What About Baudette Minnesota and Herding Goats in Norway Postcard Talk

From Leslie to Hulda Hilden

Orginal Postcard, enhanced.

 

Original Postcard without Enhancement

I began looking at this postcard, thinking I knew at least a few details, only to find that I knew even less of the little that I thought I did know!  After closer examination with 10X magnification under better light, I discovered that the photograph, at least revealed a little more upon which to speculate.

The postmark that I had assumed was for Thief River Falls, Minnesota, it turns out is not.  The word THIEF is there, but there is no river or falls.  A closer look also reveals tht the faint letters on the right outside circle of the postmark can in no way spell out Minnesota; or, as it would have been in the year this card was mailed,  MINN.  Clearly readable, again, is the word, THIEF, AUG 7, and EAST. Beneath that, is possibly M.P.C., and at the top might be the year--1911? 

So much for that.  The stamp is a one cent Franklin. And it is addressed to Miss Hulda Hilden in Beaudette, Minnesota, from Leslie--who may have been her brother.  More specifically, the brief note suggests a good relationship with plenty of camaraderie and joking.  The joke on this postcard would take inside knowledge to decipher the hidden meaning.

Well here is the mail man you were waiting for but I hope I haven't keep you waiting all this time with the same kind of  a costume on the the girl on the card you sent me had.

Leslie

Evidently Hulda had sent him a jokester-type card?  I wonder what the postcard looked like that Hulda had sent to Leslie--is this her brother?

I just heard that your old pal Ole was herding goats in Norway and that he had 2 new hairs.

It seems that Ole at least, maybe without Lena, was the brunt of jokes early in the 20th century!

Well...on with the discovery!

The photograph is hard to decipher for the soil and darkening with age, and also as it is a large area that was included, everything is smaller and less distinct.  Unfortunate in this case is that enlarging the picture makes determining details even more difficult.  My 10X power headgear and a good light did help some, however.  Though very small, a flag is visible atop the building in the background.  With a closer look it can be seen that there is another American flag in front of the building.

There are posts, but there appears to be no fence.  There are three groups of people, yet in none can it be discerned as to what is being looked at.  The closest men, on the left, have hats that look to be part of a military or official uniform.  That they have on neckties is not a defining detail, as in the era of the photo dress was much more formal for nearly all occasions.  At least one of these men is looking to his right.

Next is the group in the middle.  What are these people, both men and women, looking at?  It isn't what the others are viewing to their right or left, because they face the house with their backs turned toward the camera that took the photograph.  This middle cluster is looking toward the building.  They don't seem to be looking up, but across.

At the furthest distance, people group 3, maybe have some people sitting and some standing, or they might be seated on bleachers.  I don't know.  What they are looking at, perhaps a ball game? 

Please Allow me to summarize at this point what I don't know.

1. The postmark year.

2. The location of the sender.

3. The year of the stamp issue.

4. What the three groups of people are looking at.

5. What the Norwegian Ole joke means.

6. If Hulda and Leslie are related.

7. What M.P.C. means.

8. If some of the men in the photograph are wearing part of a uniform.

9. What kind of woman was on the postcard sent by Hulda to Leslie.

Yup.  You guessed it.  I don't know much.  I would appreciate viewer input.  Maybe my knowledge will increase. ...Mary Katherine May

PostCard Talk Blog Manda and Emanda by Mary Katherine May

Manda & Emanda
by Mary Katherine May
of Quality Music and Books

On today's post I would like to step back from postcards for a moment and look at this photograph. It came to me, if I recall correctly, in a box on which I bid at an auction several years ago.

As a matter of fact, that auction was rather funny. I was bidding on a box of wood blocks for our grandchildren, and won the bid for a small amount of money--$7.

In the back of the auction room was an area with an outside door where merchandise was picked up, and after I was through bidding for the day I went to pick up my box.

Box? How about SEVEN boxes? Boxes full of who-knows-what, but they were mine. A buck a piece. It was an adventure going through them, and some of it I threw out, while some "artifacts" (in my mind only) had a value that negated them being tossed out even though no one wanted the stuff, then or now, and it is still here at the house getting dusted every few months.

Here are Manda and Emanda, surname unknown. Location unknown. It does look like the condition of the grass and garden along the wall would place the photo in late spring or early fall, though without coats or jacket my conjecture is that it was a nice, warm day to take a picture. Manda and Emanda were neat and tidy--their yard has no leaves to be raked, at least in the spot where this snapshot was taken. The hose is hooked up to the outside spigot, so the outside water valve was open for the season.

Manda and Emanda were most likely sisters, maybe twins. They aren't smiling, but that doesn't mean that they weren't happy. There dresses look to be of the everyday variety, their hair not well done enough to be the weekly beauty parlor route--most likely pincurls. Judging from their long-stem roses, I also would speculate that they were born in the late 1800s or thereabouts, when foundation garments didn't maintain the "status quo" as they do today.

