Friday barrel ladies

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We do not know too much about this photograph other than there are four fine Friday Ladies in it. Plus one fine gentleman. Oh, there is a caption, provided by the New Westminster archives, which kindly allowed us to use it. It says: ‘Grand prize for Rotary Club's barrel contest. – 1950’. The club in question supposedly is the Rotary Club of New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada (as here), but all that perhaps only makes it all the more fuzzier.

So let’s focus on the car first. It seems that the sign on its roof says ‘Win this 1951 Plymouth Belvedere’. Is it a Belvedere? It could well be. Now, if the picture really dates back to 1950 then this has to be a brand new car of the next model year. In our part of the world, the word ‘barrel’ refers to an old banger, which seems pretty much out of tune here. So what exactly is a barrel contest? Was the prize originally perhaps a barrel of wine, whisky or something else alcoholic?

Rotarians, enlighten us!

(Words editor, picture courtesy New Westminster archives)

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