A postcard this time instead of a photo for Sepia Saturday, but it ties together a few other Sepia Saturday posts and fits the prompt image pretty well! The postcard is written by Boyd Wagner, father of the two kids from Sepia Saturday 248, husband to Mary Elizabeth Harris from Sepia Saturday 239, to my great-great grandmother Jessie (Battin) Powis. Boyd and Mary weren’t married until December 20, 1909, so this was sent just two weeks before their marriage if I assume the date to be December 2, 1909 on the postcard. The postcard was sent from a now non-existent post office in Expedit, Pennsylvania, a small mining town in Cambria County. It’s a shame the postmark wasn’t better stamped to show the date and location! Boyd sent the postcard, writing, “With best regards to all, Boyd,” a short and sweet greeting. As the front of the card states, the image is from Coalport, Pennsylvania, and is a very similar view to the postcard from Sepia Saturday 243 albeit some 40 years time difference. The one thing that stands out in the postcard above is the same chuch, Coalport Methodist, as seen in the newer postcard, standing in the bottom left corner, steeple and all. The church, built in 1902, still exists today in its same layout and my last living grandparent is still a member.
The addresses on the old postcards tickle me – that one could write the recipient’s name, town, & state only & it would get to the person. Now-a-days you can write the name, house number, street, town, state, & zip code – but the zip code is all the postal service’s computerized machines look at. If the zip code is copied into the computer wrong by post office personnel your mail, meant for a town in California, will wind up in Texas! Not what I’d call an improvement exactly!
It looks like that postcard is a real photo postcard–so it is a photo.
Postcards like these become collectors’ items. especailly if you have more than one from different eras.
Am I to take it from the name that this is/was a coal mining district. The hills look a bit bleak, or is that just the lack of colour. An interesting post.
I remember hearing about a disk jockey in LA getting a post card that just had his picture on it for the address. Boyd was a man of few words.
There’s a very famous Gelateria in Florence called Vivoli that displays a postcard sent to them with the address, “Vivoli, Europa,” and it arrived at their door! They’re rather proud of the fact that they’re that well known.