Sunday, May 2, 2010

Streetcar Sunday - Celeron Park

Celeron Park was an amusement park in Jamestown, New York. Early on, streetcars were instrumental in creating viable communities outside of cities, because they ensured that residents could easily travel  from their homes in the suburbs to their jobs in the city. But that meant that on weekends the streetcars would sit idle - unless of course they could transport people to amusement parks such as Celeron Park. This arrangement was great for streetcar operators and for residents.

The card probably dates from about 1910, but the message was written much later, in 1966. It's amusing to see a communication like this sent by mail. Now, of course, it would be an email, a text message, or a phone call.  The sender has obviously advertised something for sale and received a card from a prospective buyer. Now he is writing back trying to determine what the prospective buyer wants. Then, the prospective buyer has to write back again...and finally he will get the goods. It's hard to imagine that long-distance telephone rates were once prohibitive enough that it really made more sense to communicate by mail.
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5 comments:

  1. It mystifies me that someone in 1966 would use a lovely 1910 card for such a purpose! This scene is absolutely throbbing with people, fascinating. I hope you keep this feature. I don't always comment, but I love these particular scenes.

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  2. love the Lincoln stamp, of course. :)

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  3. I think that is a postcard someone made in the 1960s by photographing an old card in black and white.

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  4. Postcardy, I think you're right. I never even thought of that possibility, because who, in 1966, would want to do that? Antiques were being thrown away in the '60s, so who would actually take the time to take a photo of an old postcard and have it printed as a postcard? But now that I look at the front of it, it looks like a different developing process than earlier real photo postcards. This one is fairly shiny and has cracks. Earlier ones tended to be more matte and have a slightly metallic sheen to them. Finally, I peeked under the top of the stamp, which was not completely affixed and could read Kodak, indicating it was 1950 or later. Good call, Postcardy!

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  5. Interesting! That's true about matte finish on most old cards, from what I've seen anyway.

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