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June 1940. "Cafe and bar in Mogollon, New Mexico." Medium format negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Perhaps inside the joint, but only after navigating the less than safe path to the entrance.
Bypass the benches, Hondo, and hunker down on your haunches. New Mexico in the '40s is mighty thirsty work.
This watercolor of the same spot is owned by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco:
Artist: Millard Donald Everingham
Date: 1941
Medium: Watercolor
Dimensions: 29.2 x 38 cm (sheet)
Formerly considered a deposit of the Federal Art Project/ Works Progress Administration, probably part of an exhibition in the early 1940's.
Blatz is nearly forgotten today but in the mid-20th century it was a mainstream brand. Their jingle:
"I'm from Milwaukee, and I ought to know! It's Draft Brewed Blatz beer, wherever you go. Smoother, fresher, less filling, that's clear. Blatz is Milwaukee's finest beer!"
Immortalized via Al Pacino's line in Scent of a Woman, used as the title of this post.
Blatz strikes me as a great name for a beer.
It's interesting to see Mogollon (pronounced "muggy own") with so much activity and open businesses. I took a Scout troop through here a couple of years ago for a hike through the Gila National Wilderness. Gorgeous scenery and views, but certainly remote.
Mogollon, once a crowded city, now a Ghost Town in Southwestern New Mexico. But long before that it was a rich archaeological culture of Native American peoples. The name Mogollon however, comes from the Mogollon Mountains, which were named after Don Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollón, Spanish Governor of New Spain (including what is now New Mexico) from 1712 to 1715. The area originally settled by the Mogollon culture was eventually filled by the unrelated Apache people, who moved in from the north.
Funnily enough, here in the Spanish mainland, "mogollón" can mean something like a mess or a rowdy crowd, or even better, a rowdy crowd of messy people.
Looks like a fun place to be.
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