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January 1939. "Nightclub along highway. Williamson County, Illinois." Photo by Arthur Rothstein for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.
Is there a graphics designer among us who can identify the "Oke Doke" typeface? It was a standard for this era, especially on Coke signs.
Looks like someone has been using the back of the sign for BB gun target practice. Not that I would know that from personal experience or anything.
Seems a little grand: try "road house."
That would be a "Juke Joint" or a "Honky Tonk". A rose by any other name.
I spent a fair amount of my youth in some of those taverns in Southern Illinois. I can almost guarantee just as many disagreements were settled inside the establishment as in the parking lot, with more than a little bloodshed. For some background on what this area was just a few years before this picture was taken read the book "Bloody Williamson" and search for the Shelton and Birger gangs.
I imagine more than a few disagreements have been "settled" in that dirt lot.
I'm always surprised by how much garbage is visible in photos from the olden days.
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