Maine Sign Post

This postcard shows a famous sign post located in Lynchville, Maine, at the junction of Routes 5 and 35. This sign post is said to have been erected about 1930. Mileage is given to what appear to be nine foreign countries or cities. Actually these are places in Maine that are named after foreign cities and countries.

A 1988 New York Times article, On Maine's Grand Tour, Mexico Is North of Paris, has information about the towns named on this sign post as well as some others: Madrid, Belfast, Stockholm, Rome, Vienna, and Moscow.

To view more of my blog posts about signs postcards, click the signs label at the bottom of this post.

This post was written for
A Canadian Family
A Festival of Postcards Blog Carnival
3rd Edition, July 2009: Signs

Google Blocking

According to Google, this blog has been identified as a spam blog & I have no idea why.

Boot Hill Cemetary Sign

In 1865 Fort Dodge opened on the Santa Fe Trail to protect wagon trains traveling west and U. S. mail service, and to supply troops involved in Indian wars. In 1872, Dodge City, Kansas was founded five miles west of the fort, and the railroad reached the town. Dodge City became the largest cattle market and the shipping center of the Southwest.

Dodge City was notorious for violence. In the first years of the town, there was no law enforcement and shootings were common. The violence created a need for a local burial ground, Boot Hill. The name Boot Hill originated because it was where gunfighters and those who died violently “with their boots on" were buried. Many other towns in the American West also had Boot Hill cemeteries.These cemeteries were also used for burying those too poor for a funeral.

The Boot Hill Cemetary plot in Dodge City, Kansas is “a monument to those who died with their boots on, and were buried with their boots on.” The sign pictured on this postcard has a quotation from a poem by Josephine McIntire that appeared in her 1945 book, Boot Hill. The following words were quoted by Stanley Vestal in Dodge City--Queen of Cowtowns.

To any traveler who may pass this way,
And climb this lonely Hill to pause and say
A prayer for us who early found our rest
Upon the prairie's wind-swept, ageless breast:

Weep not for us who early made our beds
Wrapped in our blankets, saddles for your heads,
For we are happy here, secure and still,
Locked in this rock-strewn, silent, sun-baked Hill.

Ours was an age when strong men's blood was red,
And hurtled through their veins like molten lead!
Although our history's page was smudged with crime,
We built an empire on the plains of time,
And while we slumber in this snug retreat,
It ebbs and flows around our booted feet.

Weep not for us who early made our beds
Wrapped in our blankets, saddles for our heads;
We tamed the west when this, our land, was young,
And sank into our graves unknown—unsung!

This post was written for
A Canadian Family
A Festival of Postcards Blog Carnival
3rd Edition, July 2009: Signs

Postcard Friendship Friday - Tickled Pink*

I saw that Marie was wishing Imajica a Happy Birthday, so I decided to do the same. Happy Birthday! "I wish you all you wish yourself — Whether 'tis gladness, love or wealth."

This unusual birthday card is printed on hot pink paper. Like the original message writer, I have never seen anything else like this.

The message says:

Don't know whether you have seen any cards like this. I didn't until yesterday. Thought it would be a bit of a change for your album.

* tickled pink means "to be delighted."

Postcard Friendship Friday

Vintage Thingies Thursday - Coffee, Cream, & Sugar

This postcard is oversize (5" x 7-3/4") and is made of heavy cardboard. It is ©1965 Faroy, Houston, Texas, Card No. 25-5. My mother added my name to the cup and mailed it to me in the 1960s. On the back is a long letter-length message beginning as follows:

"I thot this card suited you - so I couldn't resist it! Bot it at Harper Court - a new group of 'arty' shops…"

Harper Court is in the Hyde Park area of Chicago. It was purchased by the University of Chicago in 2008 and is now on the verge of redevelopment.

Below are some of my potholder thingies — sugar bowls and creamers to go with the coffee on the postcard.

Vintage Thingies Thursdays

Watermelon Festival - Rush Springs, Oklahoma

Rush Springs, Oklahoma calls itself the Watermelon Capitol of the World. A Watermelon Festival is held there on the second Saturday of August. The Rush Springs Watermelon Festival has been held annually since 1948.

Many other locations also have Watermelon Festivals. The National Watermelon Promotion Board has a list of Watermelon Festivals and other information for watermelon lovers on their website.

The Floral Station, Sedalia, Missouri

This is a view of The Floral Station on a postcard published in 1933. This station was located next to the Missouri State Fairgrounds for many years, but is no longer there. There is still a State Fair Floral Company elsewhere in Sedalia that "has been proudly serving Sedalia since 1912."

Information on the back of the postcard:

This station won first for the most attractive station in the U. S. recently.
• This is an unusual fillling station, one half mile south of 50, on U.S. Highway 65, Sedalia, Mo. It is owned and operated by the State Fair Floral Company whose greenhouses adjoin. This makes a very pleasing combination. Our aim is the best service humanly possible. Hot water too.
Dr. J. E. Cannaday