Writings were not permitted on the address side of postcards in the US until March 1, 1907. Postcards were sent for their lovely images, with a few words jotted where they'd fit, or a rambling note scrawled in the margins. This sweet little card is titled The Critic. It's pretty damaged but the colors are rich and the artwork is well done.
You can identify these very early postcards by looking at the reverse side, where you'll find the undivided back and instructions that 'This side for the address only'. Harken back to a time when a letter could get to a person with just their name and city. Maybe in small towns it would still work today, where you have a postmaster and a really small population, most of whom get together for coffee at the local hotel of a morning -- but you'd do better to have a zip code to help the robots route the card to the right city. And then most of us would need a full street address because the people who sort and deliver mail don't know us from Adam nor Miss Evangeline Dreher.
Printed up the edge on the left side of the address it says 'Compliments of Hearst's Sunday Boston American', so I'm guessing the postcard came with the Sunday paper 108 years ago this week, as the card is postmarked Oct 8, 1906. Like us, they were facing the reality that winter was coming, thinking about the forecast, and also enjoying a little joke about the challenges of love: WEATHER REPORTS - COLD AND FROSTY. Clever, huh? It's a cute card. The message is in code from whomever mailed this to Miss Evangeline Dreher and we can only wonder if she got the intended message: F.B.M.P.C.D.C.H.S.M.E.B. Whatever could this mean? If it said ROFLMAO, or OMG LOL, we'd get it. Any guesses? I'm sure we could have fun suggesting possible tidings, and from whom.
These were called 'penny postcards' because they cost one cent to mail. Though if you needed to forward it because you didn't even know what city a person lived in (you couldn't just check facebook to keep track of friends and family), it looks like a second stamp was required.
Here is a lovely picture from the Maine seaside near Portland -- Ponce Landing, Long Island. The entire message is written in the sand, "Letter coming, Harry." I don't feel like writing but I'm alive. Here, enjoy this picture of the sea. Very nice, Harry. A text, or a tweet. Thank you. What in the heck have you been up to? That beach had room for a little more information, son! Then there is sky-writing, look at all that sky! But the picture is very nice, the sand writing is perfect, and the whole scene makes me smile.
This one is nice, from Broadway Central Hotel in New York. The message is a poignant, "Oh! Memory paint this scene again. L.J.D."
It would make a good writing prompt. We'll never know what stories unfolded at that place and time, but it's fun to consider. Those secrets still drift in the ether from 1906, alighting occasionally on the shoulder of a passerby to offer a fleeting contented feeling of deja vu on Broadway, Corner Third Street.
"Oh! Memory paint this scene again. L.J.D."
ReplyDeleteYou *should* use that as a writing prompt!