Life, 1922-05-18 · page 3 of 34
Life — May 18, 1922 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine features a poem titled "Thoughts" by Dorothy Parker, a renowned American humorist and poet. The poem expresses romantic sentiments about constantly thinking of a beloved across different times of day and night. The cartoon below illustrates a 1950s-era joke about automobiles and safety. Two figures in an old-fashioned open-air car encounter a pedestrian, prompting one to exclaim "I saw a pedestrian on the road yesterday" and receive the shocked response "What! A live one?" The joke satirizes the danger posed by automobiles in 1950, suggesting that pedestrians killed by cars were so common that seeing one alive was noteworthy. It's dark social commentary on traffic fatalities and reckless driving culture of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Thoughts ES, my love, I think about you In the morning's roseate flush; Heavy hang the clouds, without you, Sullen seems the dawning’s blush. In the slender, graceful grasses, Silver-tipped with sparkling dew, In the woodland’s shadowy masses All that I can see is you. When the noon-day sun is burning, Hot the scented air, and clear, Then to you my thoughts are turning, And I would that you were here. Then I dream that, happy vagrants, We are wandering hand in hand Through the lanes of light and fragrance Into Summer's fairyland. When the weary sun in sinking, And the blossoms close, in rest, Then of you, my love, I'm thinking, As I watch the brilliant west When the little stars show faintly In the Maxfield Parrish sky, When the moon gleams, cold and saintly, Then to you my fancies fiy. When the frightened cvs are calling, And the sombre midnight reigns, Thick and fast the shades come crawling, Like the thoughts of fevered brains, When life trembles at the brink of Death’s unfathomable deep, You're the last thing that I think of,— Goodness knows, I need some sleep. Dorothy Parker. In 1950 “T saw a pedestrian on the road yesterday.” “What! A live one?” comicbooks.com