Interesting to note that this lady has an icebox on her balcony.

Is it because she has replaced it with a modern gas or electric refrigerator inside, or is it so sweltering in her home that the blocks of ice (and stored food) will last longer with the icebox located outdoors?

My soon to be married cousin invited me to visit with her at her new house in Philadelphia so she wouldn't be alone before her husband would move in with her. We are both from Canada. The first thing she did is told me to hop in the car with her because she wanted to show me something about Philadelphia that I would never forget.

First we drove along a downtown street and we saw beautiful skyscrapers and men and women in business suits carrying briefcases. Then she turned the corner and said, "Look at this." Two blocks down all the buildings were dilapidated and the sidewalks and fences were in upheaval. It looked like a huge bomb had gone off and nothing had been repaired for ages. Everybody was poor and black and looked quite sad.

I mumbled, "What is this?" and without skipping a beat she said, "This, my friend, is an American ghetto." I looked back behind us and saw dilapidated buildings in the foreground and beautiful skyscrapers in the background where mostly white businessmen and women were walking. The contrast in that scene was ironic yet telling. This picture above captures the same mood and irony of that day with the white house dome in the background in contrast to the utter despair surrounding this woman of colour in the foreground.

Almost 80 years later and the problem depicted so perfectly in this photo continues to exist. This photo is both sad and perfect.