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1950s. Wellington, New Zealand. "Interior of Sunshine Milk Bar lined with booths, photographed by K.E. Niven & Co." Large-format acetate negative, K.E. Niven & Co. Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library. View full size.
Re: This is so awesome.
If you're referring to the top surface of the tables and the trim around their edges, this is a product called Formica. Formica sheet was widely used in New Zealand in the 1950's and 1960's for table tops and bench tops. Invented in the USA in 1912 and pronounced for-MY-cah.
Flashback 60+ years ago. Note the trim-work molding. Do they make anything like this today?
Dave, please embiggen the French Maid boxes, I think they say Salted Nuts and Confections. Clearly not what "aenthal" above thinks they are.
[Andrea was making a joke. - Dave]
Looks like the photographer and his view camera can be seen in the mirror at the end of the counter just under the light fixture that is hanging down.
I'm surprised that no one called out the photographer - he and his camera are reflected in the mirror at the end, just above the SEL(F) SERVE sign!
Interesting to read the (somewhat astonished?) comments on the ubiquitous ashtrays. I grew up in the late '50s, early '60s in the US, and everybody smoked. In the house, in the car, at work, on picnics -- everywhere I can think of, except church. I never thought a thing about it. It was no different than the weather: an all-pervasive fact of life, so what. But then my dad died from cancer of the larynx.
Not often we get a chance to see the photographer and their camera. Dave, a closeup please from your high-res original?
ZUBE. There is a dispenser for these on the shelf to the right. I remember a similar product in Australia in the 1960s called Hudson's Eumenthol Jujubes. They even boasted they could clear "smoker's catarrh."
I guess the Alcove is where the young people went to make out.
I remember booths in cafes with those built in ashtrays, and having to breathe smoke while eating. I always took away a doggie bag, so I could eat the food without the side of burnt tobacco. Even though it was cold, it tasted better. Of course, I also had to time it for when my parents weren't smoking! I'm SO glad those days are over!
The dispensers on the counter are far more G Rated than the ones Alex and his droogs visited in Clockwork Orange. But there is that box of French Maids on the shelf to make you wonder just how G Rated this place was.
Pounds (£), Shillings (s) and Pence (d) on the cash register, that is. New Zealand went to dollars and cents in 1967.
that milk bars, with their abundance of candy and soda, would be geared toward a younger clientele. But there are ashtrays at every table.
Scorched Almonds.
But that is a different and nifty ceiling, I must say.
Each table has an ashtray. I can't imagine a combination more foul.
The till registers in pounds, shillings and pence. I wonder if those machines could be adapted to the new digital dollar or if they had to be scrapped.
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