City - Watertown WI - Small town parade 1941 Tissue Paper

Colorized photo from 1941, July 4th Original title: Fourth of July Parade Photographer: John Vachon Location: 320 Main Street, Watertown, WI To think that in just around 6 months from this point, Pearl Harbour would be bombed and America would be pulled into the war. At this point we weren't really fighting, so you can see a lot of happy, blissfully people unaware of what it will be like a year from now. It makes you wonder how many of those scouts were old enough to join the army. That following year people had to ration food and fuel. Car speeds were reduced to 35mph to save on gas. They also had their first ration books. That aside, this parade in this town was started in 1901, and continues to this day. It's a small town, at the time when this photo was taken there were only 11,000 people living in it. Today they have a whopping total of 22,000 people, so in 80 or so years the town doubled in size... The building across the street closed but it physically still there. The theatre next door also exists but it lost it's not as fancy.