It’s a co-op grocery store, in Greenbelt, Maryland, in 1938.
We still had a co-op in Berkeley when I lived there… I guess you could say the forerunner of stores like Costco, on a much smaller scale.
You paid a small membership fee every year, and saved a lot on groceries, though I didn’t do all my shopping there because they had two stores, both far from campus, which, though I moved a lot, I usually lived near.
Some things came in bulk, but most were in co-op packaging. Our co-op was part of a larger group, which bought in bulk and packaged things for all the member stores.
I’m still nostalgic for the wonderful Spanish olive oil, and the cereal made of mixed flakes and broken bits …. I think from Post.
And it does need to be (a few inches in front of the door post). Because the hinge is on the inner wall, when the door opens there has to be enough clearance to clear, otherwise the outer leading edge would bind into the door post. This brings the outer edge of the door forward.
One thing about banner ladies…. they worked in more innocent times. In the days before plastic, before injection molding… I’ve never seen a picture of one, AFAIK, with fake products.
So when they skated along the sidewalk with real eggbeaters, cameras, cigarettes, or whatever they were promoting, dangling from their clothes or their hair, they’d have been shocked to hear that if anyone were doing it in 2026, most of the goods would be plastic copies, maybe miniatures….
And that anything valuable and genuine might be grabbed and run away with.
People probably weren’t even surprised that this pretty young representative of First National Bank was covered in genuine US currency. No one expected anyone to steal it, and the young lady herself probably had no worry about replacing more money than she’d ever seen before in her life, if something were to happen to it.
They just assumed nothing would happen to it, and as far as I could tell… nothing did.
According to the most trustworthy site, this is Lerch’s delivery van, Washington, D.C.,ca 1917.
Lerch’s billed itself as “Washington’s Foremost Cleaners and Dyers.” Truck from Dodge Brothers Motors.
A couple of sites called it Serch’s… but that’s an L, not an S.
We used to see lots of them in my little neighborhood.
They’re loud and annoying, “singing” all night long, driving other birds away, fighting with the blue jays… not physically, just with loud voices, and swooping in as though to divebomb them, but purposefully.missing them… I assume because they know a jay could have them for breakfast.
They copy all the bird songs they hear. In books, it sounds romantic, in movies, people sing pretty songs about them.
In reality, in urban areas like mine, where there aren’t many songbirds, the mockingbirds sing the lovely caw of the crow, the croak of the frog, the alluring melodies of the wild car alarm and the police siren.
And they do it right outside my bedroom window, from dark till dawn.
There was one pair that came to my yard every year, for at least 6 years, to nest… at least, people told me they were monogamous that way, and they did seem to be the same two.
They were not the brightest bulbs in the package. Every year they’d pick a totally precarious place to build a nest… On a fence board half as wide as the future nest, or on a flimsy, flexible branch of the pyrocanthus shrub… One year in a rosebush only about 3 feet off the ground. And almost every year, the nest would fall, and the eggs would break.
And they would cry all day… It was heartbreaking. And they’d decide it was my fault. For a few days they’d dive-bomb me whenever they saw me. They didn’t peck me, but a few times they managed to pull my hair!
Anyway, a lot of the cover around here is gone… trees cut down, condos built on what were empty lots, more stores on the way to town.
I haven’t seen a mockingbird in years.
It’s crazy but I miss them.
.
This individual looks familiar. Have we met them previously?
..
They’re creepy and they’re kooky
Mysterious and spooky
They’re all together ooky
The Addams family
Just how hard did friends and family pretend not to see the mother, when they looked at this picture, framed, on the wall?
Did nobody, not one old auntie or nosy neighbor fail to understand, and say “Gosh, Myrtle, why do you have that creepy cloth over your head?”
It seems hard to believe, especially when her presence is as blatant as this.
The toddler girl is shrinking away from the cloth hiding Mama, and the only word I’ve got for her older brother’s expression is “horrified”.
I thought the older brother was a cadaver at first.
.
When you couldn’t afford the name-brand …
It’s a co-op grocery store, in Greenbelt, Maryland, in 1938.
We still had a co-op in Berkeley when I lived there… I guess you could say the forerunner of stores like Costco, on a much smaller scale.
You paid a small membership fee every year, and saved a lot on groceries, though I didn’t do all my shopping there because they had two stores, both far from campus, which, though I moved a lot, I usually lived near.
