happy 4th!

 LC-USZC2-987 - no known restrictions 

Happy Independence Day!  I went looking for patriotic pet posters to share today, but what I found was this - a Works Progress Administration poster from 1939 announcing a pet show in an Illinois district.  I didn't know the WPA created events such as this.  What a delightful thought.  I even found a photo of such a show in Maryland, also in 1939.  This image by Arlington Gregg radiates positive energy and scrappiness, things people drew upon during the Depression years to get them through,* and those qualities are two of my most favorite when I think about my country and my fellows in it.

*My grandmother was a kid in those years.  She remembers.  She never kidded me that it was easy - it wasn't, she said - but everyone was in it together, so "I tucked my hair up under my cap and off I went to work."  After she told me this I think she went off and made a pie in 10 minutes flat like she does when no one's looking.  She's 94.