Speaking of Postcards

Here's a belated one for Valentine's Day (which is generally ignored in my household).
Postmarked probably in 1902 and addressed to Mr. R.C. Kloss, Kent, ILL. No note is on the card.

For Postcard Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

No turkey was harmed in the printing of this vintage postcard--I'm guessing around 1920's. Enjoy your holiday, day or weekend.

Thinking of Spring?

The days are getting shorter and the nights colder. The turtle is inside all snug in his container of dirt. I'd like to hibernate but instead I'm dreaming of April Fools Day in Paris. The "poisson" always makes me laugh.

Postcard Friendship Friday

A Day at the Beach

I got to indulge my weaknesses for old postcards, photography, and flea markets while in France. I still love it that I can buy a tiny piece of history for around a Euro, the same price as for a glossy modern tourist postcard. There is nothing written on the back of this postcard but the label is printed upside down to the photo. I can't help but ponder all the details--all the men with berets and mustaches, the child's lace up boots, "grandma" wearing mourning clothes perhaps. There is a tale here if only I knew how to read it.

Today's theme for Postcard Friendship Friday is National Dog Day. Note that this family brought their dog to the beach.

April Fools

Of course it is raining today.
The text of the card translates, to the best of my ability, as:
April 1st. Threshold of spring, April says to the fish: sow joy, and leave the harvest to others!
On the reverse of the card is written in French:
Little Rora,
Receive best wishes for April 1st from all your good friends from 83 rue Galilee as well as those of Maman Jars who says to you, until next week. Many kisses from all, Maman Jars and Louillaud. The card was sent to Bordeaux, France. There is no stamp or postmark. I may have the names wrong as I find the capital letters a little hard to read.
From a brief internet search, I find that April Fool's Day most likely originated in France. One tradition is to tape a picture of a fish to someone's back. Seems a fairly quaint and harmless prank, n'est-ce pas?

Early 20th Century Lithuania, Photo Postcard

I found this old postcard at an antique store among a jumble of old photos and postcards, most truly junk. It looks like some sort of market day to me. The back is unwritten except for the name of the photographer.

I looked up the town of Veisiejai and found photos of the St. George church seen in the background of the card. It doesn't seem to have changed much. The image is thanks to Wikipedia commons, photographer Wojsyl.



(For Postcard Friday)

Back to the USSR

(URSS is the French abbreviation for the English USSR--I wouldn't want you to think I couldn't spell! This is a page from a small scrapbook/journal I kept of my senior year abroad in Europe)

Linked to my interest in nuclear disasters, was my childhood fascination with the USSR. I wasn't a communist. It was more a "know thy enemy" kind of thing but I was always able to distinguish between political antagonism and fear and hatred of individual members of a country. I read the Russians by Hedrick Smith which come out in 1976 when I was a teen. I read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and as much as I could of the Gulag Archipelago by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. I made it through a smattering of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as well.
I was so impressed with the graphic arts coming out of the Soviet regime that I had a poster of a steely-eyed Lenin hanging in my bedroom for several years. The poster was done in simple brown and white but was so forceful that I feared it would give me nightmares.
My father as a scientist was able to travel to the USSR and was treated like a foreign dignitary, complete, no doubt, with KGB escort. I begged to go on that trip but instead got a decidedly second rate subscription to Soviet Life, a propaganda magazine. That must have been one of my life's biggest disappointments.
I didn't make it to the USSR until 1982 when I managed a 48 hour whirlwind visit to Leningrad. I had been studying abroad for half the year in Paris and decided to spend my winter vacation with some old family friends who were based with the US embassy in Helsinki. By some miracle they managed to get my friend and I last minute visas to Russia and off we went.
It was as strange, trip in the dead of winter. On the train to Russia we chatted for a time with a Finnish worker who was also heading to Leningrad. He drank steadily through a bottle of Vodka telling us that the USSR was so depressing he had to drink to tolerate it.
There was no tourist industry to speak of but I managed to walk the snowy streets of the city by myself (wondering all the while where the spies were), get a brief run through the Hermitage and struggle not to get thoroughly lost on the Leningrad subway system. It was a great adventure although I admit to a certain relief upon returning to Finland that nothing had gone wrong. The postcard and a few enamel buttons were the only souvenirs I have of that trip aside from the memories. It turns out the stories were correct. There really was nothing to buy there. Probably just as well since I could barely afford the train ticket and Intourist Hotel.

