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

The After Hours: 1947

Jan. 27, 1947. "Kartch's, business on Main Street, Paterson, New Jersey. Looking to entrance from cashier's desk." We're looking for a thimble. A golden thimble. For our mother. Large-format negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.

Jan. 27, 1947. "Kartch's, business on Main Street, Paterson, New Jersey. Looking to entrance from cashier's desk." We're looking for a thimble. A golden thimble. For our mother. Large-format negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.

 

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Today’s Top 5

Window Shopping

I wish stores of today had the spiffy window displays of yesteryear. There's something so appealing about them that draws you inside, especially the holiday displays. A guess the career of the window dresser has gone the way of the Dodo except in some metropolitan areas.

How times have changed

I bet this is a lot different today. This picture made me think of the businesses that used to be even in my small town of 1800, all kept up and looking much like this. We had three gas stations, a bank, a credit union, a clinic, two dentists, 5 or 6 bars, two grocery stores, two hardware stores, a furniture store, two women's clothes stores, one men's clothes, a good hardware store, a lumber yard and two fuel oil dealers, an electronics / appliance store, a variety store, a convenience store, a showhouse and a bowling alley, a shoe repair place, and four cafes/coffee shops. Now only a convenience store that sells gas, three bars, and a credit union remain.

Where do these people shop now? Wal Mart 5 miles away and other big box stores. I miss the old days.

Twilight Zone

Goodness knows I'm a huge fan of the Gottscho-Schleisner photos (many of them masterpieces of postwar, high-contrast, middle-class urban Americana), but this one has entered the spooky region of the night-time netherworld, making you wonder what might happen in the apparently empty shop after the humans lock up and go home for the day. I'm noting specifically the complex layering of the reflections of the inside lighting on the outdoor lighting, the reflections also of those weird amoeboid frames, the luridly-lit store across the street, and most of all, the backs of the child mannequins which you know are going to come to life at some secret command.

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