Kids Playing in the Street: The Little Ghosts of Flatbush

I call this group of postcards taken around the turn of the 20th century the “little ghost collection” because...who are these kids? Whoever colorized the photos stopped at the children’s faces, and it gives them a seriously creepy effect as they linger in these street scenes.

Seriously though, streets used to be seen as a perfectly acceptable place for kids to play before cars came along. It wasn’t until the automobile manufactures launched their jaywalking campaigns in the 1910s that hanging out in the street was seen as a bad thing. (“Jay” was slang that basically meant a rube or idiot.) Many members of the public resisted, wondering where their children would play, if not in the street? But the number of fatalities and the well-funded jaywalking campaign eventually won over and jaywalking was made illegal in the 1950s. Most of us still jaywalk to get around Brooklyn, but luckily kids are usually confined to yards and sidewalks these days.
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