Figure 1.--Here we see two best buds playing in the back garden. Notice the small play set. We are not sure what it was, perhaps a gas station/garage. There also seems to be some kind of mountsin/rough terraine in front of the boys. Mpt sure how that was connected to the gsrage. We are not sure what that is all about. The snapshot is undated. We might guess the late-1940s, but we are unsure. Notice the boy on the left had the kind of knee socks that became popular after World War II rather than the turn-over-top school socks the boy on the right is wearing. He looks to be weating a school uniform. Notice the homes in the background. It lookd like anv affluent puper-moddle class neighborhood. You would think that garage play sets would be most popular in middle-class neigbothoods where families comminly had cars. (working-class failies did not ciommonly have cars until well after Workd War II. A British reader has provided an assessment of this page and like us is not sure how to date it.

Reader in put is very important. We have three commets on this image. Readers have provided comments on details that we dif not notice or in the case of our British reader, and better understandingb of British culture and fashions.

HBC Assessment

Here we see two best buds playing in the back garden--Britspeak for back yard. Notice the small play set. We are not sure what it was, perhaps a gas station/garage. We don't see any toy cars--the best bit abiut a garage. There also seems to be some kind of mountain/rough terraine in front of the boys. Not sure how that was connected to the gsrage. We are not sure what that is all about. The snapshot is undated. We might guess the late-1940s, but we are unsure. Notice the boy on the left had the kind of knee socks that became popular after World War II rather than the turn-over-top school socks the boy on the right is wearing. He looks to be weating a school uniform. Many porivate schools had the boys wear duits rather than blazers. Notice the school color band on the cuff of his turn-over-top knee socks wguch probably match the tie. Also note the homes in the background. It looks to us like an affluent upper-middle class neighborhood. We would guess that many chikdren in this neigborhood went to private schools. You would think that garage play sets would be most popular in middle-class neigbothoods where families comminly had cars. (Working-class British families did not commonly have cars until well after World War II.)

British Assessment

A British reader has provided an assessment of this page and like us is not sure how to date it. "This could be a photograph from the 1930s. The only reason I think this is the boy's tie. It looks like ones that were popular then. None-the-less this type of woven tie was also worn in the 1950s. The toy looks like it is a garage. The wording on the toy is not possible to read. It seems to be a of wood construction and may have been cream in colour. There are figures standing around the model but it is difficult to work out if they were garage personal or soldiers. And for some reason there are no cars. The mound in front of the boy with the tie looks like an army sandbag model and there look to be figures behind it. This suggests that the boys may have been playing a war game. There seems to be a box at right, perhaps a case in which the play set was kept. Near the garage there is a white line. This could be a toy hose pipe used to wash the model cars. I have just had a thought that the garage could have been an accessory item in the Dinky catologue. The boys are very happy in the photograph so I think they were enjoying the game they were playing with their toys."

American Assessment

An American reader writes, "I think it is interesting that a shovel handle and jacket of some type is draped over a pristinely manicured hedge. Do you think it is the boy's on the left. I notice the toy both boys are playing with and the big smiles. Of course the jacket could belong to an adult; it is hard to tell." Here we can only guess. My take would be that they are in the back yard of the boy on the left. And that mom saw to it that he took off his jacket and tie and hung them up brfore going out to play. (Dad might get awa bwith it, but not junior.) The blazers and jackets Englkish boys wore vto school took quite a beating. But atbhom ,ums usy=ually nmade sure that theu werereasonably handled. The location of the jacket next to the spade suggests to us that it belonged to dad who took the snapshot and was responsible for the manicured hedge and would have been upset to his back garden being called a back yard. And would have worn his jacket even at hiome and peerhaps even while doing his gardening.

Created: 5:53 PM 1/30/20200
Last updated: 5:53 PM 1/30/2020