The house appears to be a rambler style, and those shingles! Remember how hard it was to paint those shingles? Now I am speaking about this from observation. In our house girls didn't paint shingles. We cleaned inside and washed and dried dishes, swept floors and the like. Outside work was for men.

That was the 1950s.

How about that? All from a snapshot.

PostCard Talk by Mary Katherine May Fern Brugger Austin MN

Posted by Mary Katherine Mayof Quality Music and Books

Chimney Rock
Dells of the Wisconsin River

Postmark
NOV 13 1913
8 AM
PLATTEVILLE, WIS

Published by
E. A. BISHOP PUB. RACINE, WIS
Made in U.S.A.

Postcards were often written with pencil rather than ink, and without being protected from contact with other papers and handling, the pencil markings begin to fade. This postcard is difficult to read for this reason. I needed to put on my 10X magnifiers, and then darken the photographic image to make this message readable.

It must be so that the common courtesy of inquiring as to the well being of those with whom we communicate without regard to the situation is not a situation new to the era in which we live. Here is a message letting Fern know that someone has died. This message is blunt, yet given the fact that we don't know what kind of relationship there was between Fern Brugger and Clara Schlater who received the message of Fern's death, we will never know how bluntly it was received.

To
Miss Fern Brugger
Austin, Minn.
R.F.D.

Message

Just grand weather
Esthel

Dear Fern,

Grandma wants me to tell you that Clara Schlater's mother is dead. She died the 11th. How are you all. Why don't you write.

PostCard Talk by Mary Katherine May March 1914 Germania Life Building St Paul Minn LUNAR ECLIPSE

PostCard Talk by Mary Katherine May (babamarusia)
owner of Quality Music and Books

On March 10, 1914, there was a lunar eclipse, which the writer of this postcard in St. Paul, Minnesota, dated March 14, 1914, mentions in her note mailed to Chicago, IL. The sender says also that he (or she) will be going to a matinee to see Johnny Valentine. This would not be the famous wrestler of same name because he was born in 1928, and this postcard is from 1914. It may be John Valentine Eppel, who authored the melody used for the song, The Missouri Waltz.

Please continue on ...

The Germania Life (Insurance) Building
St. Paul, Minn.

Addressed to Mr. W. J. Remo
6122 Dorchester Pkwy (?)
Chicago Ill.
Postmarked & Dated 14 March 1914 1 PM
St. Paul Minn.

Dear Will--

Read some yesterday. Just have a few spare min & thot I'd drop you a card. Yes I saw the eclipse of the moon watched it from 8 till 10:30 when I got tired & went to bed. Weather here is dandy am going to the matine this P.M. to see Johnny Valintine (Valentine).

Ida

Postcard: Published by Weight, Barrell &Stilwell Company, St. Paul, Minn.
115.
Made in Germany.

On March 10, 1914, the New York Times ran an article about the lunar eclipse event that would happen on March 11, 1914. The eclipse was "visible from all points in Western Europe, North and South America and Western Africa, and ...more than nine-tenths in shadow. Astronomers went to work during the eclipse because clearer observations of objects in space are possible.

PostCard 1914 St Paul LYND MN City Hall Court House GAS by Mary Katherine May

Post Card
St. Paul City Hall& Court House

March 16, 1914
St. Paul, Minn
1-cent George Washington

written by Mary Katherine May of Quality Music and Books

This postcard was purchased to be used for a project in which I will write what I have about my Grandmother, Pauline Rychly Koshuba Haydak. Pauline arrived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on July 4, 1914, by train from New York.

Upon entering the United States, coming from Bila, Galicia, still for a few months part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She was processed through Ellis Island. This is one of the most humorous messages I have read on a postcard, though I doubt that was the intention of the writer.

March 16th is also our wedding anniversay, 36 years in 2010.

Addressed to:
C. H. Austin
Lynd, Minn.

Message:
Dear Henry

I am a little better. Eat a little more. Slept pretty well. The gas is the worst.
Clara B. Austin

RPPC Wagner Family Neighbors of Asfeld's

RPPC Wagner Family Neighbors of the Asfeld's. What can anyone say about this particular postcard? Not wanting to wish anyone grief either in the present or in the past, yet in this case I am hoping that the photograph was taken at a family gathering in relation to a funeral.

There are a few expressions that attempt congeniality--perhaps because the woman sitting in the middle had her back turned and couldn't see their faces?

Anyhow, this postcard has no message on the back other than the brief identification as to who the people are--though at this time there is no way to know anymore than the two names without being related this group, which are a Wagner family and an Asfeld family that lived in the same community. Whether the community was rural or city, we can't deduce that either.

Everytime I look at this photo it tells me to write a story.... unfortunately for me, the line "It was a dark and stormy night..." has already been taken!