required in all states. - Dave]

I'll have to send you a picture of this scene today...probably one of the few places in Downtown Lincoln that look exactly the same. I couldn't figure out the location of the other picture posted of Lincoln..I think all the buildings in it have been razed.

I think you're right, Dave. The photo was dark enough I didn't notice the separate parking lights, and did not recall the chrome stripe atop the headlight housing on my late uncle's '40 model . . .

I think the second car from the right is a 1940 Chevrolet, not 1941.

It appears to me to be, from the left, a light-colored '41 Ford, then '41 Chrysler, '41 Chevrolet, '38 Buick, '41 Chevrolet, '39 Ford.

For Idleracer, yo're right; cars have become more bland. The high spot was the mid '50s, when they even had tri-tone. (I had a '55 Roadmaster with orange-red top, light gray midsection and orange-red under the sweepspear . . )

You can see 2 guys to the right of the girl, toward the 1st corner a guy with a blue shirt and hat is walking toward the parked cars, if you go to the right of him another guy looking down with a brown hat. Also at the next intersection it looks like a group of people are getting ready to cross the street

The streets are lonely ; but the number of cars are no way, less ! Are they Austin cars ? (Austin of England) Or might be Morris.

[These are all American cars. - Dave]

Except for the one young lady, the streets are deserted! It's interesting that the cars are all shades of blue, black, white or gray, which isn't all that much different from what the color of cars have been for the last twenty years as well. I miss the way they looked in the early 70s, which was the only era in which autos came in all sorts of loud primary and secondary colors.

This shot makes you wonder what the girl looked like