Showing posts with label postcards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label postcards. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 3, 2019

Spotlight on Grandma's Postcards - Happy...Independence Day???

Last night I went through Grandma's postcards in search of one that would be appropriate for the nearest holiday...which, of course, is Independence Day tomorrow...but, much to my chagrin, I didn't find a single one. 

 This is as close as I could get...

Happy...Independence Day??? 😳
Yes...that is a Thanksgiving card...but, hey! Hurrah for the red, white, and blue and Uncle Sam...right??? ðŸ¦… I mean...it works! Doesn't it? ðŸ˜ƒ 

 This card is actually addressed to my grandfather, Mr. Wiley Brown, Inman, Kansas. There is a stamp with a line crossed through it, but no postmark.

 The message says...
"Wiley - Thurlow will be here Thursday 
at 5 in the evening. Be sure and come spend 
Christmas. Come Friday if you can. 
Good bye from..."

...and the signature of the sender looks as though it's been erased. 😕

I do know that Thurlow was one of my grandfather's brothers, so I'm guessing that this is from some relative on that side of the family...perhaps from another of Grandpa Wiley's siblings or maybe even his mother. I don't know. Another mystery, but that's okay! It's a great postcard regardless!

I love the way that Uncle Sam is giving up his crown and scepter to the "Ruler of the Day"...the great all-American wild turkey! BUT...only for a day, mind you! 😆

Did you know that Benjamin Franklin actually wanted the wild turkey to be our national symbol instead of the American bald eagle? Not as majestic, for sure, but, definitely an American icon! 🦃

Until next time...
~Rebecca

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Grandma Maudie
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Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Spotlight on Grandma's Postcards - "Greetings From Fannie Sullivan"

Last week's post focused on a few of Grandma's postcards that featured forget-me-not...a popular flower at the time that signified true love and remembrance.

"Greetings from Fannie Sullivan"
This week I want to focus on one card in particular. It is a card from my grandmother's girlhood friend, Fannie Sullivan. 


As you can see, the postcard was postmarked on October 25, 1910 at 7:00 p.m.


At the time, Fannie Sullivan lived in Odessa, Missouri and my grandmother lived in McPherson, Kansas. My grandmother would have been 15 years old and, my guess is, that Fannie was about the same age. I remember Grandma talking about Fannie and, if memory serves me correctly, they went to school together at Odessa before my grandmother's family moved to McPherson.



The message is short and simple and it talks about things that are near and dear to a young girl's heart. 

Fannie says...

"Dear Maude - How are you? I am all OK. What do you think of my cards with my name on them? I went to school today. Have you got your new hat yet this winter? I have. I have been going to church every night. Answer soon. Fannie Sullivan"

I know that Grandma and Fannie were in touch throughout the years and there are many postcards from Fannie in Grandma's collection. Perhaps we will visit more of them at some point down the road.

Grandma's friendship with Fannie Sullivan was special. What childhood friends were special to you and how many of them have you maintained over the years?

Until next time...
~Rebecca

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Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Spotlight on Grandma's Postcards - Forget-Me-Nots

Last week I introduced you to my Grandmother Maudie and her vintage postcard collection; this week I want to start shining a spotlight on specific cards or themes within the collection.



Although there are more cards in my grandmother's collection than I could possibly share in one post that do this, this week I have selected cards that feature forget-me-not.


In the language of flowers forget-me-not represented true love and remembrance.

I don't ever recall seeing forget-me-not in person, but here is a photo of it that I ran across online. Look at how delicate and lovely it is! 



This postcard in my grandmother's collection particularly caught my eye...


While it's not outstandingly beautiful or anything, do you notice the writing in the bottom, left corner?


It says, "Greeting from gramma R A Stephenson. April the 5 is your birthday."


On the back it says, "This is for Maudie McCann. Many happy birthdays" and it is dated 1911.


Grandma Maudie was born in 1895. This card was given to her by her grandmother, Rebecca Ann Stephenson, on her 16th birthday. 

A quick side note for my children and grandchildren - 

Rebecca Ann Rankin was married to William Franklin Stephenson. This was Annie Lee Stephenson's parents. Annie Lee married James Monroe McCann and they are Maudie's parents. Grandma Maudie, of course, is Grandpa's (James C. Brown's) mother. Rebecca Ann Stephenson would have been my great-great grandmother...your third and fourth great-grandmother! Amazing! It's pretty cool to be able to see her handwriting...huh???



I love the postcards in my grandmother's collection...especially the ones that feature the forget-me-not. They're so pretty!



Here's another picture of the real deal...so delicate! So beautiful! And so incredibly blue! 


The forget-me-not...a symbol of true love and remembrance. A symbol that continues to reverberate throughout the generations!

Grandma Maudie

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Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Spotlight On Grandma's Vintage Postcards - An Introduction

This is my grandmother, Maude Belle McCann Brown Graham...


Grandma Maudie is my dad's mom. She was bedfast the last twenty-five years of her life and she lived with us for several years when I was a child. She had her own room and kept all of her favorite things close at hand where she could get to them whenever she wanted them.

As a child I used to sit on Grandma's bed and visit with her for hours. We would look at old photographs, make pictures from tiny shapes cut from construction paper that we would glue together on a background to make flowers, birds, and other pretty things, and we would sing together. (Grandma knew every song ever written up to that point in time!)

Sometimes Grandma would let me play with the big doll babies that sat at the end of her bed. At other times she would pull out one of the nearby shoe-boxes and go through the treasures that were hidden within. She would show me each thing and tell me the story behind it. I treasured those times together and still do! 💗

Among the things that Grandma loved most was the collection of postcards that she had received from friends and loved ones throughout the years of her youth and beyond.


Some of them were in really good shape; others were tattered, torn, faded, and barely legible, but through them she was able to maintain memories and a connection to friends that she had lost contact with over the years, as well as, loved ones that had passed on before (her mother, her brothers and sisters, my grandfather).


When Grandma Maudie passed away, my dad inherited her treasured collection of vintage postcards; when my father passed away three years ago, they came to me. I kept them filed away where they had been since Grandma's passing back in the early '70's...in my mother's trunk. The trunk that had been her grandmother's, purchased brand new for her 16th birthday by her father, way back in the late 1800's. What a treasure!


I enjoyed looking at Grandma's postcards as a child and I'm sure that's where I developed my own love of postcards, starting my own collection of them as a young girl, but I hadn't thought much about them recently, until, last month. In May I attended a class at Spring Interpretive Training on the traditions that surrounded a Victorian Christmas. Postcards were a big thing then and it was one of the topics that was brought up. That of course took my mind back to my grandmother's collection.


A few of Grandma's postcards are postmarked in the late 1800's, but most are postmarked between 1907 and 1923. There are some that are postmarked later and many that aren't postmarked at all. Some have messages written on the back; many do not. It's hard to imagine, but all of my grandmother's postcards are well over a century old now.


I thought it would be fun to share some of those cards with you here. It would be a really neat way to take a sneak peak into the past, as well as further preserve a little family history.


My plan is to share at least one of Grandma's postcards here each week and I would love for you to join me.


Is anyone else out there interested in vintage postcards? Does anyone here collect them...vintage or otherwise?

Until next time...
~Rebecca

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