Post Cards and Letters from the past

The Monsoons have struck Ohio and the midwest. Games are washed out, fields are flooded, and tornadoes and golf ball sized hail came down between Dayton and Cincinnati last night...the flood warnings continue today....actually though, Celina and the immediate area have been pretty lucky...a couple of inches of rain, but nothing like other places. This could be one of those wet Junes, which will produce a cash crop of insects of the biting variety come August and September.


I'm still rather ill at the thought of one Barack Hussain Obama becoming President, but if it was Hillary, I would feel the same way, and McCain doesn't send my patriotic blood vessels popping with pride either...so why ruin the entire summer season pissing and moaning about politics? I will mention the race on occasion...but lots can and will happen before November and even before the next King is crowned next January.


Post Cards from the Past _____________________



My Grandmother Wilda Waldron Houseworth(1883-1975) made many travels during her long life, and along with her two daughters, Cecil and Eva, collected and sent post cards from every location among their travels...in Grandma's case it was usually by Greyhound or Trailways Bus....even on her trips for the winter stays with us in Venice, Florida, back in the 1950s.



The Houseworth women were packrats and saved anything and everything they could...they were survivalists before there was such a phrase. In addition they save all materials sent to them, bought double of everything...and it was to my advantage. I got to keep the small and large items they left behind....and there were thousands upon thousands of items of different sizes and descriptions. I sold some of the items on ebay, including several hundred post cards, antique hunting licenses, 1940s toys, etc...I did well, but always regretted getting rid of the items....so much I saved at least one item out of each batch....in the case of post cards, it was over a thousand....since then I now collect various postcards from the different areas/decades.

Anyway, back to the point....Grandma and the girls kept all the post cards that were sent to them, and those they sent to each other from around the states and world...plus ones they collected that were not sent. I prefer the cards and letters from family members that tell a story, and have hundreds of those...here are a few glimpses of the Houseworth family from years ago.

The first one is postmarked: Jacksonville, Florida, May 12, 1944....the post card is from Wilda to daughter Eva, and contains the photo of the "Peggy Ann Truckstop" and Bus Station on Highway 41, just north of Cartersville, Georgia...Grandma had stopped there and sent it when she reached her destination at Jacksonville....this is one of my favorite Real Photo Cards....as is the next:







Dad(Stan Houseworth) sent this one in 1945 to Grandma....he was stationed at Mather Field, California, his last Army Air Force Base before being discharged...the Buck Horn Lodge was located in Amador County, California, which is in the Sierra Nevada Range and located near the front "Elbow" of the state....no stamp on this one, since he was military and during the war, these were free postage.....I've researched the Lodge on the internet, and would still like to visit this county if my RV travels resume and I get out that way again....this is pure Americana.

The next one is from another visit Grandma took to Florida..this one before the war....and before Boggie and Becall set foot on the movie lot and acted out the famous "Key Largo"....I've been to Key Largo, Key West, and the entire chain of Keys in the past decade, and needless to say, this Key Largo no longer exists, except in movies, photographs, and picture postcards, and we are all poorer for it.

The next one, a color "linen" post card was popular in the 1940s and early 50s, before folks got hooked on slick color photo postcards(my least favorite)...this one, showing the Duluth, Minnesota, sea port was sent from nearby Ashland, Wisconsin, on June 23, 1940, by my Aunt Cecil to Grandma Houseworth, and describes in part the path their trip was taking them....been to both Ashland and Duluth, back when I was living in northern Wisconsin in the 1970s.

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The final items shown are letters...the first from a gift shop in Atlantic Beach, Florida, in June 1944...Atlantic Beach is near Jacksonville, and appearently Grandma had purchased an item from the "Tropical Shoppe", and this enclosed card/letter was to tell her that the item was on it's way to Scott, Ohio,....Box 64 Scott was a P.O. Box rented by the Waldron and Houseworth family from 1923 until 2002...I finally gave it up when I retired from the Health Department in Van Wert.....after being in the family for nearly 80 years. As far as the letter, what I really like is the 8 Cent stamp with the Passenger Airplane ...my guess at 8 cents(high price back then), the letter was sent 'Air Mail'.

Finally, the last letter was sent from Dad to his sister Cecil on September 1, 1941(written August 31st) at the dawn of the second World War. Stan's first base out of basic was at Lowry Field, Colorado, when he learned to become a Mechanic, working eventually on B-29 and B-17 Aircraft....Cecil and her husband Hank, lived in Columbia City, Indiana by this time, and dad described his life on the base in "Tent City", and his waiting to go to "school"...says "I'm not really good at writing letters, as you can see"...lol...something me and the 2 boys have in common with him....as educated as we are, our hand writing stinks....dad's did too. It took me awhile to decipher just what all he was saying. He was assigned to the 41st School Squadron at Lowry.






Enough hot air for now, I see the sun has come out, the games are cancelled, so I will take my 3 mile walk in the humidity. Sister Kelly and her husband Denmark Michael will arrive today from Naples, Florida....the nieces wedding in on Saturday....90s for tomorrow and Friday, things should get nice and steamy.





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