Waiting to Welcome Ike

A waiting photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park.

This snapshot shows a crowd of people standing along both sides of a wide tree-lined street. Across the street is a bus, and there are various buildings in the distance, but there's nothing that identifies the location.

In the foreground, a man is looking down the street to the left, and next to him a woman is glancing back toward the photographer--perhaps she's a friend or family member. Visible on the lamppost near the woman is what I think the photographer was trying to capture--a poster of Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower with the caption, "Welcome, Ike. Buy extra E bonds" (mouse over the image to see an enlargement).

After a couple of Google searches, I located a front-page article in the Daily Republican, Monongahela, Pennsylvania, June 18, 1945, that mentioned the poster: "If Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower has any loose money lying around, he'll know what to do with it after today. On practically every lamppost along his homecoming parade route is a big poster bearing his photograph and the words: 'Welcome Ike. Buy extra E bonds.'"

In 1945, General Eisenhower, who was later to become the thirty-fourth U.S. President (1953-1961), returned home to the United States following the end of World War II in Europe, which occurred on May 8 (hostilities didn't end in the Pacific, of course, until later that year). He continued to promote the sale of E bonds, which were U.S. Savings Bonds used to finance the war effort.

So it's possible that the people in this photo are waiting to see General Eisenhower in a homecoming parade on June 18, 1945, in Monongahela, or maybe the parade actually took place in nearby Pittsburgh. Or perhaps this photo was taken at another in a series of homecoming parades for General Eisenhower. In any case, it's interesting to catch a glimpse of the people who were there in this little window to the past.