For Postcard Friday.

The Trouble is Just Begun

I just began reading The Devil in the White City, a book I picked up via Bookmooch. I don't know why I never started reading it before. Given the focus on Chicago history you'd have thought I would but I've never really taken to true crime stories. The first thirty pages or so cover more about Chicago architecture than anything else and that I did enjoy. Here is what Chauncey Depew says of Chicago, as quoted in the book:
Chicago is like the man who marries a woman with a ready-made family of twelve. The trouble is just begun."
The book itself relates to the 1893 World's Fair which took place just walking distance from my house. Unfortunately there is little left of the site but a museum, a park and a lagoon or two but reading about Chicago over a century ago is a lot of fun. We'll have to see how I feel about the murderous bits. Here is a 1919 postcard to put us in the mood for Chicago architecture.

History on a Postcard

Inquiring minds do a Google search when they come across new information. This old postcard refers to the "National Highway." I'm more familiar with the interstate system--from the west I-5 and so on and the Midwest--I90, I94, etc. Hence the Google search and a little bit of American history acquired. The National Road, also called the Cumberland Road (now this sounds a little more familiar) was started in 1811 at Cumberland Maryland. The road reached Wheeling, W. VA, in 1818. (Thanks be to Wikipedia for this information)
And to think that what caught my eye was simply the old cars! Imagine what this stretch of road looks like now? Strip malls, Walmart, and Burger King franchises? I'm almost glad I don't know.
Enjoy your Friday everyone.

Fish Tales or "Eat Me"

Translates roughly as: You caught it, eh. Well, you'll be eating it alone."
I love the fifties graphic on this and since I missed the Poisson d'avril date (April fools in France), I thought I'd share this card I bought in Paris last summer.
The card is dated, Nemours July 1, 1958. The inscription says (my rough translation):
Dear B- Fet B-S- (not sure if these are nicknames or not)
Two words to tell you that we arrived safely, and the weather is beautiful. We have asked Pampin for a room. And voila, there will be a room from Saturday July 12 to the end of the month. You have only to let Pampin know as soon as possible the date of your arrival and for how long.
Kisses,
ESGermaine


The handwriting is charming and I imagine Mr. or Ms. Germaine welcoming friends to visit him/her near their summer home in Nemours.

Mille Baisers,
Sarala

For Postcard Friday.

Easter Greetings

I don't observe Easter but I wish those of you who do a happy holiday. Those of us in Passover-land are getting a bit bored of Matzoh. Sushi and Pizza are sounding more and more good.

This card is part of a correspondence of which I have a few cards (see a post of two weeks ago). It is postmarked June 10, 1913. I'm pretty sure Easter wasn't in June back then. The card is addressed to a gentleman in Danville, Alabama. The young lady writes:
Hello how are you this morning all OK I hope I am all right this moring (sic) hope you got home all right from your best girl
E.B.
My best regards
Think of me when you get this card

And under the Easter Greetings is hand written (all the writing is in pencil):
to you.

For Postcard Friday, with love.
Sarala

Mousey Love

 


The back of the card is addressed to Miss Eva Bown, Danville, Ala, R-3-Bot 54. The postmark reads June 13, 1913.
The card is written in pencil and hard to read. It says:
Hello Eva how are you all ok I hope I got home all right I hope to see you soon if I could see you I could tell you a whole lot more than I can right (?) hope to (?) soon By By Dave

I have 4 other cards of this pair. I think they were courting.

Happy Hannukah

Here are a couple of postcards I made in honor of the holiday.





Not exactly fine art but the sentiment is real. I'm looking forward to lighting the first candle tonight with my family.
I am in the last of three dress rehearsals for tomorrow's and Sunday's Nutcracker performances. This is my third year in a secondary role as an adult party goer. This year I wear an ugly green velvet dress. I'd say the highlight for me is dancing a polka.
Of course, even more important is getting to see my son dance. This year he dances a fairly important role as the Mouse King. Of course, as in most family plays, the evil character, in this case a mouse, is slain at the end.
If all goes well, I'll have a few pictures to post in the next couple of days.

