Downtown Looking East

This 1940 photo shows a vibrant downtown Menasha in the spring or summer months.  The two girls riding their bikes in the center of the photo, while passersby converse on the street in front of the corner drug store, evokes a Norman Rockwell feel to a day gone by.  Is the aproned butcher/grocer crossing behind the bikers hurrying back to his shop to meet the Verifine ice cream man?  Or is he on another errand?  With America on the verge of World War II, the innocence of this photo is bittersweet.