I took this photo of the Ring O’Bells pub in Halifax over 50 years ago. You can tell it’s old, not because its a black and white photo (there are filters that can fake that), nor because the building is old (it’s even older now). It’s partly the signage – or lack of it – and partly the emptiness of the scene. Photographs freeze history with the efficiency of a sack of ice cubes.
alanburnett.com 
I really like your metaphor, Alan. “Photographs freeze history with the efficiency of a sack of ice cubes.” For those of us who research old photos it makes me think of analyzing an ice core removed from a glacier and looking closely for clues as to the decade it was made. I suppose scanning an old photo and then publishing it on a blog is the equivalent to defrosting time.
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