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Florida circa 1904. "Afternoon concert hour. The Royal Poinciana, Palm Beach." We return to the RP for a bit of culture. And please, no velocipedes. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
For a grandmother, like me, to sit and study photographs like this ("picture" doesn't seem adequate), taken before my own grandparents were born, is truly like taking a short trip in a time machine!
Thanks, Shorpy!
The band is playing at the end of a long piazza that extended out from the front entrance (it hadn't been added yet in the pic posted earlier).
Anyhoo, follow the piazza into the hotel and head into the men's room just off to the left of the rotunda stairs.
Inside you'll find a door that takes you into a long, hidden hallway leading to the men's bar. This was affectionately dubbed "Hypocrite's Row." There was a public entrance for the more carefree types.
The hotel is gone but the bar survives in a West Palm Beach restaurant.
Tea was what was normally served on the lawn.
Per yours of the Twelfth inst.:
Bother not to save me a seat. I shan't occupy it. You are an obnoxious boor, a pompous windbag, and I forecast that four spinsters will adjoin your solitary table and heap scorn upon you.
I have had many wonderful times, but none with you. I have run off with Emile.
Penelope
Obviously our era does not hold the franchise on genteel living and the enjoyment of life. They look like they have it down pat.
[Where are the cocktails? - Dave]
and I can pick up a nice gig on the Titanic.
It looks like they've attached boards to the chairs in a sledlike fashion so that they don't sink into the ground. Rather ingenious, actually. Someone should patent that design! It would make countless outdoor wedding receptions nicer.
Also, I've always thought that palm trees photographed in black and white almost always look foreboding. Definitely the case for me here. Something terrible is surely about to happen, possibly involving Norbert and the lone umbrella.
There's a guy over there from a hundred years in the future looking at us!
See, time travel is possible! Check out the lone lady on the far right. It looks like she has her notebook PC open and is blogging about her experience right now.
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