It was a golden time after all. The war was over, the United States had one of the few strong economies in the world, unions were strong, and wages were high. There was even money to buy the kids a piano. Too bad rock & roll got 'em.
Stamped on the back, "ROLLMAN'S CAMERA SHOP APR 6 1954 SHILLINGTON, PA." What a great name for a camera shop. I'll bet there motto was buy a roll from Rollman's. And, as of January 2012, Rollman's was still in business. Of course my source for that info stated that Rollman's had been in business for 55 years. Do the math, and that means that the store opened in 1957, so clearly my source has some problems.
Shillington is a small town, a borough actually, adjacent to Reading, Pennsylvania. In the 1950s, Reading had a population of over 100,000, today it's under 90,000. There was a community named Shillington as early as 1860, but it didn't incorporate until 1908. And the first elected official, Burgess Adam Rollman. It's probable that some descendant of Adam was the camera store Rollman. The most famous Shillingtonian (?) was author John Updike. Updike was the valedictorian of the Shillington High class of 1950, so it's pretty probable that the young lady in this photo either knew him, or knew of him, before he was famous.
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