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Is that Richie Cunningham in the back?
By adamg on Tue, 03/19/2019 - 11:12am
The folks at the Boston City Archives wonder if you can place this scene. See it larger.
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Comments
Judging by the label on the container...
...under the table on the left, it’s a school lunchroom, though I can’t for the life of me think of any school name (or any name for that matter) ending in “kimg “ or “kimc”. It also looks like the letter mostly obscured which proceeds those 4 might be an “a”. Judging by the “Margarine Served Here” sign, I’d say World War II for the time period.
-king School
I think that's an N - look at stylization of the H in School.
Baking School?
I think you’re right
..about the stylized N now that I look more closely. If that word is “Baking” then maybe it’s the Trade lunchroom
Hey Doogie
I don't know if the one in the back is Richie Cunningham, but the one int he front is definitely Vinnie Delpino.
Who? The guy in the plaid?
He looks familiar but not Richie Cunningham. Maybe Chip Gaines from Fixer Upper?
Or are you talking about the guy in the white shirt being served the pastry? He looks more like a young Jon Voight with a buzz cut.
Looks kind of like a young
Looks kind of like a young Ted Kennedy.
Dorchester High?
Based on the "D" on the sweater on the boy in front, I'd guess Dorchester High.
the D on the varsity jacket
So I vote Dorchester High lunchroom, the forties. Unless Don Bosco uses a D, then all bets are off.
I think it's actually Chuck.
Been wondering where he disappeared to.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChuckCunninghamSyndrome
Mmmm....
Industrial-size loaves of Wonder(ish) Bread!
I dunno, but
I dunno, but
I'm wondering why they were serving margarine up by the ceiling.
Legacy of WW II rationing of butter. Margarine was also
marketed as being healthier than butter, something we know now to be the opposite of the truth. If a modern marketer were naming it, it would probably be known as soy butter, with the dairy industry objecting to the usage.
It its earlier days, per my grandma (in her later years, a dead ringer for the lunch lady on the right), margarine was sold by law with the yellow coloring separate: you had to mix it in at home, a measure designed to prevent it being sold falsely as butter.
Fun fact: many old-school Buffalo, NY wings joints still prefer margarine to butter in the Buffalo sauce.
To my eye, the haircuts look mid-1950s. Serious pomp on the kid in front.
That is true. For my dad
That is true. For my dad that came home from the war, we weren't allowed margarine in the house! All because of his memories of the lard like substance with the yellow coloring.
Only butter was allowed, yet mom would use margarine to cook with but kept it hidden in the back of the fridge. Dad was serious, I think that stuff represented bad times to him and he didn't want to go back.
To complicate things, back
To complicate things, back in the 40s, I think there were a lot of highschools that almost functioned like magnet schools - the Trade highschools, mechanic, commerce etc....
There was an article about this at the BPL a few years back.
ANSWERS
When the Archives posts these photos...I never know the answers. Are the answers available somewhere at some point ? Thanks
They usually post the answer ...
Either late in the day the photo goes up or the next day, in a comment titled "The Answer." So if you call up all the comments (on the home page, click on the photo to get to the discussion), then search for The Answer.
I should probably set up a separate page just for these photos, but until I do, if you go to
https://www.universalhub.com/history
you'll find them interspersed with posts about, oh, the American Revolution and stuff.
They're not that different from you, are they?
Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they're destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? - - Carpe - - hear it? - - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary."
The Answer
Thanks for playing, folks!
This is indeed the Dorchester High School cafeteria.
We don't have an exact date for this photo, but based on the other photos its filed with, the signage, hairdos etc, we're dating it in the late 1940s/early 1950s.
Yearbooks?
If you have access to Dorchester High School yearbooks from the era you might be able to narrow it down further.
Based On Some Shameless Racial Profiling
Well, 'ethnic' profilng since everyone is the same race here - I'm going to say this was taken within a mile of Codman Square.
Not the '40s
Those kids are dressed and coiffed like the ones I went to school with in the late '50s. I don't think anyone wore a buzz cut until the end of that decade. I'm voting 1958-1960.
Yep, Definitely the Eisenhower Era
Not Truman.
School
I think that box on the shelf may just say "Baking School." Maybe it was a brand or something?
All the olds telling on themselves here, haha
"I remember when this photo was taken"
*points to brontosaurus wearing Dorchester High varsity jacket*
On a side note: I want the vintage Dot High varsity jacket featured in this photograph very much.