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February 1939. "Young couple, migrant laborers, who work in packinghouse at Canal Point, Florida." The girl seen earlier here. Medium-format nitrate negative by Marion Post Wolcott for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.
Was there ever a clearer image of mate guarding? He's saying, "This is mine. Keep your distance!" And she is nothing if not very contented to be so well guarded. I'll bet they stayed happily together though a lot of things for many decades.
Although she looks like a kid, we’ll have to assume she’s a very young adult. My first response to this picture was: did she place her hand on his thigh and then he put his hand on hers, or did he take her hand and place it there himself? Not a dirty-old-man question, honestly. It goes to issues of intention and perceived ownership. And, quite frankly, I don’t like the look on his face, and there’s also something uncertain about her expression.
Barely visible standing in the doorway of the trailer behind him.
She appears to be wearing the same outfit as in the earlier picture. Could both pictures have been taken on the same day?
She looks to be about twelve years old, and he looks maybe fifteen. Whoa!
Soon enough, there'll be plenty of jobs in the trenches and defense plants. Good luck running into each other for a few years, though.
Miss Florida Packer has conveniently covered her left hand possible wedding finger on both Shorpy photos, so we can't tell if she's married to this nice, hard-working, tattooed fella. Maybe they're just friends, and it's a Saturday night early date?
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