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VINTAGRAPH • WPA • WWII • YOU MEAN A WOMAN CAN OPEN IT?

Gasoline Allée: 1939

January 1939. "Main Street in Jerome, Arkansas." As well as a cozy, woodsy gas station. Medium-format nitrate negative by Russell Lee. View full size.

January 1939. "Main Street in Jerome, Arkansas." As well as a cozy, woodsy gas station. Medium-format nitrate negative by Russell Lee. View full size.

 

On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5

37 Plymouth

Was the first car I remember my parents having, around 1960ish - age 2, along with a 56 Chevy P/U. The Plymouth was hard to start, and Mom would often get frustrated (angry?). It apparently had very loose steering also. I thought the faster you moved the wheel back and forth, the faster the car went. Reality was actually just the opposite, the faster you drove, the more you had to wiggle the steering wheel to keep the car on the road.

Those Tank Fill Pipes

I'm quite certain those capped risers you see protruding from the ground just inside the sidewalk line are for the underground tanks.

Gas Pumps

I'm curious. Did those antique pumps use underground tanks like modern pumps? Those large trees growing next to the pumps would have large root systems.

Jerome Grows

Jerome, Arkansas became a busy place during WWII when a Japaneese American internment camp was built which later became a camp for German POWs. At one point during WWII it was the fifth largest city in Arkansas. The population in 2000 was only 46 people. The PBS documentary "Time of Fear" is an account of this camp and one located about 30 miles away at Rohwer, Arkansas.

A 1937 Plymouth is in front of the gas pumps and what looks like a 1937 Chevrolet is down the street. Photos of similar cars are below.

All the houses appear to be raised off the ground for when the area floods.

Cold Medicine of the Beast

The tree at right foreground appear (edit: appears) to have a sign for 666 cold medicine nailed to it. The remedy, in liquid and tablet form, is still produced today by its original manufacturer, the Monticello Drug Company of Jacksonville, Florida.

[The sign was also seen here. - tterrace]

Thank you. I now note another 666 sign on the side of the building just to the right of the tree.

Health & Safety

Looks like a guy is lighting up beside the pumps. Could be wrong, but also looks like a makeshift fire drum sitting on ground behind him.

Indiana Jones

Has an evil twin who appears to be lighting up awfully close to the foreground gas pump.

Grove's Chill Tonic

Grove's Tasteless Chill Tonic--a quinine mixture suspended in a supposedly-tasteless syrup.

No Smoking

Probably shouldn't be lighting up that pipe by the gas pumps.

Compaction

With cars driving over the roots and the occasional petroleum spill, I wonder how long the gas station trees lasted.

Wait, is that George Raft emerging from the general store?

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