Going to Zion

Today's postcard refers to our upcoming family trip to Arizona at the end of the month. We will be experiencing Zion and the Grand Canyon (OK Zion is in Utah) in the winter. Brrr. But beautiful I'm sure.
Happy Postcard Friday.

Happy Holiday to All

And if this is not your holiday, have a great day!

A Taste for Sausage?

Two weeks ago I posted some pictures of a "sausage tree." It took me nearly an hour to identify the tree as it was not a native of Hawaii where I saw it and I had no idea what it was. I jokingly named it a "hanging potato tree" which isn't all that different from its actual name.
A week later I stumbled across a postcard of the same tree in one of those small world moments. I guess now I'll be seeing hanging sausages wherever I look, especially when I'm hungry. Here is another one of my photos of the fruit and flowers of the tree.



For more postcards, visit Postcard Friendship Friday here.

Family Planning

Other possible titles include: "So Shoot Me Now" and "Between a Rock and a Hard Place"

We/I am trying to plan the latest family vacation. When the parents live 2000 miles away this can take some doing. The origins of the latest bright idea in bonding are complex. Last winter we flew in to Seattle in a blizzard to visit my family. The blizzard was unprecedented as it was in Seattle and not Chicago. At the end of the ordeal my father expressed a natural wish to "go somewhere warm next year."
My thought had been to go to Puerto Rico. It is relatively easy to get there (non-stops from Chicago) and passports are not required. Besides it is beautiful, exotic and the food is great. There the plan stood until a few weeks ago when my father searched the net and decided that Puerto Rico was actually relatively hard to reach from Seattle and a bit expensive. So he came up with the idea of Arizona. Nice and warm and relatively nearby, right?
True for the nearby part but my father also chose that we should visit the Arizona high desert. Guess what? It will be cold! The only advantage temperature-wise over Seattle will be tons of sunshine. Warm it won't be. Alas, I'll need to bring my usual winter gear--hat, gloves, long underwear, etc.
We all sort of agreed. By sort of, I mean my 12 year old didn't want to go at all and my husband lectured on how he'd rather take a short vacation and hang around at home.
This is where the "so shoot me now" begins. I asked my dad to set up the trip as I've been way too busy to spend much time figuring this all out. As an aside, you need to know that my father likes adventure travel, only without the danger. He's over 70 but you wouldn't guess it from the itinerary he presented. In two weeks, he had us planned to drive 1000 miles and make on the order of 8 overnight stops.
My husband and I found one point of consensus. We just cannot do this. 6 people in a minivan is bad enough but this is beyond our ability to handle.
There the consensus ends. My father is still wishful for his 1000 mile ordeal. My husband wants to basically shorten the trip by 5 -7 days and stay in one place for most of it. My 12 year old doesn't want to go which I'm ignoring but my husband thinks his opinion should be counted too. My college kid probably has an opinion and definitely wants to go but he's not in communication with us. Who knows what my father's wife thinks? I'm sure he does but the communication has been between the main travel planners, me and my dad.
Oh, and my husband leaves it all up to me except when he is telling me how stupid the whole thing is and how he doesn't really want to do it. And if the trip doesn't turn out well, guess whose fault it will be?
Anyone have a small vial of arsenic handy?

Now and Then

My initial fascination with old postcards was to see how my city changed over time. Now I just like them.
Here is a 1906 view of the building that is now the Museum of Science and Industry.
Below is my 2007 photo of the same building although from a rather different perspective. It hasn't changed much in the past 100 years.



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Postcards on Friday

Just posting a vintage postcard because I can.
I can't read the date on this card but it was sent with a two cent stamp. No zip code was necessary to mail it. Now we use Zip plus 4. Times change.
The inscription says--Hope you won't fly in the ditch with that new car. Come over some time soon. All of you.
Sent from Frankfort to Joliet, IL.