Friday, June 22, 2012

Oh You Peach!

The sender of this card was probably dreaming of sunny weather and peaches, because it certainly wasn't a reality in March 1912 in Fort Covington, New York. Although the card is addressed to Bessie Belair of Hodensburg, New York, I have a feeling it's supposed to be Ogdensburg. Note: After Rob's comment below, I realize it was probably Hogansburg, New York, a mere 11 miles from Fort Covington in an area close to the Canada border.  In any case, being that far north, you can imagine that they might have heavy snow in March.

This card also brings to mind the work of a postman back then. They were part postman and part detective. To some degree it's still true today. But, imagine, before the advent of zip codes, mailmen often needed to know all of the residents of a town and where they lived, because the entire address consisted of a name and the city and state. Mailmen also needed to decipher difficult handwriting and misspellings.

The message on the back (as much as I can decipher) reads:

Dear Bessie
I have been no place sence not to your mothers or any place the roads are so bad and so much snow I would like to go to your mother I have not seen any of Leo's folk or any of them sence. If the road get better I will try and go before he begans work.  _____ hope you are all well

7 comments:

  1. Looks more like a Roma tomato than a peach, but I suppose they had to give the face a chin... Spring weather in upstate NY is kinda odd, could be 60 degrees or could be dumping snow, more likely to be chilly up that far with lake effect weather though.

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  2. I love anthropomorphic fruits and she sure is a cute one.

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  3. Postcardy, I love anthropomorphic fruits too, and I love this card! Adorable!

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  4. i have always marveled at how a card or letter got to someone...just the name,city and state!! i have old letters that my grandparents had sent and that even my parents had sent..just a name,city and state!!!

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  5. I love the inscription on the postcard :-).

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  6. Rob, I do believe you are correct. Hogansburg makes perfect sense. If this had been a contest, you would have received a prize. Alas, there is no prize, but I will post some cards from the Netherlands tomorrow in your honor.

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