Category Archives: Post cards

December 22, 2018 · 6:39 pm

The Annual Christmas Message – 2018

Only 3 sleeps till Christmas. I have done my Christmas shopping, mostly, and the presents are wrapped and sitting on a table under the not yet erected tree. I have to make my special coleslaw for the great family feast that will be happening on Christmas Eve at my sister’s place. This year we will be about 20, and have one more little boy than last year. One is on the way too, and might even be here for Christmas, although he’s not due until Boxing Day, and he’s in Germany. But he will be with us in spirit, nevertheless. I hope that one day he will send handwritten or typed correspondence to friends and family. Just to remind him, and all of you what that looked like, I present for your Christmas pleasure two very old postcards that I culled from a collection of thousands at a second hand book shop this very afternoon. They cost me a pretty penny, which was the price of stamps in 1911 when one of them was posted from Gloucester Mass, to Mrs. Alexandra Wharton in Nova Scotia, from her friends Pearl and Charlie. Both these cards were printed in Germany.

the message:

This one had no stamp but it must have been sent. The ink is permanent, which I know because I used a wet Qtip to clean up some black paper that was stuck to the back and obscuring part of the writing. Thank goodness for India ink!

A message from Nellie Wanamaker to her Aunt Fannie in Prince Edward Island. Maybe Fannie knew Anne, the kid who lived over at Green Gables?

Merry Christmas everyone!

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November 30, 2018 · 2:07 pm

A Cryptic Message

I am now in the black with my typewriter collection, after many years. Last week I sold two virtually identical late 50’s Underwoods within an hour. Oddly, both were bought as gifts. One went to a young English major, no, not in the army – at university. He tired of the usual digital overload and professed a desire to his girlfriend for a typewriter. The other went to a lady of 71, courtesy of an old friend. She likes writing poetry. I just love selling these machines to writers! Like many of us, I feel good about returning a typewriter to circulation, especially if it needed my attention to get it back on the road, so to speak. Many typewriters that I have bought have needed a fair bit of fiddling, cleaning and adjusting to work well, a job I really enjoy. So, of course I just picked up 2 more yesterday, both which needed some work. The work is minor, but necessary, and there aren’t any repairmen left here.

hello english major

hello poet

Meanwhile, in my haunts I sometimes come across old postcards, and here are a pair that tell a tale. The message on the Canadian one is courtesy of my imagination, and typeface thanks to RP! The other has notes that I can’t read. Hard to imagine what you could say on that one.

Banff, c 1950’s

And then there was this:

Alexanderplatz, Berlin

Remembering the Imperial Yeomanry

25 cents, from a bin of old postcards. Trafalgar Square, with an interesting note about Boer War veterans in very beautiful handwriting. But how is it that an English postcard would have instructions for stamps in cents?