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January 1943. "Penasco, New Mexico. Marjorie Mueller, Red Cross resident nurse of the clinic operated by the Taos County cooperative health association, playing bridge at the forest ranger's house." Photo by John Collier for the Office of War Information. View full size.
I found out my new second grade teacher was my mother’s bridge partner. I thought I had it made. Hardly. Anything I did was reported back. Can’t remember what I did to deserve learning the Star Spangled Banner backwards. My mother helped with the memorization.
I don't know from the game of bridge but with a wee glow-up and some time in hair and makeup, the lady facing the camera could be a doppelgänger for Lauren Bacall.
Our nurse has a terrific Poker visage, I'm certain she'd excel at it.
"I wanna hold 'em like they do in Texas -- "
The woman on the left ("Plaid Shirt") is having an affair with the husband of the woman facing the camera ("Striped Shirt"). Striped Shirt knows about the affair but has no hard evidence. Plaid Shirt knows that Striped Shirt suspects of the affair but is trying to play it cool. The woman on the right ("Fuzzy Sweater") knows about all this and is very concerned that Striped Shirt is going to suddenly flip the table over, ruining their nice afternoon. The woman with the striped hat ("Striped Hat") has no idea any of this is going on.
Ladies strikes means fine tobacco, or some such thing.
Mad Magazine had a lot of satire on smoking. One of the best I thought was their Marble-Row Country satire ad. New Yorker has a nice article about Mad's anti-smoking campaign. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/mad-magazines-glorious-an...
Lucky Strike Green has gone to war!
MAD Magazine in 1964 was ahead of its time. The real Lucky Strike ad is on the left, with the MAD Likely Strife satirical one on the right.
I haven't played bridge in over 25 years. But, judging by the two hands we can see, I'm gonna say the woman with her back to us should bid as high as five clubs, if she got any support in clubs from her partner during bidding. The woman at left can support hearts for one round of bidding but should then stop. Neither hand has a very good diamond suit, so diamonds might be trump if one of the other two women has the right hand in diamonds.
I welcome a dissenting opinion.
"Lucky Strike,
Don't strike back,
Till you find another pack!"
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