MTFCA Forum

Great to look at with my morning coffee Tom. In the 6th photo is a Martin Parry wood cab with the roll up rear flap. So many things from the past to see, wood washing machine, brick streets and large clay drainage tile install.
Thanks for another fine batch.

Ditto to what Dallas said except I don't drink coffee!
Great pics, from the clarity to the historical preservation. Maybe it's just me, but so many of these scenes look like such "scruffy", downtrodden areas. I love the sign that said at the bottom that Horses were only allowed to walk across the bridge. Today that would probably generate a discrimination suit by the owners!

I dont know Tim, the horses probably didnt mind walking.

Ha ha..you're probably right! Not thinking this early in the day!

Cobblestones and streetcar tracks. Still had lots of those in Saint John when I was growing up in the 40’s. The cobblestones and some of the tracks remained quite a while after the streetcars were gone. I can clearly remember the rhythmic “rump-rump-rump” of cars driving on the cobblestones past my Dad’s business in the 50's

Most people today have no idea how downright nasty life was in the not-so-distant-past. "Pollution"? Really? Smoke. Cities were full of it, all year long, along with the rank effluvia of privies, packing houses, animal waste and human waste by the hundreds of tons, with fresh deposits added daily, spoiled food, stables and pig pens, and rotting garbage, with no way to effectively treat sewage, remove garbage, and offal, combat swarms of flies, rats, disease, etc. No refrigeration. No air conditioning. Soot everywhere, filthy snow, laced with every kind of filth all winter... and all of it thawed and stank to high heaven in the spring as rats, mice, swarms of flies, and spring showers made sure everyone got their fair share of it ... Even in the heart of our largest cities today, we live in a world that would astound our forebears with its CLEANLINESS, and it was COMBUSTION POWER that made, and continues to make, that cleanliness possible. Even the worst of our industrial cities in the 1890s-1920s was far cleaner and healthier than most any large population center in, say, 1850 -1880.

Thanks for posting Tom. I look forward to your photos every time you do it, and with my morning coffee too!

I'm sure there was no intentional comparison between "Out and About" and "Living in the city" but...
1) If you count the smiles, I dare to say that people are happier in rural vs urban areas.
2) the city has more stuff.
3) There's more dust/smog in the city.

Either way, I enjoyed both sets of photos immensely.