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November 1942. Lititz, Pennsylvania. "Scrap collection drive. Each household placed its contribution on the sidewalk. It was then picked up by local trucks whose owners had volunteered their services for civilian defense. The scrap outside a plumber's house consists of pipes." (Kids not included.) Medium format negative by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size.
One of my earliest memories is of pulling my very little red wagon down the carpeted hallway of our apartment building, accompanying my grandmother as she collected people's tin cans for the scrap drive.
Along with that is the image of her rinsing our cans, removing the bottoms with the can opener, and standing on each to squash it, presumably conserving space during its transportation to the salvage yard. In that she was a "stately" woman, around 5'10" and 200 lbs., the can was never crafted that she could not flatten in one step.
The dips in the sidewalks are to channel the water from the roof drains into the street. The one for the house to the left is just visible in this picture. I’ll bet the kids didn’t have much fun riding bicycles on the sidewalks.
Little has changed -- kids still live here and the dip in the curb remains:
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