As seen from a 1939 perspective. Everyone with a hat. Can't help but notice, not a lot of Asian faces among the workers...
7 comments:
rats
said...
The composition is swell, and surprisingly subtle. I specially like the framing/focusing element provided by the iconic figures at left & right foreground: the universally understood emblems of heavy construction -- guys leaning on shovels.
In the States, it has been suggested that the guy-leaning-on-a-shovel image be simplified to a near-abstraction, like the symbols indicating gender-specific public bathrooms, and used to tell the public that they're entering a construction zone.
I was talking to a local department of transportation worker and we were talking about workers leaning on shovels. He said he told a new hire one time that the DOT was planning on laying off 3/4 of the DOT workforce. The new guy asked why, so the old hand said somebody had invented a shovel that could stand up by itself.
I had an uncle, now passed, who was a laborer for the state DOT. His favorite joke was that he asked if he could have the shirt pockets sewn on upside down to make it easier to lean on a shovel. (Drum rim-shot, cymbal splash!)
I failed to make a fortune off my best invention. The deal was all set up -- every Department of Public Works in the tri-state region was eager to buy all the product I could turn out -- but at the last moment, the Ditchdiggers' Union quietly kiboshed the agencies' adoption of my Shovel-Tipped Pogo Stick.
7 comments:
The composition is swell, and surprisingly subtle. I specially like the framing/focusing element provided by the iconic figures at left & right foreground: the universally understood emblems of heavy construction -- guys leaning on shovels.
In the States, it has been suggested that the guy-leaning-on-a-shovel image be simplified to a near-abstraction, like the symbols indicating gender-specific public bathrooms, and used to tell the public that they're entering a construction zone.
City parks worker whirls around, stabs slug with shovel.
Co-worker: Why'd you do that?
1st worker: He's been following us around all day!
The event. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-last-spike
I was talking to a local department of transportation worker and we were talking about workers leaning on shovels. He said he told a new hire one time that the DOT was planning on laying off 3/4 of the DOT workforce. The new guy asked why, so the old hand said somebody had invented a shovel that could stand up by itself.
I had an uncle, now passed, who was a laborer for the state DOT. His favorite joke was that he asked if he could have the shirt pockets sewn on upside down to make it easier to lean on a shovel.
(Drum rim-shot, cymbal splash!)
That would leave his hands free to hold a coffee and a cigarette!
I failed to make a fortune off my best invention. The deal was all set up -- every Department of Public Works in the tri-state region was eager to buy all the product I could turn out -- but at the last moment, the Ditchdiggers' Union quietly kiboshed the agencies' adoption of my Shovel-Tipped Pogo Stick.
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