Postcard story from New York – “MEMORIAL DAY 1931, THIS IN MEMORY OF OUR FOLKS WHO HAVE GONE AHEAD”
Postcard story from New York – “MEMORIAL DAY 1931 ~ THIS IN MEMORY OF OUR FOLKS WHO HAVE GONE AHEAD”
Endwell, New York, June 1, 1:00pm, 1931
Woolworth and Municipal Bldgs. from Brooklyn Bridge, New York.
To: Mrs. H. A. Knapp
Waverly
Pa.
“Memorial Day 1931 This in Memory of our Folks who have gone ahead. How sweet to think of them! The day’s Celebration here has been a trail of planes from the Endicott landing place. Sure “Love can never lose it’s own.” H.K.__”
The card is addressed to Mrs. Henry Alonzo Knapp, actual name Anna Dutilleul (b.1870, d.1954.)
Her husband Henry A. Knapp (b.1851, d. 1931 the year this card was written) started as a filing clerk in Pennsylvania and rose to become a prominent lawyer who, in 1899, established the borough of Vandling in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, Vandling has a population of 751.
The ‘Endicott landing-place’ refers to a landing strip that was to become the Tri-Cities Endicott Airport, established in 1936.
The poetic quote: “Love can never lose it’s own” is from a poem entitled “Snowbound/Firelight” by influential American Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier.
“…Yet Love will dream, and Faith will trust,
(Since He who knows our need is just,)
That somehow, somewhere, meet we must.
Alas for him who never sees
The stars shine through his cypress-trees!
Who, hopeless, lays his dead away,
Nor looks to see the breaking day
Across the mournful marbles play!
Who hath not learned, in hours of faith,
The truth to flesh and sense unknown,
That Life is ever lord of Death,
And Love can never lose its own!”
To read the full fitting Memorial day poem “Snowbound” click: http://www.bartleby.com/248/222.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow-Bound
Postcard story from New York – “THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE – ‘THE JUMPING OFF PLACE‘ ” post card sent with a George Washington connection!
Postcard story from New York – “THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE – ‘THE JUMPING OFF PLACE‘ ” post card sent with a George Washington connection!
New York, June 02, 12:30pm, 1906
To: Miss May McCorkle
Davis & Wiley Bank.
Salisbury, North Carolina
“The jumping off place”
A macabre sense of humor or did the sender really jump? No records have been kept of early day suicide jumps off the Brooklyn Bridge, so we will have to guess: joke or jump?
The addressee is rather an astonishing distinguished surprise! Miss Elizabeth May McCorkle of North Carolina, was wife to ruling church elder Mr. Orin Datus Davis.
Mr. Davis has served the church in various ways, including the guardianship of its invested funds. He has been its representative many times in Presbyteries and Synods, and was a Commissioner to meetings of the General Assembly in Lexington, Virginia, and Bristol, Tennessee. He also was founder of the Davis and Wiley Bank of North Carolina which dates back to the mid 1800’s.
In his married life Mr. Davis was fortunate as in other matters. Seeking guidance from the “Giver of all Good“, he selected Miss Elizabeth May McCorkle as his helpmate and companion in life aka wife. She is the eldest daughter of the late James M. McCorkle, Esq., a leading lawyer of the Salisbury Bar, and a lineal descendant of Colonel Richard Brandon of Revolutionary fame. Colonel Brandon’s daughter, Elizabeth, it will be remembered, was the “little woman” who provided a hasty breakfast for General George Washington on the occasion of his visit to Salisbury in 1781 ! So Elizabeth May McCorkle is the daughter of the “little woman” who served George Washington breakfast. Amazing the things you discover when researching old postcards!!
Postcard story of the Week – MYSTERY STAIRWAY STALKER HAUNTS WRITER
Postcard story of the Week – MYSTERY STAIRWAY STALKER HAUNTS WRITER
Description: Looking up Broadway from the Times Building, New York.
September 01, 6:30pm, 1937
To: Mr. G. O. Moon
State Office Building, G20,
Columbus, Ohio
Yesterday upon the stair I saw a man who wasn’t there.
I saw him again there today. I wish he’d go away.
WHD
–Is the writer being stalked in the dimly lit stairwells of the 1930’s and reaching out for help or . . . Is it actually a little known poem turned into a Glenn Miller swing song. We will never know, but hopefully it was the latter.
– The words come from “Antigonish”, an 1899 poem by American educator and poet Hughes Mearns. It is also known as “The Little Man Who Wasn’t There“, and was a hit song under that title.
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today,
I wish, I wish he’d go away…
When I came home last night at three,
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall,
I couldn’t see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door…
Last night I saw upon the stair,
A little man who wasn’t there,
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away…
– But it wasn’t until July 12, 1939 that a recording of the song by the Glenn Miller Orchestra with vocals by Tex Beneke became an 11-week hit on Your Hit Parade reaching #7.
– So, is ‘WHD’ part of the Glenn Miller band trying out lyrics in as early as 1937? Or is ‘WHD’ just a very learned poetry aficionado?
– Mr. G.O. Moon’s State Office Building in Columbus, Ohio was demolished in 1970 for the sake of better views of a taller office tower.
– ‘WHD’ ironically went on to be the call letters of America’s first ‘top 40’ radio station in Kansas City, Missouri. An innovative and well-financed entrepreneur, Todd Storz, came from Omaha to purchase ‘WHD’ and came up with the pioneering concept of playing only ‘top 40’ music hits, therefore changing American radio forever to this day.
– The song itself was used in many movies (especially spooky ones) and has been recorded by many other artists (even heavy metal bands) up to this day as well.
– The postcard itself is a 1930 view of Broadway. Your clues: two signs advertising two hit movies of the year 1930. “A Woman Surrenders” starring Basil Rathbone and Conrad Nagel. And the hugely successful Howard Hughes film “Hell’s Angels” starring blonde bombshell Jean Harlow. It was one of the first ‘talkie’ films.
So, postcard hunting turns out to be a pretty fun mystery, insightful and learning experience!
Hear the Glenn Miller song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0woVmAdWbw0
Postcard story of the Week – A DARK AND GLOOMY DAY IN 1906
Postcard story of the Week – A DARK AND GLOOMY DAY IN 1906
Description: 9054. A subway station in New York.
November 20, 8pm, 1906
To: Miss Mary Ostrander*
Home Farm
Wallkill, N.Y.
This is a dark and gloomy day,
Lisa
*Today there is a Ostrander Elementary School – 137 Viola Avenue – Wallkill, NY 12589.
The subway station is from the Wall Street area. Note: the .5 cent subway fare was on the honor system – you came down the stairs, bought a ticket and then handed it to the clerk.
Having checked weather patterns for November 1906 Manhattan, it was an unusually rainy month. So, is Lisa’s “gloom” referring to the weather or is the dank and dark subway station representative of some sort of sad news?
NEW YORK CITY - IN THE WIT OF AN EYE 