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Massholes are forever

Massholes are forever

The Boston Public Library just posted a ton of photos of Boston firefighters and firefighting back in the good old days (like, when horses still pulled fire engines) from its Leslie Jones collection. Do not click on that link if you don't have some time to spare. I'll be posting some photos from the collection over the next few days, but had to start with this photo of a firetruck trying to get out of a fire house because it's just so Boston: Massholism is obviously not a new phenomenon.

Click to see the photo in all its glory; post if you know where that station was.

Posted under this Creative Commons license.

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The scene looks staged. A parked car is blocking the fire apparatus, and the firemen are still on the vehicle while a crowd forms on the sidewalk? And they couldn't just back up and get past the car, or turn and go out the other way? And a professional photographer has time to get up in a building and take a picture of the scene?

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Dear Debby Downer, thanks for ruining the fun.

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Another angry Sasquatch believer.

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And they're really good at stuff like that. But, yeah, does seem kind of Keystone Koppish.

One thing that intrigues me about a lot of his spot-news photos (yes, I've been looking at a lot of them) is that there's often this sort of Greek-chorus crowd of onlookers. Yeah, we get people gawking at things, today, too (hey, whicha those SUVs you think Whitey's in?!?), but not generally in these tight knots like they seemed to coalesce in back then.

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Remember they didn't have TV, or maybe even radio for some of the really old shots, back then. Anything that happened on the streets outside was considered prime entertainment.

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Given the weight of cars in that era, the firemen on board the engine could probably lift the car and move it out of the way without any mechanical assistance.

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It's very likely the bumpers of these vehicles became interlocked as they were only metal bars jutting from the frames. It's also likely the firetruck bumper was on top as it was the taller of the two. Tough to lift a firetruck. Hence the apparent Keystone Koppery.

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