Dr. X's Free Associations

Vintage Burgers: 1939

Farmer eats hamburger at cornhusking contest, Marshall County, Iowa (Arthur Rothstein, Farm Security Administration).

Vintage Photos: What's with the swastika?

Hamburger stand in Dumas, Texas. Photo by Russell Lee, 1939.

Take a look at the symbols on the top of the burger stand. What does all of that mean? This is 1939, but it looks like the context for the swastika is other than Nazism. Is this some kind of Masonic thing or some other secret society thing or symbols from some identifiable alphabet?

Vintage Photos: 1939

Hamburger stand proprietor hanging up the foot long buns at the county fair, Gonzales, Texas. Photo by Russell Lee, Farm Security Administration.

Anyone have any idea why he would be hanging the buns? Simple ornamentation or ornamentation to identify the nature of his business? Or is there some other reason to hang buns?

I just realized that 'hanging buns' sounds like something teens might do from the open windows of a moving car.

Vintage Photos

Between 1920 and 1930. Photographer unknown.

Vintage Saloons

Children playing in front of saloon, Gemmel, Minnesota. Photo by Russell Lee, 1937

More saloons below the fold.

Vintage Memorial Day: 1943

Memorial Day Arlington Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. Photo by Esther Bubley, OWI.

Boy scout color bearer listening to the Memorial Day ceremony.

Vintage Photos: 1943

Sun bathers on the sand beach at the swimming pool in the Glen Echo Amusement Park. (Esther Bubley, Glen Echo, Maryland).

Vintage Corporal: 1943

"A soldier sleeping on the way from Cincinnati, Ohio to Louisville, Kentucky on a Greyhound bus." Photo by Esther Bubley, Office of War Information.

The AA on the patch stands for anti-aircraft.

Vintage Photos: 1943

Cincinnati, Ohio. A maid in the women's restroom at the Greyhound bus termina. Photo by Esther Bubley, OWI.

Vintage Photos: 1943

Arlington Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. Woman taking a picture of the wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Photo by Esther Bubley.