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Fall 1940, somewhere in the Midwest. An uncaptioned shot by John Vachon with neighboring 35mm frames taken in Fargo, North Dakota, and Little Falls, Minnesota. We'll just wait for these kids to fill in the details. View full size.
It may have been the homeowner who carved the heart and initials in the porch pillar. Or it may have been done by "lover-girl."
Hopefully those wires coming down from near the drainage downspout on the right and running thru the window screen frame are just antenna lead-ins. By this time most new radios came with built-in loop antennas good enough for local area stations. Also, if that's a ground line to what looks like a very large rebar there it wouldn't likely last very long due to surface corrosion increasing the resistance (and not at all unless it's into real soil - dried concrete and cement are good insulators).
Somebody's carved the classic initials in a valentine-heart on the pillar at right. Obviously, no living trees were around to mutilate, so lover-boy had to make do with this porch post.
Under the porch always made the best hideout.
The mailboxes indicate that three different families lived here. I know that when I was a toddler in Ct., our family rented out the finished basement with private entry of a two-story house, the landlord/owner lived on the first floor and another renting family lived on the second floor. The houses did not have to be huge, as in 1940 people did not expect luxury, just a roof over their head. Then when I was first married and moved to San Fran, Ca., my darlin' and I lived in a finished 3-room attic, so I did eventually come up in the world, from basement to attic. The end.
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