If the amateur photographer imagined for even a moment that anyone would be looking at his day’s work in 100 years, he would think we were focused on the parade just as he was; the very idea that we would also be scouring the scene for clothes styles and signboards would not enter his mind.
If your own photography efforts are looked at by generations to come, what do you suppose will interest them? What will be strange, quaint, charming, amusing and even disturbing?
Let’s begin with the crowds of onlookers. A lucrative commercial enterprise would have been haberdashery in 1909: nearly every man has his bowler or straw boater; every boy his cap; every woman and most girls her wide hat with mounds of ribbon and artificial flowers. Imagine the sheer yardage that went into the clothing of the times compared with the relatively skimpy investment in materials that cover us today!
On to the commercial establishments whose signs we can read: Thorndike Stables (Hacks To Let, Boarding); L. D. Johnson (business?); W. R. Wolfe & Co. House And Sign Painting (Painting, Decorating and Hardwood Finishing, Signs); Hyde’s Lunch; a Barber Shop; Plumber & Sanitary Engineer (Steam, Hot Water And Gas Fitting); A. Bray Co. Boots & Shoes; A. Hughson Carpenter And Builder (Jobbing A Specialty); Carl A. Yeitz (sp?) Genuine German Sausages (note the men have pulled chairs onto the roof above to improvise a box seat view; today the proprietor would be wringing his hands and whining about how his insurance does not allow it – get down from there immediately!) There is a little dog who has a fine seat at a window!
Oh, yeah, the circus parade (I was getting to that; I really was)! Looks like some sort of fancy wagon being pulled by 20 small ponies harnessed four abreast; and some other wagon pulled by horses. That’s all I can make out. (See the earlier circus post for another view – with camels! – and circus-related comments for the period)
