I don't know that they would have packed into the evening. Even during the day one needs very good lighting. Those windows don't look all that large and then maybe there was limited area in the packing portion. The man at the head is dumping them onto the sorting area. Appears the first four people are sorting and sizing. Must be sizing into boxes and then the man with the full box is dumping them to be packed. I would think lots of bruising with that much handling, picking, dumping to sort and size, then dumping them once more to be packed.

I notice the sort of platforms that the packing boxes were put on. That meant having to lift those off to go somewhere for box nailing, which would have been done by hand in those days. I bet if that gal had to life those boxes off she would be pooped at days end. Even with what we called "horses", with wheels and a slider tray for putting the box on the line, one was worn out at the end of a day.

Interesting to me as the packing trays haven't changed that much. The needles and holders over the years were greatly modified, but looks pretty much like mine.

charlott on 10th September 2014 @ 7:11am

Does the woman facing the camera in this image also appear in the 9/8 photo? I'm referring to the woman in the center of the photo, standing on the ground with her hands placed on the bin. Do you know the woman's identity?

Susan Baldwin on 10th September 2014 @ 1:32pm

Susan, these photos are all from the same family album so I wouldn't be surprised if some of the faces are familiar. I think you'll see some of these faces again on Friday, but I am terrible at matching faces. Maybe Matt can weigh in on IDs. He seems to have an eye for it.

Arthur on 10th September 2014 @ 5:58pm

Sort of indirectly related: my toughest juob was sorting Bing cherries on a conveyor belt in the 1970s at Stadelman's packing housse. I can only imagine doing this in a long woolen skirt!

Susan Turner on 11th September 2014 @ 10:35pm