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News & ArtsTuesday, August 3, 2010
Life A Sight to Make You Smile
Posted by Cienna Madrid on Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 4:57 PM
Maybe it's because I'm hopelessly poor, but Depression-era photographs have always had an uplifting effect on me. Here's a pic of incredibly grave couples square dancing, circa 1939ish:
(Via the Denverpost.com)
Fact: Rich people dance in circles, poor people dance in squares. This and many more were were snapped by photographers for the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information. They're now part of the Library of Congress.
1
(Some of the gravity may have been the heat with no A/C, too.) By this photo in 1939-1940, the Great Depression was well over. What these couples were facing economically were the aftereffects of what followed immediately, what's known as the Recession of 1937-38, brought on by post-Depression spending cuts the Roosevelt Administration foolishly enacted. Production fell and unemployment went from an improving 14% in 1937 back up to 19% by the end of 1938.
Shades of what we're aiming at today, with deficit hawks screaming at Obama to make the same mistake.
Shades of what we're aiming at today, with deficit hawks screaming at Obama to make the same mistake.
3
Little did those guys suspect that just socking away the first issue of an amateur-looking kiddie book about a guy in pajamas and a cape that year could have made them millionaires later in life...
4
They look like myself and fellow students being forced to square dance in gym class. "Yeah, I get to touch a girl, but... meh."
8
The look on the guy's face makes me think the woman is whispering in her ear: "I'm pregnant with our fifth child... oh, also the bank foreclosed on our farm today."
11
I used to live in Derby, CT, when my age was measured in months not years. It definitely didn't look like that when I was growing up.
These pictures seem important as this seems like the direction we're going in.
I hope we can learn something to make us just a little bit better...
These pictures seem important as this seems like the direction we're going in.
I hope we can learn something to make us just a little bit better...
12
@4
Yeah, exactly. It would be pretty ridiculous if someone snapped a photo of me today eating a bowl of cereal and interpreted my expression and posture as being reflective of the current "internet era" or "technology boom." I'm eating freakin' cheerios. These people are square dancing. Photo journalists: let it go.
Yeah, exactly. It would be pretty ridiculous if someone snapped a photo of me today eating a bowl of cereal and interpreted my expression and posture as being reflective of the current "internet era" or "technology boom." I'm eating freakin' cheerios. These people are square dancing. Photo journalists: let it go.
13
This is also an example of early Kodachrome film. The first two years of its availability as a camera film were unstable in the ability for it to preserve original colours. They figured out the problem in 1940. The pink hue here adds to the peculiarity of the moment.
14
Actually, Denver Post might have covered this recently, but the NY Times had a story about these archives in 2005.
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Are they actually square dancing? Unless they are going into a swing, they're closer than most people are dancing squares.
I wonder if they're dancing in a grange that I've danced in. Cool, if they did.
I wonder if they're dancing in a grange that I've danced in. Cool, if they did.
18
Fact: Rich people dance in circles, poor people dance in squares.
So what about people who dance in a line (the hustle, the electric slide, the cupid shuffle)? Or a slot (west coast swing, salsa)?
19
@17 - I always find that striking as well when I look at older pictures... How thin everyone is... It is the first thing that pops out to me!
Damn our fake food.
Damn our fake food.
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