Capitol Hill Blue Forums Images & Art Scenic Photography Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943

I was going to post this in numan's 'QUOTES about America and Americans' thread but feared derailing it. Think of this as a companion piece.

I just found it today and really wanted to share.

America In Color

Is it odd to be nostalgic for a time you never experienced first hand?

Thank you.

I'm not sure what, how, or why, or perhaps it's the color, but the pictures triggered something deep down in my psyche. It's almost as if they are eidetic images of places in the far recesses of the gray matter.

In those years, I was aged 3 to 8.

Even the farm scenes look so familiar and we never lived near or on a farm. The cars, the buildings, the clothes, the signs, and even the color of the air create such a feeling having been there.

The large house in Brockton Mass, was the style of many houses that have been redesigned and modernized... but I can see myself and my cousins in the picture... like it was yesterday.

Hard to believe that pictures can bring up such memory and emotion. Deja Vu in the best sense of the word.

Fascinating! Thanks for the find Jeffro!

I had the same feeling and I wouldn't exist until 20 years after these were taken. There were a lot of rural areas in Pennsylvania that still had old barns with ads painted on them that had that haunted vibe. I also lived on a farm in South Bend Indiana when I was about 6 or 7 so a lot of it "felt" familiar. I recently went through my father's slides of family and a lot of the pictures had this same feeling.

I think it may just be a desire for a simpler time. Not necessarily easier but maybe just a little less informed and less chaotic. One thing that leads me to that conclusion is I don't imagine myself as an adult in these photos, but as a child observing these scenes.

I do find it interesting that you pinpointed the Brockton MA tenement house, because that was the very photo I mentioned to my friend as one I really liked, though I don't remember ever living anywhere like that.

I also love the carnival barker. Carnivals like that still existed when I was a kid and Dad always took us. I remember the incredible excitement and a mixture of curiosity and fear when we saw the lurid posters, wondering what kind of madness existed just inside that tent...

Our parents were in their teens and twenty's in the 30's and 40's. The images (the color, the tone) are very familiar to all born to the war generation. It was the time in their lives when they "lived": depression, war, victory. The War Generation's photographs, slides, films, Super-8's, music, radio, verbal and written descriptions and places and homes frozen in time make up prominent parts of the Boomer Generation's social and familial memory.

Thank you for the shared memories.

Rick is right, fascinating photos. I do remember my mom and dad talking about those times and describing things. It, my mom was your age, and grew up on farms all over the south, and in California. Her family were Arkies and migrant workers. My grandma used to make her clothes(and those of my aunts) out of flour and feed sacks.

My favorite was of the sheperd on horseback with his dog(#58).

Yes, as a child.

Carnivals... yeah...
Every year in the summer, at Lindsay Field... Trucks came in on Wednesday... Tents up, and the rides... Loop the loop, chair swings, scrambler, boats, ferris wheel... (one year, two ferris wheels), pirate ship, motorcycle barrel riders, bearded lady, half man half woman, fire eaters, gorilla, monkey boy, elephant (one)to help with the tents, snakes, tunnel of love... pitch til you win, penny pitch, wheels, ring the bell win a teddy bear, squirt the clown's mouth, real rifles target shooting, How did they fit it all in?
And yes, the barkers... "step right up and see jo-jo the monkey boy..." "Girls... six, count them , six... direct from the sheik of araby's harem..." Ten cents to get into the first tent and see them dance... another $.25 to go into the second, inner tent... 21 or older.

In the early years, 1941 - 1945 free admission... after that, they circled the tents, and you paid $.10 to get in. Les Pawson's house backed up to the field, so we'd jump his fence and sneak in through a tent.

If you read "Catcher in the Rye", that was us. Running away with the carnival (no circuses in small towns) was every kid's dream... and yes "Hey Rube" was the alert for trouble.

The most memorable carnival moved out of town on Monday night, after some kind of big ethnic religious feast. Seems they barbequed a lamb... but before that, they sheared the lamb, and the wind blew the wool all over the neighborhood... Was a big event, and Police Chief chased them from Fairlawn all the way to Worcester to clean up the mess...

Funny how one picture brings it back to life.

Hey it, thank you for your, clearly excited, recollection I remember most of what you mentioned (I don't remember prices). I would also add the two-headed calf, and the encephalitic baby in a jar... If you ever find yourself in San Francisco, look me up and I'll take you to the Musee Mecanique You would totally dig it - and all the old attractions/games are still operational.

Here's a quick video Introduction to the Musee. The "Laughing Sal" type attractions at carnivals used to give me the creeps when I was a kid, they were always sitting on top of the dark rides, rocking back and forth, laughing all the way (I'd pay good money to be creeped out like that again).