A series of pictures and factoids for Create's NaJoPoMo Challenge.

Photographer John Vachon took this picture from a truck. They were on their way through Gastonia, North Carolina, to Greenville, South Carolina, in March of 1943. He must have got bored, sitting at the desolate traffic light in exciting downtown Gastonia, – trust me, this was rush hour – so he snapped this picture for the Farm Security Administration. These people recorded all sorts of mundane scenes of everyday life in the less picturesque parts of backwater America.

But think about it.

In 1943, war was raging in Europe. War was raging in the Pacific. Heck, war was raging just about everywhere. It was hard to escape the fighting, except in Antarctica, or on the moon.

Or sitting in an intersection on Chester Street in Gastonia, next to the ARP Church.

By the way, that intersection still looks pretty much the same way as it did in 1943. Except the gas station sign, which has been updated. Esso is Exxon now.