Got Milk?

Obviously! But why? Most people hold flowers or a book, not a bottle of milk. Did she win a blue ribbon in the dairy division at the county fair? This tiny print is a serious and conscious pose which I don't think is a studio product, but perhaps it is; about turn of the century.

A Streetcar Named Debris

Well ... actually it is named Beach.

This was the trolley that took folks from town or train station for a day at the beach, somewhere in the coastal northeast most likely. No one will be enjoying this beach for a while after a storm that picked this car up off the tracks, ripped away its trucks (wheels) and deposited it in the dunes. A crew is seen further down the line with what may be a rail salvage crane being used to move debris and repair tracks.

Bright sun on the sand washed out nearly all detail except the car, a few poles and the crew, oddly disembodied from the landscape, especially for a photograph of machinery.

Post Office & General Store USA

Every small community had to have a post office and a general store; they were so unremarkable a part of the scene all across the country that it would seem that only a proud proprietor or a very idle photographer would bother to shoot and print it, yet they are to be found aplenty from the very upscale to the modest to the ramshackle (I’m a sucker for commercial establishments as you will continue to discover at Timebinder).

Most often you will see the name of the store prominently displayed with Post Office tacked on somewhere for official information; sometimes, as here, Post Office is the signboard and the fact that it is also a store seems so obvious that signage is not considered worthwhile. Though residents would not have thought of it in these terms, you might as well put up a sign with Community Center on it, for that was what they were. When telephone service became available to a rural community, the first and only phone may have been here – it was communication central anyway.

A battered barouche is parked in front, a man lounges on the porch, a small blonde girl with bow in her hair stands with her back to us, a young lady is seated away from the others, her hand on her chin, staring with undisguised curiosity at the photographer. There is a man having a conversation with another man whose hand is just visible on the post between them.

Heavy crates, perhaps for chickens, are stacked at one end; a board leaning against the wall has this mixed list of wares chalked on it: butter, flour, cereals, farm tools sold here – then as an afterthought, eggs (20 cents?). A broom rests against the doorway which is not divided evenly but has a normal-sized panel open for general traffic and a narrower panel that could be opened to provide extra width when needed. The door at far left may have been the entrance to living quarters upstairs. In the window is a small sign advertising Moxie (Soda), a popular slightly bitter, slightly sweet cold beverage flavored with gentian flower and advertised as Nerve Food; it originated in Maine, was an alternative to Coke, and it is still available today. There is a sign for Pain Lineament at right.

This small snapshot (we commonly use the term to mean “informal photo” or even “brief summary”) is rural Main St., Anywhere, USA. It was not taken by a professional: the upper part of the store has been cut off and quite literally half the image was dirt road in the foreground (which I have cropped).

Leaving Girlhood

An observant parent can divide the stages of child development very nearly into weeks and months, though the distractions of living may be fatal to full enjoyment of what feel like only moments – events and moments are all that we ever remember with clarity, all the rest are vague and compacted impressions that comprise our "life".

This eleven or twelve year old girl's full length portrait is testimony to one such event: nearly hidden in her right hand, among the blossoms, is a diploma or confirmation certificate. But more important than the event are the other markers of her passage from child to young woman: a special but modest dress suitable for her age, knee length with dark stockings, laced ankle high black shoes with bows; her hair is worn up in braids with that enormous bow in fashion for ages 5 to 25 before 1910; her very stance and her calm, open face and straightforward gaze is guileless, betraying no consciousness of her dawning beauty, if indeed she knows anything of it. She is a beautiful child. She will be a lovely young woman. We don't have the photographic record of the "before" or the "after" moments of her life, only this moment (though I believe if I encounter another photo of her I will recognize her).

The masses of fresh flowers against the severity of the Prairie-style stick chair are a remarkable feature of an altogether lovely photograph.

Direct To Your Door ...

This collection is replete with the horse-powered delivery vehicles that were as ubiquitous as internal combustion vehicles today; you had to be careful crossing the street but the "by product" made work for street cleaners and was more useful (though you imagine the atmosphere could be heady on a warm day since catalytic converters for horses never made it to market).

We think more often of residential milk and ice delivery by wagon, but fresh vegetable vendors were making their rounds in urban areas in season. Here is W. Cormly's butcher rig from the Pompton region of New Jersey in the 19th century (as early as 1870, or maybe later); it is nicely painted; the horses have a corded blanket-like drapery that I have never seen (I'm no expert on horse gear and have no idea what purpose it may have served beyond adornment – the pinstriping of the day?). This original print showed a partial view of a canopied buggy at the far left, but the condition of that portion was too damaged for any quality restoration.