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November 02, 2008 |
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Halls of a Hospital
FOUND by Julia Landau
in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York
I am fascinated with psychiatrics in the 1960's - this picture has the pristine darkness of a hospital hallway while a lobotomy is being performed. I found it in a big file suitcase dumped in front of an 8th ave building in Brooklyn, one night on my way home from work. There were immigration cards, a passport, tax papers, and many photographs. This was the most mysterious. It's my desktop photo now.
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We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
Looks like a band picture.
OK, so Suzie has the Jets to win by 9. (Heh heh, Easy money. Why does she even try?)
Bob has the Colts to win with a point spread of 14...
Billie, you keep an eye out for the boss!
Bob, why don't you head over to Accounting and get their totals, and I'll hit Sales.
"I'll go down to the Typing Pool and see if any other girls want in. I think they wanted to put money down on that dreamy Joe Namath, too."
OK, Suzie, we'll be happy to take their cash. (Do they even know who's playing? Johnny Unitas is the best quarterback ever. Silly girls)
It should be possible to identify the owner via the passport and mail it back to him/her. Or by dumped does it mean the suitcase had been there for ages.
Doesn't look like a hospital to me. Looks more like a run of the mill office setting.
I like Geek's take on the conversation, but I think the time is about 1965 - too early for Broadway Joe.
I didn't know Weezer had a chick in the band.
Chuck Colson, G. Gordon Liddy, E. Howard Hunt Jr, and.........J. Edgar Hoover?
@ Les Brers: now that's funny.
I bet you could slide for miles on that floor.
Very cool photo'
The Finder's comments immediately made me think of the Willard Suitcase Exhibit.
www.suitcaseexhibit.org
I wonder why the finder ties this to psychiatrics. It's definitely just an office building and those aren't doctors. Cool photo though.
The Finder's blurb just shows how psychiatric evaluations reveal more about the psychiatrist than his/her patient...this is not a hospital. No whites, no nametags, no stethescopes, no clipboards. Nurses don't wear heels. (White heels with a dark skirt? Please, noooo!)And for some reason, they do (or did) wear white stockings back then. These days I guess white is not so de rigeur, but it was then for hospital wear.
You may be fascinated by psychiatrics, dude, but don't let it colour your entire view of life.
What is the wall-leaner guy holding? It could be anything from an oldfashioned carton of milk (the one-serving, lunchroom type) to a semi-smashed pack of ciggies. I'm getting to old to see details, I guess!
Looks like the real Mad Men.
The tall guy... Is that... It is! It's Dwight Schrute!
The chick, she is taking everyone's lunch order. The two dudes against the wall are looking over the menu, deciding what they want. The tall guy already ordered and now is wondering where he can hide out with the chick to mack for a bit.
@fooch Exactly!
Yea Babe... Get me a hot pastrami on rye - plenty of mustard. Also pick me up some Lucky Strikes. See you in my office after work for a Martini and some hot fondling? Try and keep the lipstick off my collar this time around the wife gave me a hard time the last time...
(With the white shoes - I'm gathering this pic was taken before Labor Day...)
HAhaha, Fooch!
Oh, wait...that does appear sexist, doesn't it?
WTF.."Who wants cream with their coffee? One lump or two?"
Pretty funny there, Finder of this find. Psychiatrics seems like a stretch, although it was cool to read your 'back story' on it.
I think these folks are waiting their turn to make a pitch to their boss.
"Let's go over it one more time. Under the eyelid, over the eyeball, under the orbit and straight up into the lobe. Two quick slices and we're done."
"What did you want for lunch, again, Mr. Murphy?"
The two on the left are looking at dirty pictures. The broad is trying in vain to figure out the Readers Digest crossword puzzle. The guy in the middle is checking out a fistfight between two janitors down the hallway.
Baby Basil, the top to toe all white for nurses was to show cleanliness and lack of contamination. Yeah, looks can be deceiving but there were times when appearance was very important.
Awaiting their cue, four co-workers frantically study their lines for their office skit, a scene from Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”.
Ummmmmm...I don't think this is a Hospital...more like an Advertising Agency or such. The *Gang* reminds me of Dick Van Dyke.
Tall guy in the middle is the one whose suitcase this was found in. He set it down on the curb (that's "kerb" for some of you) when he was getting into a taxi cab, but left it there as the driver -- recently arrived from Mumbai -- sped off into the darkness. Being a Hindi speaker, the driver couldn't understand tall guy's urgent pleas to go back so he could retrieve the suitcase. It was on to the airport with no looking back. All those memories left there on the side of a Brooklyn street. A life in print without the covers.
By the time tall guy had hoofed it back from La Guardia, our intrepid Finder had gone through the suitcase, sold the passport and immigration papers to two illegal immigrant Uzbek brothers down the street, and made her way to a scanner to send us the incriminating photo. All in a New York minute.
Having been a u.s. government employee myself for many years and also having seen old video of nasa with the engineers wearing short sleeves and a tie, I think this is a photo of 4 u.s. government employees in their office in the 60s.
I was thinking a school. Then when I saw the little milk carton, that clinched it for me. The teachers are on their lunch break, heading back to class, when Dwight Shrute shows the teachers a nasty, inappropriate drawing he found in the boys' bathroom. He is looking down the hall toward the cafeteria, hoping he doesn't get caught being a narc. His friend Susie is there taking notes.
Susie is pretty...wonder what became of her.
Nice heels.
Boring picture, though
I know he's not, because we can see his elbow and hand.. but tall geek's posture makes it appear that he's digging out a massive wedgie.
Every time I look at the pic again, I get that same impression.
The tall guy looks like Arthur from Six Feet Under, to me. I also think the place looks like a school.
@Teach in Wash. THANK YOU, Thank you, thank you. I have been trying to figure out what that man had in his hand since this morning. I blew up the picture on my desktop and still could not figure it out. One thing I did notice that no one has commented on yet, though, is that the guy looking down the hall has his car keys in his hand like he just got there or can't wait to GET out of there. Could be teachers or hospital administrators, going over the days notes.
It might be a milk carton he's holding, but on the other hand it might be a little santa. They are definitely trying to figure something out by studying those pieces of paper. I wonder why anyone would take a picture of them doing that?
Actually, it looks like they are texting!
Wouldn't it be weird if they blinked and all of a sudden they were holding Blackberries and cell phones instead of papers? In those days they didn't even have hand-held calculators!
@Clover: Haha...I had the same thought about texting and calculators! Yet pocket protectors live on.
@Terriesovery: Arthur IS Dwight Schrute! (Rainn Wilson, really.)
The reason I think this find is so interesting is it seems like such an odd thing to take a picture of. Were these people relatives of the photographer? Coworkers? Were they unaware of the photographer or were they posing? I spend way too much time pondering these things instead of writing about Marx.
It doesn't bother anyone that the finder didn't mention turning anything into the police? Sure that's fine swipe the picture (I would) but not reporting lost immigration cards & a passport... That on top of assuming psychiatrics just doesn't seem right.
Seems cold and warm at the same time.
The tall guy in the middle looks like someone I went to high school with. Maybe this is his grandfather?
Has anyone else noticed that the pattern of the floor does not continue between the woman's legs as if it has been photoshopped or altered?
Furbytastic, that is glare from the overhead lights reflecting on the floor.
"Well, we can reconvene on the 23rd, we'll whip it into shape then..."
"I'd like to go forward and move ahead on the project..."
"Then, it's not too late..."
The tall guy in the middle stares down the hall as a song (and career change) begins to form in his mind...