Beach Time!

Memorial Day Weekend is the start of the Summer Tourist Season in Maine.  A great place to visit is Old Orchard Beach, a pristine white sand beach that has been hosting summer visitors since the 1860's.

The newest of this trio of cards is the linen one, with the dozen bathing beauties -- a dozen good reasons to visit Old Orchard Beach, so the card claims.

Slightly older is the middle card, the white border card of children enjoying their ponies on the beach.  Throughout its life, the beach has not only been home to ponies, but to airplane and automobile races as well.

The oldest card is postmarked 1908.  Like the first,it shows swimmers in the beach garb of the day.  Slightly more coverage than today!

Two Men - Two Guitars

I know nothing about these two men, posing with their guitars, in front of an old horse-drawn wagon.  They look proud -- the man on the right is nearly smirking.  I wonder how they sound?

Twin Lobsters

Here's a pair of lobster postcards to whet our appetites for these delectable crustaceans!

The first is a nice linen card from Boone's Restaurant in Portland, Maine, my home town.  The locals don't eat at Boone's -- it's for the tourists, so the man with the bib on is definately "from away."

The second card is from Eugene's Seafood, at the Hotel Juneau in Milwaukee.  I have seen other postcards on the web for Eugene's, but this is the only one I've seen with a photo of him and his trusty manager Mrs. J. W. Pfeifer.  The back has a nice description of the place:

When in Milwaukee, Stop at...Eugene's Hotel Juneau.  Milwaukee's Lake Cooled All Modern Hotel.  807-15 East Wisconsin Avenue.  Downtown overlooking the Lake.  Beautiful Juneau Park, Elks Club and one-half block from C. & N. W. Depot.  Rates with bath $1.75 and up; without bath less.  Convenient parking space.  Famous for sea food.  No larger variety anywhere.  Air conditioned dining rooms. Coffee Shop, Tavern and Lobby.  Recommended by Duncan Hines.

Linen Hotel Trio

Here's a trio of great linen hotel postcards from a recent purchase.  All have interesting deco graphic design. 

At the top is the Hotel Connor of Joplin, Mo.  There's a fascinating, but tragic story that goes along with this hotel -- in 1978, it was being prepared to be demolished, and the day before the demolition a crew went inside to salvage some of the architectural details.  While they were inside the building, it spontaneously collapsed, having been purposely weakened in preparation for the demolition.  Two men died, and one survived, spending 3 days buried in the rubble of the hotel until being rescued.  More information is here:  Buried Alive , including a news report where they dragged the poor survivor to the original site (now a library with a display case of Hotel Connor lore), so he could reminisce for them. 

As a bonus, I included two more nice cards. There's the Hotel Chicagoan from the Windy City, showing off its sign, the Lounge, and a "typical bedroom."  And finally, it's the Battle House Hotel of Mobile, AL.  It's still there -- now as the Battle House Renaissance Mobile Hotel & Spa!  Enjoy!

Molly's Teenage Store

Molly's Children and Teenage Store was a fixture on Mission St. in San Francisco sometime in the late 50's, early 60's judging by the postcard above.  The storefront, which must have been impossible not to see,  was a peppermint-striped beaut.  The back of the postcard reads:

Molly's Children's Discount House.  2947 Mission St., Between 25th and 26th Sts. on Mission St.  BankAmericard.  open Friday nights until 9 p.m.  Special Sale for the New Baby.  Infant Seats.  Curity Diapers.  Curity Shirts.  Curity Gowns.  Even Flow Bottles.  Delux Reclining Stroller.  High Chairs.  6 Year Crib & Mattress

It's always interesting to look and see if the place still exists (thanks, Google Earth!), and here we see that the storefront (two, actually) is still there, stripes gone AWOL.  When Google drove by, the buildings housed a grocery and Cybermania store.  Take a close look, however, and you can see the original bones of the building.  The windows, the signage, the door to the alleyway on the right -- even the cornice on the left-hand building is still intact.  What do you like better?  The subtle earth tones, or the stripes?

A Titanic Message, 100 years later

The front of this week's postcard is a view of the Bridge and Pond in Elizabeth Park, in Hartford, Connecticut.  It's a few miles from my house, and the park has an outstanding rose garden which is one of the world's largest.  The postcard is postmarked April 17th, 1912.  The date is important!  Why?  Three days earlier, on April 14th,  the Titanic sank en route to New York, on her maiden voyage.

The back of the card is a whole lot more interesting, because it refers to the wreck of the Titanic, without actually mentioning it by name.  It says:

Dear Mother, Went to the Post today, will begin next Monday to send 37.  On account of the ship wreck they said he might be able to get rid of the 40 this week.  Exchanged the dimmer box O.K. but had to get a 35 cent one.  All out of the 25 cent ones.  -- George

Although we don't know the exact details of what George was talking about, clearly his business transaction was affected by the wreck of the Titanic.  What a fascinating view into how the disaster affected many people, some in very humdrum ways! 

A Calculating Post

Here's a great linen card from the New York World's Fair of 1939, showing the Marchant Calculating Company Display.  According to the back of the card, the exhibit was located located in the Business Systems and Insurance Building, adjacent to the Trylon and Perisphere -- the "Theme Center" of the New York World's Fair.

Back then, calculators were mechanical, noisy, and expensive.  I made the mistake of googling Marchant and came across tons of information on mechanical calculator history and "fan sites," spending a lot of time browsing as a result.  Here's a model of a Marchant calculator around the same year as the Fair: