June 1st, 2016: 5th Avenue

♫ On the avenue, 5th Avenue,
....The photographers will snap us,
♫ And you'll find that you're in the Rotogravure.
.... Oh, I could write a sonnet, about your Easter bonnet,
♫ And of the guy I'm taking to the Easter Parade.

5th Avenue, New York City, where you can spend money faster than they can print it.



Obviously this isn't a new picture, it was taken around 1931.
5th Avenue and 40th Street, looking North, and on the right is the New York Public Library.
I see no lanes painted, two way traffic, parking on both sides, men in hats, women in hats, jaywalkers,
cop standing in the street directing traffic, and double decker busses with and without canvas covers.



Considering the engines in all those vehicle were not real efficient, I'll bet the smell was pretty strong.
Made me think of standing on the tiny balcony of a forth floor office in Madrid during the morning commute.
Most of the bumper to bumper inbound traffic was diesel powered, and I was overpowered.
But in New York, it probably smelled better than the thousands of tons of horse poop a few short years earlier.

link

Look at the sunshine. Buildings must have been a lot shorter then.

The sun is a rare sight in NYC today.

Ah the sweet smell of lead in the air, thanks Dupont!

But in 1925 the official, governmental, brightest and best, U.S. Public Health Service, and in 1926 the official, governmental, brightest and best, U.S. Surgeon General committee, said, we see nothing, we know nothing, besides they're making it in New Jersey.

Maybe it was obvious to everyone else, but it took me some time to realize that the two photos are just different croppings of the same one.
I love the detail that was captured such a long time ago in black and white pics.

You're right Jim. The painted crosswalk at the bottom of the top picture is the one at the top of the second.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diaphone Jim Maybe it was obvious to everyone else, but it took me some time to realize that the two photos are just different croppings of the same one. I love the detail that was captured such a long time ago in black and white pics.

An era when people cared about their appearance before leaving the house. Men took the time to tie a tie and put on a shirt with buttons; women wore women's clothing.
Why can't we bring that attitude back?

Because it's already slid the slippery slope, and ain't going back again.
I'll be damned if you'll ever catch be wearing a tie again. Not even a clip-on.
I've got a buddy who wears jeans, and T-shirts/sports shirts, like most. If he was he's working on his car, or mowing the lawn, and decided he needed to run to the Quickie Mart, he would change his clothes first. Not just a clean shirt, jeans and all, and he's younger than I am. I agree, what we refer to as walmart people are ridiculous, but they're doing their own thing, so I don't approve, but I understand.

My dad's neighbor's wife of several decades left the guy because he refused to wear a jacket and tie to their daughter's wedding. I'm sure there were more straws on that camel's back, but she drew a line and he called her bluff.

When I was a kid the IBMers used to wear white shirts and dark ties to work. Around here middle class attire disappeared with the middle class.

Good for him. Good for her. They were a mismatch and I'm sure there were considerable straws prior to that one, on both backs.
Ah, daughter's wedding. Princess's wedding, which carries a young lifetime's baggage of Disney movies, fairy tales, hopes, dreams and distorted reality.
I've known several men to lose perspective, sell their accumulation of dream toys, and/or take on a mortgage guaranteeing a postponed retirement, to blow on one day of overindulgence... praying the marriage will last more than seven years.
A guy at work offered to buy the couple a new car and pay a down payment on the house of their choice, if they would elope. She refused. Six months before he retired, Snowflake moved back in with two children.

I wore a suit and tie to my first job at Sperry 1985. In the day, it was important to designate that you were of an appropriate class of person, to hold a job that made good money.

There was competition for job slots, and the better-dressed would win those competitions. Considered essential was the color, width, and pattern of your tie. The culture was that if you had a good degree and a good tie, you were golden.

And then, over the next four years, the company would lay off 100,000 people. (Including me. Twice.)

All the work done at Sperry and IBM moved to California, along with half the top tech people, where they wore t-shirts and jeans to work.

It never actually made sense to wear wool suits on super hot summer days, where part of your job was to fish cable under dusty raised floors in computer rooms. But what truly made no sense was judging tech workers by what they wore, instead of what knowledge was in their heads and what kind of job they did. Silicon Valley emphasized more correct values, and within a decade, felled the giants of the industry and became the center of the tech universe.

Make me wear a tie? I'll do it, but it's your funeral.

(Literally, that is when I will wear a tie. To a funeral.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by newtimer An era when people cared about their appearance before leaving the house. Men took the time to tie a tie and put on a shirt with buttons; women wore women's clothing. Why can't we bring that attitude back?