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From a negative. Maryland, late 1930s. A kid washing a car. He is standing on the back bumper in his work boots to reach the roof, garden hose in his hand, undershirt on, jeans rolled at the cuff. Nobody told him to get down off the car. Nobody was worried about scratching the paint. The car was a tool and the kid had a job to do. Look at the shine on that fender. Look at the house behind him, the porch, the steps, a whole American life sitting there in the sun. A commenter on Flickr says the car is a 1937 Chrysler Imperial, which was a serious car in its day, the top of the Chrysler line. Car people, confirm it or fight about it. That is half the fun of posting these. This is one frame out of a whole archive of negatives shot around Maryland. I do not know the photographer's name and I do not know this kid's name either. Somebody's father. Somebody's grandfather. If this is 1937 or 1938, then within a few years gas was rationed, the factories stopped building cars altogether, and a kid his age was very likely in a uniform somewhere. But on this afternoon none of that has happened yet. On this afternoon he is just washing the car. The rest of the archive is here: flickr.com/photos/thomashawk… Who was he? And is that really a '37.