(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved. Contact us for information about using this image.
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The main street of Greenfield, Massachusetts, is vibrant with life in this postcard from around 1938. With the Great Depression (1929-1940) just ending, the town was reviving as new businesses and work filled in the holes left from that economic catastrophe. The streets are thick with cars, but the new traffic signal technology has not yet been installed at Greenfield's main intersection. Instead, a sign in the middle of the road signals drivers to yield. To the left, the Garden Cinema - a still functioning institution as of the turn of the 21st century - is showing a film. "You and Me," an odd film that combined suspense with comedy, was directed by Fritz Lang and starred Sylvia Sidney and George Raft.