Tommies Too: 1937

Thanks for the updated photo of Tommies.

I wonder if Mike and Frank from TV's "American Pickers" got there in time to grab those great Sterling Beer signs.

While in the Air Force, I would stop occasionally in Terre Haute, Indiana when going home to Cincinnati on leave and have a cold Sterling. Not a bad brew.

As opposed to "Simulated" 7up, I suppose?

The building is remarkably unchanged over the years--yet, interestingly enough, looks completely different in its different lives. In the old photo, it looks appropriately like a place of business from its time. It does not look like a house. Yet, in the newer photo, it looks appropriately like a house and nothing like a place of business. It's amazing how much signs and different styles of doors can change a place.

Well, at least it was CORDIAL segregation.

Thanks for the additional pics of our parents' shop -- yes, Tommies did serve a lot of sailors, boat yard workers, and other industrial workers of both races who lived and worked in that area.

Times were very hard for most people, including our family. Thanks again.

Below is the identical view taken in July of 2010.

A more depressing angle on Tommie's place, with the "colored entrance" on display.

I clearly remember "colored" water fountains and entrances as a child in the early 1960s, and being puzzled by my parents hustling me away on a hot summer day when I only wanted a cold drink of water. Ah, the innocence of youth.

I wonder if the Whittington family has any more history on the business and the people who ran it? Such as years of operation, etc.