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Oakland, Calif., circa 1958. "Bread truck collision." But so what. We need to make sure the Hot Sausage isn't hurt! 4x5 News Archive negative. View full size.
Love the 3 kids goofing it up on the hood of the crashed car (visible through the windows)! Goofing around is timeless!
The car on the right is a 1942 Chevrolet that may have been built just before all car production was ceased before WWII. Most of the bright trim was painted a contrasting color instead of being chromed. Some of the trim on this car is chrome. Possibly it was changed after the war? These cars are quite collectable today.
Your photographer's beat seems to have concentrated on the African-American section of Oakland. Oakland, and especially ultraconservative Berkeley, were de facto segregated and overtly racist cities in the 1950s. In a previous picture one could just make out the segregated "Rex" theater. The African-American radio station was KWBR, whose afternoon show was (I am not making this up) called the "Sepia Serenade." Record stores filed their R&B under "Race Music," in search of which I spent a lot of time in this section of town.
One warm summer day I pulled up to a stoplight on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley next to a Buick driven by a typical pearl-bedecked Berkeley matron, my radio blaring one of "Big Don" Barksdale's choices (I think it was Dr. John's "How Come My Dog Don't Bark When You Come Round," still a favorite). The lady gave me a horrified look and despite the temperature rolled her window up.
Can I just say how awesome these Oakland accident pics are?!
Because it's fresher and tastes better!
At yeast I am not seriously hurt.
Was the Mercury airborne when it hit the bread truck? The point of impact is above the height of the headlights.
This is the last thing I kneaded, it's going to cost me some serious dough, the driver of that car is a heel, my insurance rates will probably rise.
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