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On the date

Monday, April 18, 1921

From the day

Perspective: The Street Photographer · Sound

The roar of the Elevated overhead nearly drowns out a newsboy shouting about the New Haven line cutting trains, but I’m focused on a young woman in a wool drop-waist dress stepping through the steam of a sewer grate. She’s clutching a brand-new Raggedy Andy doll for her kid, its red yarn hair a shock of color against the gritty, soot-stained brick of the alleyway. I’ve got a serious crush on the way the morning light hits the silver trim of a passing Packard, shimmering just as the upbeat brass of "The Sheik of Araby" drifts out from a nearby social club. I frame the shot, capturing the sharp crease of a businessman’s trousers before the city noise swallows the shutter’s click.

Memories from that day

No memories yet. Add yours if you remember this day.

Best-selling Sheet Music

The Sheik of Araby

Harry B. Smith & Ted Snyder

The must-have

Raggedy Andy

Slang

Slang of the decade

General

applesaucebaloneycheaterscrush

Flapper

bee's kneescat's pajamasgiggle watershebahotsy-totsy

Gangster

big cheesebump offstool pigeongatfall guy

Catchphrases of 1921

  • Ain't we got fun?

Tech Check

Robots (The Term 'Robot'), Polygraph (Modern) & Insulin (Medical Tech).

Cost of Living (1920)

Loaf of Bread

$0.11

Gallon of Gas

$0.30

Average Home

$6,296

New Car

$575

Meanwhile

  • Post-WWI RecessionSevere deflation and collapse of agricultural prices.

Time Elapsed

38,400 days ago

(105 years, 75 days)