
During summers in the 1970s, people in Uptown seemed to live on their stoops. Most were too poor to afford air conditioning, so they went outside, sat on their steps and socialized. Here, three teenagers were smoking, flirting and listening to some tape recorded songs. If you click on the image, it will enlarge and you can see scars on the bare feet on the young woman. I do not know whether she went barefoot because of the heat, as a statement of freedom, or simply because she could not afford shoes. Many people who came to Uptown from the South or Appalachia went barefoot.