There are very few rules in art. There is one I have attempted to follow assiduously. (Yeah, I went to college and know some big words.) That rule is that if you modify an image from being "straight" photography, either you have to do it so subtly and skillfully that no one notices you've done anything OR that you have obviously done it on purpose. For instance, I spent about two hours retouching scratches and dust spots on the first image. You might notice those marks if they were still there, but their absence is not remarkable.
The first image is from the same roll of film I used to do the colorized image I shared here recently. This is a few blocks down Penn Avenue (PA Route 422) so it is in West Lawn rather than West Wyomissing. Jennifer may recognize it because the buildings are still there (or at least they were the last time I was in West Lawn) except for the bank building. The colorization is a bit rough but not too far from what it actually looked lite. Since this was originally B&W film I have no idea whether that car was yellow or not, but there were yellow cars so this has the possibility of being correct. Curiously, the yellow stroke lines I use to separate the individual images appear white.
The second image was shot on a different day at 6th & Penn Streets in downtown Reading. The bare lots were what remained after the planned downtown mall plan was scuttled after Boscov's decided they would not be one of the anchor stores. Mostly they were used as parking lots until they got around to building something. On this day they had amusement rides and junk food. I attempted to merge the images quite unsuccessfully a few months ago and finally just surrounded the one I liked best (and had printed back in the day) and gave it up. As I was finishing up the first image, I thought this might also be a good candidate for colorization. Try as I might, I could not get anything resembling realistic color. So, to bring us back to the first paragraph, it's far enough from "realistic" that it had to be on purpose.
Whether this was a successful experiment is a question I will leave for you to answer.
You definitely did a good job retouching the first image because it looks clean. The way you edited gives it a genuine feel of movement. In fact it kind of tells the story of one of those peaceful days momentarily interrupted by a bright hot rod-er. I think the yellow is right on for that time period, and I like the youthful brightness of the yellow on the older, less-colorful background. I had heard that the smaller, sporty cars were brightly colored so the bigger cars could see them? All I know is that my first car at 18 was a bright orange Ford Mustang. I do know exactly where this is located in West Lawn. In fact after seeing your photograph, it made me realize why a certain bank located where I live now always gave me a curious feeling - the one here is almost identical to the positioning and look as this one from my childhood that we had passed by regularly; so thank you for that realization.
The second image has like an animated, pop art feel. I really like it. I think the edit fits perfectly with the subject. I can feel the music, energy, and commotion of the lot brought alive by a traveling carnival.
Good job on both, and I appreciated reading through your explanation.
I think both have their own merit Andrew, and for different reasons. I could see you doing a series of these and publishing something that would be of interest to the local community.
I think it's great that you are able to select colors that most suit both era and composition - that yellow car really works for me.