# Hard Times



## Josiah (Dec 27, 2014)

This photo ostensibly taken in Chicago in the 1940s. Maybe I'm wrong but the sign doesn't look authentic.


----------



## SeaBreeze (Dec 27, 2014)

Yeah, hopefully it's just a photoshopped picture and somebody put the sign there for dramatic or funny effect.


----------



## jujube (Dec 27, 2014)

My mom always threatened to sell me to the first band of Gypsies who passed by.  I always thought that would be a great idea.  I mean, what kid WOULDN'T want to be a Gypsy.  I'm pretty sure that's the seat of all my problems......I was meant to be raised by Gypsies and instead I grew up in an ordinary Midwestern family.


----------



## Meanderer (Dec 27, 2014)

Sorry to say, it is based on a real situation.
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/...cle_1c095598-89f4-584b-891b-7ef48a1e2082.html






Original caption: August 4, 1948 - Chicago, Illinois: They're on the auction block. These small children of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Chalifoux of Chicago, Illinois. For long months 40 year old Ray and his wife, Lucille, 24, waged a desperate but losing battle to keep food in the mouth and a roof over their heads. Now jobless and facing eviction from their near barren flat, the Chalifoux have surrendered to their heart breaking decision. Photo shows mother sobbing as the children pose wonderingly on the steps. Left to right: Lana,6. Rae, 5. Milton, 4. Sue Ellen, 2 years old. --- Image by Bettmann/CORBIS

"No one knows how long the sign stood in the yard, whether it was long enough for the camera shutter to close or whether it was years. Some family members claim the mother was paid to stage the photo".


----------



## Josiah (Dec 27, 2014)

Thanks Jim for all the background material. If those kids are alive today they'd be in their seventies. Whatever the case I hope they ended up living satisfactory lives.


----------

