Clowning For The Camera?

My Great Aunt Bessye Garrison (granddaughter of Wm Tweed. Search his name in the upper left corner of this blog.) married a photographer, Carl Hornung, and they took quite a few photos of their activities when they were a young couple. I visited another of her nephews several years ago and he showed me a box of negatives that had belonged to her. He was about to throw them out, so I latched onto them. I bought darkroom equipment and made prints of some of them, but darkrooms take time, and I haven't fooled with it for several years. Now, through the magic of computers, we can scan a negative, and a picture pops right up on the screen from ninety years ago. You don't even have to turn out the lights or watch your water temperature.

I have no idea if the fellows with the Burlington Bread Company truck were friends of Carl and Bessye; and I wish I knew why the guy on the running board has his pant legs pulled up for the photographer. The bridge across the Mississippi has been replaced by a new 'artsy' suspension bridge, and I have been across both the old and new bridges many times. The Model T truck is a good looking rig. Ford sold these as a bare chassis, and the customers installed their own body to suit their own needs. You will see a variety of homemade cabs and beds in car shows and museums. This truck has solid tires on the back end, so it is a safe assumption that its delivery routes were confined mostly to city streets in Burlington, Iowa.