The penny scale is a 1921 Mills Lollipop Scale, manufactured by the Mills Novelty Co. Chicago, Ill.

In Alabama in 1941, how welcoming the coffee shop was depended a lot on what you looked like.

how could those weight machines make enough pennies to even pay for their construction?

["Weight machines"! - Dave]

It is not obvious from the picture but if you move street-view around the corner and look down the block, you'll see the same 2 story building as see in the "Local traffic: 1941" image that shows this corner.

Ever since childhood, there haven't been too many two-word combinations that thrill me as much as "coffee shop" ... written or spoken, or even merely thought of, the words bring a tingle. Magical, the delicious aromas and scenes of comfort conjured by those words.

The Delano pictures of Childersburg show a lot of new buildings going up in the main business district of time. The 30s-early 40s was not a time of heavy building in old southern downtowns, unless there is a military base nearby. So I took a look.

A January 1939 tornado had taken a 100 yard swath out of Childersburg's business district.

[The construction had to do with a new Dupont munitions factory. Jack Delano was in Childersburg to document the "boomtown activities" surrounding the construction of the nearby Alabama Army Ammunition Plant: "Photographs show main street. Construction of the town's first motion picture theatre, stores and bunk houses. Tent and trailer camps. Night scenes. Boomtown activities. Men filling in application for employment forms for Dupont Powder Plant. Dairy barn converted into three story bunk house for powder plant workers." - Dave]

I bet I could get a great slice of lemon icebox pie and a sweet tea at the Dinette.