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

Men of Action: 1942

May 1942. "Amusement park in Southington, Connecticut." Medium format negative by Fenno Jacobs for the Office of War Information. View full size.

May 1942. "Amusement park in Southington, Connecticut." Medium format negative by Fenno Jacobs for the Office of War Information. View full size.

 

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Yes, they did dress like that

Take a look at photos at the ball park from that era. Men wore suits in those days, period, unless they had jobs that required them to do actual physical labor, or to get dirty, e.g. on the railroad.

Location, location, location.

I agree with kairho1 that this is Lake Compounce in Bristol Ct, not Southington. It is one of the oldest, if not the oldest amusement park in the country. I live nearby and take my entire family there at least once every year. I can't imagine another amusement park ever being right next door to Lake Compounce and competing with this wonderful old park.

I-95

Indistinguishable from I-95 at commute time.

When was the last time you smiled...

...like this?

Whatever we're doing on our iPhones, it doesn't provide the same pleasure these folks get from a ride on the bumper cars.

Also, they dress better than we do. Much better.

Lake Compounce

I finally have (had?) intimate knowledge of a location! This is from Lake Compounce, a vintage amusement park in Bristol, Connecticut (post office and entrance address) which straddles the border between the towns of Bristol and Southington. It's still there, too.

Early 50s, my parents brought me there quite a number of times. Mom was born in Bristol (right on Farmington Avenue) and they had, by then, moved to nearby Hartford. I was born in 48 and the Sunday excursions to LC got us out of the city for a few hours. Photo attached is of me in June, 1952, which I just uncovered last year in a genealogical project.

Most fun ride was the Chris-Craft speedboat ride across the lake although I also loved the miniature train which circumnavigated the lake. It was difficult for my mother to get me off those. She preferred I ride the merry-go-round but I got frustrated because I was too small to reach the brass ring.

Formal amusement

At first I thought these folks looked pretty formal for an amusement park. Then I saw this on Wikipedia:

In May 1942, during World War II, the town was selected by the War Department to be highlighted in a defense booklet called Southington, CT—Microcosm of America. Photographers roamed the community taking photos of residents at work, at play and in their homes and churches. The final publication was intended to show friends and foes alike in Europe the typical American citizens and families, their traditions and values. Thousands of copies were dropped from military airplanes over Europe during the Nazi German Occupation.

So, did they dress a little better when they knew the photographers were roaming?

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