Leather Postcard

Here's a leather postcard with a strange little saying on the front. The address on the back appears to be burned in. Leather postcards were popular at the turn of the century. Although many of the designs are very beautiful and interesting, I can't say they're among my favorites. For whatever reason, I prefer paper postcards.  This one's pretty interesting though.

Tram Tuesday - Philadelphia

This card has a lot to offer. It has the full names and mailing addresses of both the sender and the recipient. Although there is no stamp or postmark, it appears that the card was sent in 1910. Nettie Smith of Philadelphia sent the card to Miss Julia Schneider in Los Angeles. Maybe they were in secretarial school together, because Nettie seemed to be confident that Julia could read her shorthand.  Does anyone still read (or write) shorthand?

It's a little sad to see those old Philly streetcars, because the extensive system that Philly once had is no longer there. I think that there is a greater sense of loss in Philadelphia than in some of the other places where streetcars have been replaced by buses. I hope they make a comeback.

Here's the back of the card.

If you want to read more about the current issues regarding Philadelphia's streetcar system, you may want to check out Eric Miller's The New Colonist.

The Quiz Kids

The Quiz Kids were on the Blue Network on Sunday evenings. What was the Blue Network? It was a spinoff from NBC, which eventually became ABC. But this wasn't TV, it was radio. There were many very bright kids on this show, including Joel Kupperman, bottom left, who was able to do amazing calculations in his head. He now teaches philosophy at the university of Connecticut.

The Quiz Kids show was on the radio from 1940 until 1952. People were invited to send in questions, and if your question was selected, you received a radio as a prize. If your question was not selected, you got a postcard like this one, with your address typed on the card by a secretary at the Blue Network. I can't imagine anyone getting a reply at all these days.

The question weren't easy either. Here's a sample:

1. What popular American dessert would you get if you joined up the last name of a 1948 pitcher of the Cleveland Indians with the nickname of the 1927 third baseman of the Pittsburgh Pirates? 

2. What three explorers' last names begin with "La, De and Da?”

3. Arrange the first letters of the four major meatpacking companies so as to spell a branch of the United States armed forces.

4. Why would Pennsylvania and protactinium remind you of the third Sunday in June?

5. What fish spelled backwards is the name of a famous general? 

Let me know if you are able to answer these. I'm going to try spelling fish names backwards to find that general's name...Nomlas? Tuort? Hcrep? Elos?  Tubilah?