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"Hot day at Coney Island." Circa 1910. View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection. What we have here is an ocean of people and a puddle of ocean.
The thought of wet wool, and heat, mixed in with an extra bonus...sand. Sanitize all you want. More money could have been made selling anti-rash creams.
WOW! I could sit and study this photo for hours, really. I think people were more handsome back then precisely because they were less self-conscieous and far less preoccupied over their looks. Great site!
I think that a silent film "Coney Island" had some reference to renting bathing suits.
Sure different from today!
As for working from before dawn to after dusk, the old-timers in Texas say "from cain't to cain't" (can't see until can't see).
He is holding what is now days called a 3D view finder. Your eye piece went on the end of the piece he is holding in his left hand. (He appears to be folding or unfolding that piece) There are 3 pictures to a slide. You then can move the picture right or left to see them individually in 3D.
People were also not guzzling fruit juice and soft drinks 24/7. No Big Macs either.
Look how many people are burying themselves in the sand. Staying cool, or having fun? The woman at Cig Guy's feet did have legs, I presume.
Men worked much harder in those days, and women too. Even men with office jobs had duties such has hauling in coal for heat in the winter, plus industrial jobs were much harder then, demanding much more physical energy than today, and especially men in the farm industry, they had to work probably ten times what they do today. My grandfather said that a day of work began at dawn and ended at dusk, as he put it; "See 'til can't see". When I ask him about getting into trouble as a teenager, he said "You were so tired and wore out that you did not have the time or energy to get in trouble"
Photos. Selling them, I guess. He's holding an example of the finished product.
it looks like he's holding a picture on a handle. why it's on a handle, i can't imagine, but that's what it seems.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/graciepoo/182734002/
I find it interesting how muscular almost all the guys are. It seems like every one of them has clear muscular definition in his arms. The same scene today looks nothing like that in terms of body physique.
What is the guy to the left with cigarette in his mouth, holding in his hands?
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