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1920. "Barrett Co., Alexandria, Virginia." From a series of photos commissioned by the paving company. National Photo glass negative. View full size.
Below is the same view from September of 2015.
But I never realized that they have heated streets.
What is that truck coming toward us, just to the left of the pickle truck. It looks like a COE configuration, but that's probably a trick of perspective.
The 400 Block of North Washington Street in the current day. The houses on the right have fared pretty well. The houses on the left, not so much.
I remember going into a store and you would grab pickles out of a barrel.
Those are, indeed, pickle barrels. These were made by re-coopering used whiskey barrels, which are taller and narrower than those shown. Whiskey barrels may only be used once to age whiskey, after which they are no longer able to properly contribute the correct flavor and color to that product.
So, used whiskey barrels were disassembled, the heads discarded, the staves shortened, and reassembled with new heads into shorter, squatter barrels of the same capacity. These we see on the back of that truck, for the pickle industry.
[Then I would guess there was something of a pickle-barrel shortage during Prohibition. - Dave]
I guess it goes without saying what type of barrels those are in the back of that truck.
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