Saturday, January 29, 2022

Plastic igloo

Ken Lefolli, The Canadian Look, Canadian Centennial Pub. 1965

The 1965 caption says, "Eskimos toting a plastic igloo."  Updated to the 21st century we could say, "Inuit toting a plastic igloo." 

The question still still remains, Why?
 

10 comments:

Billy Oleary said...

Looks like an igloo mold/buck to form snow blocks on?

Anonymous said...

Hmm...

Place plastic igloo on a suitable spot, pile snow around and on top? Sort of a far north mobile home?

rdguy

Mister G said...

That could work, thee interior would look the same!
Or Billy, a training aid, kind of a 3D paint by number type pattern!

Dave said...

Apparently it was a government housing program:

https://theconversation.com/styrofoam-igloos-a-1950s-cure-for-the-inuit-housing-crisis-160073

Mister G said...

Wow. Thanks, Dave, good research! Much apprieciated.
I'm reminded of the joke, "Hi, we're from the government and we're here to help!"
I don't know whether we should laugh at the sheer parody aspect of the solution, or be impressed with their "sensitive solution". But in the end, put them in regular houses we all understand...

Billy Oleary said...

Thanks Dave.Our tax dollars at work,'50's style.
They must have laughed their mukluks off.

Billy Oleary said...

Fire Hazard???

Dave said...

I was thinking fire hazard too because in grade school we were taught that Eskimos burned a fire in the center of their igloos, venting out a hole in the top.

rats said...

[It was Ronald Reagan, history's most winsome US president, who said (close paraphrase) "The scariest ten words in the English language are 'Hi, I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" This knee-slapper went a long way toward nullifying the less adorable citizens' pain as Ronald smithereened, or sought to smithereen, a whole lot of social-welfare programs put in place by such well-known Communists as R. Nixon, LB Johnson, JF Kennedy, and Dwight "Ham 'n' Sickle" Eisenhower.]

Mister G said...

This whole thing seems surreal (except Rats' political comment:-). The design missed the mark so completely it's breathtaking. I don't have to say that the advantage of an igloo is that is made of materials at hand, not carted along as a giant pile of styrofoam. Fire, fumes hazard for sure. The disposal of a regular igloo seems to be somewhat better than leaving styrofoam piles strewn all over.