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November 1939. "Street corner in Gonzales, Texas." Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
The two phone cables visible here appear to have a lead sheath. This was pretty standard until sometime after WWII, when various kinds of plastic sheath came into use.
I have a Bell System manual from 1983 that still has a procedure (from 1969) for installing lead splice cases on lead-sheath cable. The case started out as a tube, and if it was pretty close to the diameter of the cable, you were supposed to just beat the ends down to the cable sheath and solder. The splice just to the right of the pole, for the small cable down to the box on the pole, looks to have been done this way.
If the splice case was much larger than the cable, you were expected to cast (!) end plates for the case to match the cable, using a set of molds and a pot of molten lead (!!). You then soldered the end plates to the case, and to the cable.
A little later on, Ma Bell figured out that lead might not exactly be good for you. There are some additional procedures (from 1979) about using some goop on the lead before you used a wire brush on it (to contain the dust), that it was important to pull lead cable out of a manhole without scraping it on the edge of the hole (to avoid dust), and that employees were only allowed to work half a day handling lead cable.
I mean no disrespect to the men in this photograph, but each could easily be a caricature (from left): the plywood cowboy silhouette cutout with bent knee; the friendly Latino sidekick; the slack-jawed yokel using every ounce of his concentration to roll a cigarette; the toothless old git; and the black dude with the great shoes and hat at an extreme angle, striking a crazy pose.
Freddy223's Google picture is from 2011 and the Guadalajara is now history. The 2016 picture shows unfortunate alterations that will soon become outdoor seating for the Come and Take It Bar and Grill which, to date, seems to be surviving.
["Unfortunate"? Looks nice to me. - Dave]
... nothing has changed in the way shirts are wrapped. It takes 10 minutes to get all the pins out!
Storefronts are changed but this is the same building. Even the telephone pole and fire hydrant are in the same place.
Future shopper checking out the shirt display.
1915 - On February 5, the Guadalupe Sanitarium is now open and has two patients.
http://www.gonzalesinquirer.com/stories/gonzales-county-chronological-hi...
I noticed the sign at the very top of the building.
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