Some things came in bulk, but most were in co-op packaging. Our co-op was part of a larger group, which bought in bulk and packaged things for all the member stores.
I’m still nostalgic for the wonderful Spanish olive oil, and the cereal made of mixed flakes and broken bits …. I think from Post.
Glut.
..
“Are we there yet?”
Are we having fun yet?
Hopefully, they put the front passenger door on before they leave.
I don’t think that back door is on, either.
Nah.
The back door is there, it is showing the wheel-well cutout…
Yes, but the front of the door is inches in front of the door post. Look at the shadow.
And it does need to be (a few inches in front of the door post). Because the hinge is on the inner wall, when the door opens there has to be enough clearance to clear, otherwise the outer leading edge would bind into the door post. This brings the outer edge of the door forward.
…
A butterfly on a Whatchamaflowerit.
.
Is she giving out free samples?
I’m sure she wishes she could take some for herself.
One thing about banner ladies…. they worked in more innocent times. In the days before plastic, before injection molding… I’ve never seen a picture of one, AFAIK, with fake products.
So when they skated along the sidewalk with real eggbeaters, cameras, cigarettes, or whatever they were promoting, dangling from their clothes or their hair, they’d have been shocked to hear that if anyone were doing it in 2026, most of the goods would be plastic copies, maybe miniatures….
And that anything valuable and genuine might be grabbed and run away with.
People probably weren’t even surprised that this pretty young representative of First National Bank was covered in genuine US currency. No one expected anyone to steal it, and the young lady herself probably had no worry about replacing more money than she’d ever seen before in her life, if something were to happen to it.
They just assumed nothing would happen to it, and as far as I could tell… nothing did.
I saw that and I thought “Mugging on Wheels”.
….
Their resourcefulness should be applauded.
Though possibly not their common sense.
Next applicant for the Darwin Award is…
..
Guys can be such jerks…me included.
He’s lucky he didn’t get a fish hook in the face.
True.
Yuck
,,
Nice design, but I’d say a headlamp adjustment might be in order.
It might just be me… but I’d rather see the road than the treetops.
,,,
Is that a hearse?
Just a delivery van I think.
To my eye… There has to be room for the drivers seat past the window… the rest of the van looks too short for a casket.
Pre WWI vehicles mostly came in your choice of black or black. Or maybe black.
I’ve seen the occasional van or truck partially painted white, but you still can’t read anything into black.
According to the most trustworthy site, this is Lerch’s delivery van, Washington, D.C.,ca 1917.
Lerch’s billed itself as “Washington’s Foremost Cleaners and Dyers.” Truck from Dodge Brothers Motors.
A couple of sites called it Serch’s… but that’s an L, not an S.
,,
,.
.
This one moves a lot.
.,.
Yup. And bonus:
I got that now, too.
I got two.
..,,..
Contemporary oil on canvas, by French artist Alain Bertrand, who loves to paint America of the 1940s and 50s.
‘Castle on a River’, 1644, by Salomon van Ruysdael, oil on wood.
Couldn’t find 2000 of them…..
.
Mockingbird.
We used to see lots of them in my little neighborhood.
They’re loud and annoying, “singing” all night long, driving other birds away, fighting with the blue jays… not physically, just with loud voices, and swooping in as though to divebomb them, but purposefully.missing them… I assume because they know a jay could have them for breakfast.
They copy all the bird songs they hear. In books, it sounds romantic, in movies, people sing pretty songs about them.
In reality, in urban areas like mine, where there aren’t many songbirds, the mockingbirds sing the lovely caw of the crow, the croak of the frog, the alluring melodies of the wild car alarm and the police siren.
And they do it right outside my bedroom window, from dark till dawn.
There was one pair that came to my yard every year, for at least 6 years, to nest… at least, people told me they were monogamous that way, and they did seem to be the same two.
They were not the brightest bulbs in the package. Every year they’d pick a totally precarious place to build a nest… On a fence board half as wide as the future nest, or on a flimsy, flexible branch of the pyrocanthus shrub… One year in a rosebush only about 3 feet off the ground. And almost every year, the nest would fall, and the eggs would break.
And they would cry all day… It was heartbreaking. And they’d decide it was my fault. For a few days they’d dive-bomb me whenever they saw me. They didn’t peck me, but a few times they managed to pull my hair!
Anyway, a lot of the cover around here is gone… trees cut down, condos built on what were empty lots, more stores on the way to town.
I haven’t seen a mockingbird in years.
It’s crazy but I miss them.