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April 1941. "Schoolchildren in Franklin, Heard County, Georgia." Medium format negative by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
The youngster nearest to the front (4th in from the left) is an obvious bike rider with his pant leg turned up to lessen the chance of catching it in the chain. However, the youngster to the far right also has a pant leg turned up, but the wrong side. Bicycles, to the best of my knowledge, all had their chain drive on the right side of the frame, not the left. Curious!
Overalls, coveralls, dungarees -- regardless of the what they were called in this neck of the woods, there is a charming uniqueness to each boys' "make and model." The different styles remind me of a comment about Norman Rockwell observing and painting what was called "the expressive vocabulary of shoes." I'll call this the expressive vocabulary of bib overalls as well as a study in practical pencil placement.
On the boy in front. When I went to school in the 1950s, that was the sign of someone who rode his bike to school. Rolling your pant leg up made it less likely to get caught in the chain, if you were missing the chainguard.
Everyone in that county is related to everyone else, and that was probably the entire male population under 15 years old for the whole county in 1941. Heard County has always been one of the least populated counties in Georgia and is still desolate. Heard County and Greene County (which we have seen in earlier photos) are also two of the least prosperous counties in the state.
A whole passel of freckle-faced redheaded boys on the left! I wonder if they're all brothers or cousins?
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