I’m finding all sorts of interesting old postcards in my basement purge
Thanks to the pandemic and a 10-step auction withdrawal program, I haven’t been to a sale for a couple of years now.
But I still am sorting through the myriad of merchandise that resulted from my auction addiction.
There are many things in my basement which need to go. I’m just trying to figure out if there is any money to be made. Maybe, maybe not. There have been a lot of donations to various organizations.
Some of the stuff that surfaces comes as a surprise. I came across three plastic sleeves full of old postcards which I must have gotten at some time. There are about 200 of them and frankly, some of them are showing their age, which is about 110 years. Others are nice with embossed designs and velour decorations. One from 1907 is a double card which folds out to reveal a panoramic view of the New York City waterfront.
The majority of the collection came to Mrs. B.F. Adams of Muncy, Pennsylvania. How they got to W.L. Spiers of Belleville, Illinois, is partially a mystery.
While not as illuminating as letters, the postcards do reveal some history. There also must have been letters because many of the postcards scold the parents for not having written or refer to letters received. Most of the comments were about feeling fine and asking how the parents were doing. It’s hard to get much information in a 3x3 space. But they tried, often resulting in writing that cannot be deciphered.
The B F. was Benjamin Franklin Adams, a machinist in the small town of 2,000 in northeastern Pennsylvania, according to the 1900 U.S. Census. The Mrs. B.F. was Elizabeth Carolyn Adams and there were five children residing at home, Timothy, Daniel, Blanche, Ora and Patrick.
The couple had been married for 31 years. Ten years later, the children were all out of the house. That is the time of the cards, from 1907 to 1912. I don’t know if the cards ended because Elizabeth died in 1912 or because of chance.
Most of the postcards are from Blanche and Ora with some from Daniel who always signed himself as D.W.A.
Blanche and Ora were on the East Coast in New Orange New Jersey, and Trenton, New Jersey, in 1907 and by 1910 were in the Pittsburgh area. Both were homesick and Blanche didn’t like her job, whatever it was. She also had a problem with her leg and spent $10 to see a doctor. He wanted another $150 to try and fix whatever it was but Blanche wasn’t buying.
“(He) cannot tell if he can cure me so I give up,” she wrote. She later threatened to move south for the winter.
Additional cards
Daniel sent cards from a trip out West where he couldn’t find work in Oregon or North Dakota or any other state. By 1912 he seemed to have settled in Pennsylvania, sending cards of churches, schools and hospitals in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and other small towns.
There also were cards from nieces, nephews, grandchildren and friends. There were a few humorous cards and a lot of religious ones. One was from Germany, written in German.
While there was not a lot of history of any importance it still was a fun look at slices of life back when no one drove great distances and a trip home was a big event. And the pictures were nice.
