Monday, August 24, 2015

Road Trip Time Warp

NewDealNRA.jpg
I was driving east on Highway 72 toward Corinth, Mississippi a few days ago, and I passed a late model pickup truck with Mississippi tags and a large NRA decal in the rear window.  Many of you may think there is nothing unusual about seeing a truck in a rural Southern area with an NRA sticker, and you would be right - except it was not that NRA.  The design on the truck was not that of the National Rifle Association, but instead that of the National Recovery Administration, a New Deal agency established by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 to help the country out of the Great Depression.  The decal was solid white on the black-tinted rear truck window, and the design matched the poster above, down to the "We do our part" motto. 

The NRA ceased operations in 1935.  I spend my time wandering through places looking for items related to the 1930s and 1940s, and I have only seen the old NRA logo appear a few rare times on pins or posters at antique stores or flea markets.  To see a new, laser-cut vinyl decal of this design on a fairly new pickup truck in North Mississippi was enough to make me do a double-take.  If I ever see that truck again, I am definitely going to inquire about the decal.  The owner must have a special reason for displaying such an unusual design.

No comments:

Post a Comment