Gardens

The theme for Sepia Saturday this week is gardens. I have many boring postcards of gardens. That's because it's very difficult to capture the essence of a garden in a small photo, especially a grainy black-and-white photo that then has fake colors added. I do like to look at those old cards of people on promenade through elegant gardens though. You get a sense of the social significance of gardens. They were places to play and socialize as well as places for quiet contemplation.

View from the other side

And then there are the family photos in gardens, a chance for a more casual portrait than might otherwise be acceptable. Here are some photos of my ancestors in their garden in Berlin at the turn of the century. When the city of Berlin was divided into two parts after World War II, this fell on the east German side and my family lost this property. Today there is an apartment building on the site. In the picture below, my great grandmother sits in the chair in front, while my great-great grandmother is on the very left.

Another photo (circa 1906)  shows what appears to be a greenhouse, with my great-great grandmother on the left and my great grandmother in the middle. The smiling young boy is my grandfather. He died during World War II, so I never had the chance to meet him. His sister Käthe is on the right.

And then there's this odd photo postcard, not in very good condition, showing my grandfather, the youngest, and his siblings.

Here in Oregon, we love our garden, especially during the warmer months when we can cook and eat outside. We look forward to that season with much anticipation during the rainy winter months. The benefit of all those rainy months is that everything grows vigorously here.

Even things you may not want to grow vigorously. For more on this plant, visit this previous post.

For a veritable worldwide garden tour, head over to Sepia Saturday.

Jackson Square - Oak Ridge, Tennessee

At first glance, this looks like one of those incredibly boring cards of a parking lot, but there's actually more to it. This isn't just any parking lot.

Before 1942, the area around Black Oak Ridge was a peaceful rural farming area. It only became a city when the U.S. Government chose it as the production site for the Manhattan Project and the development of the atomic bomb. Although the area was not densely populated, the people who did live there were evicted from their homes and given as little as two weeks to evacuate.

A large number of people were needed to work on the military project, so a town was built for the workforce and their families. Jackson Square was the original commercial site of Oak Ridge, and was surrounded by housing. By 1945, the population swelled to 75,000. The town included 300 miles of roads, ten schools, seven theaters, 17 restaurants, and 13 supermarkets.

It was only after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945 that many of the workers realized what they had been working on. Oak Ridge is no longer a military town, and only has a population of about 27,000. Efforts are currently underway to revitalize and preserve Jackson Square.

Here's the back of the card, sent to Mrs. Addie Wolcott in Miami, Florida in 1955.
The message reads:

Dear Addie: I received your letter but have little time to write these days. The children are very good, but do need a lot of attention. It keeps us both busy. Do hope the hurricanes keep on passing us by.

Love,

Mildred

Birthday Congratulation

That's right - only one congratulation. We don't want to give in to excess after all.

Most of the birthday cards I have seen feature roses if they have any flowers at all. These two cards both have pictures of Edelweiss. That's very unusual. The first card was printed in Germany and the second one may have been too, which might explain why there's Edelweiss.

Here are the backs of the cards in the same order. The first one was sent to Miss mabel Every in Bloomville, New York in 1914.

The second one, to Miss May Carey of Tunkhannock, New York, may have been sent in an envelope. The message reads:

If you do not come on diamond and come on local why phone me from station and I will come and meet you.

Norman

Just in case you thought Diamond was the name of May's horse, it was actually the Black Diamond,  a passenger train that ran between New York City and Buffalo from 1896 to until 1959.