Lakeside Cookout, Barefoot Summer, 1950s

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Lakeside Cookout, Barefoot Summer, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Lakeside Cookout, Barefoot Summer, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-FF8F35

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Somewhere on a wooded lakeshore in the 1950s, a charcoal grill is producing more smoke than heat, which is the standard result of charcoal management by someone who is also holding a beer. The shirtless man drinking from a can has clearly decided that supervising the fire from a distance of six feet is close enough, a theory shared by every man who has ever stood next to a grill at a summer gathering.

The woman beside him holds her own drink and a dish towel, which is the 1950s signal that she is the one who will actually know when the food is done. The Spanish moss hanging from the trees and the flat glare of water through the gaps suggest the American South — Florida or the Gulf Coast — where summer cookouts operated under the additional constraint of temperatures that made standing near a fire an act of real commitment.

Everyone here is barefoot on packed dirt, which in this era meant the day had been going well for several hours already. The grill keeps smoking. Nobody seems alarmed.

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