I Hope You’re Happy, Too.

Divided back postcard. Postmarked December 22, 1920, Oakland, California. Series or number 425A.

Price:  $8.00

“I Hope You’re Happy Too

I feel so fine and Christmassy

And generally good,

I want to share the feeling

As a good friend rightly should.”

Signed, Florence Thickle.

These postcard captions are funny sometimes, which is definitely part of the charm of the old cards. And well, imagine trying to come up with something slightly different for yet another Christmas postcard….As for the illustration, it’s beautiful – a full moon lights a wonderful view looking up a set of steep steps (be careful on the way down!) toward a manor house, we presume (due to the grandeur of the approach).

The sender, Florence, wrote:

4427 Evans ave., Oakland, Calif. Dec. 21, ’20. Dear Grandma Waiters:  This is to wish you happy Xmas, and a fine new year. I’m not doing much for this Xmas; but hope I’ll be able to be at work again before very long. How are you all? Hope old Santa treats you all real good. Lots of love from – Florence.”

Addressed to:   “Mrs. V. C. Waiters, Paso Robles, California.”

V. C. Waiters is Vesta C. Waiters, wife of William A. Waiters (second marriage for both) found on the 1910 Federal Census for Paso Robles, born Iowa, about 1847. Her name at birth was Vesta Catherine Fry. On the 1920 she is widowed, head of household in Paso Robles; with her is her brother William H. Fry and granddaughter, Sarah E. Gesser. Curiously, nothing definitive was found for Florence Thickle in records, though we did not trace the grandmother-granddaughter relationship as that tends to be quite time-consuming. Florence must not have been at the Evans Avenue, Oakland address for very long as city directories show a different family in 1920.

Sources:  Year: 1910; Census Place: Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, California; Roll: T624_104; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 0038; FHL microfilm: 1374117. Year: 1920; Census Place: Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, California; Roll: T625_144; Page: 15B; Enumeration District: 45. (Ancestry.com).

Frank Corbyn Price Christmas Postcard

Divided back, unused, artist-signed postcard, dated 1923. Raphael Tuck & Sons “Oilette” postcard. “Wonderful White Winter.” Copyright London, Printed in England. Artist:  Frank Corbyn Price.

Price:  $12.00

Christmas Greetings…..

At sunset, a farmer has opened the gate for a shepherd and his dog driving their sheep along a snow-covered road. This Tuck postcard was one of a set of six, under the series title “Wonderful White Winter.” The scene is by British artist Frank Corbyn Price (1862 – 1934). And though the card is dated by the sender at Christmastime in 1923, the work was first used in December of 1914, according to the website, TuckDB Postcards.

On the reverse, the unknown sender writes:

“To Chuckie – Good old Santa Claus greets you & wishes you the very happiest time possible in the present, & in the future. Christmas 1923.”

Sources:  Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, 1973-1995.

Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA), 1911. (Ancestry.com).

“shepherd in bright green driving sheep along road in snow, greeting old man gate, red sunset.” TuckDB Postcards. https://tuckdb.org/items/71829. (accessed December 25, 2018.)

Three Generations In Winter

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Another winter scene in an unknown location:  This Real Photo Postcard shows a house, guessing the style might be Folk Victorian with a four-square layout; note the spindle work or gingerbread trim and the decorative running piece, that we can just see part of, on top of the roof. An older woman standing on the front porch holds a little boy who is perhaps her grandson, and two men, perhaps the woman’s sons, pose a little off to each side. The house appears at an angle, and in the foreground a picket fence runs most of the way across the photo. The fence is painted white except for the tops of the pickets, which are either painted a darker color or left unpainted. It looks like this was by design to be able to find the fence when the snow piled up high.

The time-frame for this card would be about 1907, due to the divided back, through about 1918, due to the AZO stamp box with all four triangles pointing upward. Wonder if it was the boy in the photo who wrote on the back. Looks like he addressed the card to someone and with a short message on the left 😉

Divided back, Real Photo Postcard. AZO stamp box.Circa 1907 – 1918.

Price:  $8.00

Sleigh Ride, 1916

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Winter fun one hundred years ago to the month!

It says “Jan 1916”  on the back of this wonderful black and white photo, which shows four ladies and three men (perhaps the driver jumped down to capture the moment) all bundled up for the weather with long overcoats and hats, riding in a horse or mule-drawn sleigh. The location is unknown; a small town probably somewhere in the U.S. When was the last time you went on a sleigh ride?

Black and white photo, January 1916.       Size:  4 and 3/8 x 6 and 1/4″

Price:  $15.00