Hole in the Clouds


Tag: Wadena, Minnesota

Bunch of Bananas

Jan 30, 2016

It's Saturday, a good day for bananas!

Approximately one hundred years ago, circa 1917, four people posed for this photo on the steps of somebody's back porch, probably in Minnesota. We can surmise that the house was heated by wood and had no running water–but yes, they sure had bananas.

The gentleman in the upper left is Bernard Burch, who in the 1920s was elected mayor of Wadena, Minnesota. As a young man, he ran his family's department store, "largest of its kind between Duluth and Fargo"; in his later years, he managed the town liquor store.

We do not know the identities of the happy banana-peelers he was hanging out with.

Bernard Burch   porch steps   1917   eating   back porch   Wadena, Minnesota   (Image credit: Bernard Burch photo collection, via Shorpy)