Downtown Spring Lake. Seward Johnson “Embracing Peace.” Paul Goldfinger photograph Dec. 2022. Click to enlarge.
Spring Lake has embraced outdoor art before. They love to show the work of the late Seward Johnson II who is known for his realistic sculptures of people doing their thing. I have a photo of me photographing one of his photographers.
It is so much fun when you are strolling in this town with its wonderful shops including the Irish store, beautiful clothing shops for men and women, and two homemade candy stores, and then you come upon these lifelike figures.
I saw a woman approach a figure of a man on a bench, and then he looked up and spoke.
The Johnson sculpture above, underneath the big clock, has a history behind it. When the 2nd World War was pronounced over, a huge crowd celebrated VJ Day in Times Square, and a famous photograph appeared which has been reprinted thousands of times. It shows a sailer embracing a nurse. The photograph was by the famous Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt. Below is a link about him which mentions that photo.
As far as the “baby boomers” are concerned, this refers to all the babies born between 1946-1964—76 million of them. This is because the birth rate in the US spiked when the “boys” came home. I guess some were girls as well. They reunited with families, went to college, continued their lives at home, and, oh yes, they made lots of babies.
KID ORY PLAYS THE BLUES: “the Birth of the Blues.”