PFF - Season's Greetings

Season's Greetings to Marie and everyone. I decided to post something with blocks when I saw Marie's "Writer's Block," and I just happened to have a seasonally appropriate postcard with a bunch of old blocks. And since I am suffering from writer's block today, this card saved me the trouble of writing a more verbose post.

This postcard is probably from the 1980s. It is © The Golden Archives.

VTT - Christmas Ideals

The above image is a Christmas postcard ©1953. It is one of the few Christmas postcards that I have or have even seen from the 1950s. The rest of the images are from the 1959 Ideals Christmas issue.

Ideals has published holiday magazines for many years. Several magazine websites state that Ideals Magazine has ceased publication. I don't know whether this also applies to Christmas issues. There is a Christmas issue for 2009 that appears on Amazon and some other websites, but not on the Ideals Books website. It is described as a 65th anniversary edition.

I have chosen to show the cover and some representative pages from the 1959 Ideals Christmas issue. This issue has 100 pages. In 1959, Ideals published quarterly and charged $5.00 for a yearly subscription or $1.50 for a single issue. Fifty years later, I was able to buy several Christmas issues form the 1950s for only $1.00 each. Ideals Publishing Company also had five other smaller Christmas publications that were listed in the back of the 1959 Christmas Issue.

Vintage Thingies Thursdays

White Mountain White

This postcard is a winter view of the top of Mt. Washington, New England's highest peak in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. From left to right are Mt. Washington Observatory, Famous Old Stone, and Tip Top House. The Cog Railway trestle is in the foreground. Everything is covered with rime, a kind of ice that forms when water droplets freeze on a cold surface.

Mt. Washington has been a popular tourist destination since the 1850s and is famous for its severe weather. Mt. Washington State Park is at the summit and is surrounded by the White Mountain National Forest.

This postcard was sent by my father. It is postmarked Mount Washington, N. H., Aug 29, 1963. My father wrote about the weather. He started out saying the weather had been ideal and ended by saying the worst seemed to be over.

Mount Washington holds the world record for wind speed, 231 MPH, which was recorded in 1934. The Mt. Washington Observatory website gives the current summit conditions. That website also has a photo journal. The Mt. Washington Blog at AccuWeather.com also has many current and recent photos. The blog entry for August 31, 2009 is about some of the first glaze ice of the season and notes that it is not unusual to have freezing temperatures at that time of the year.

This post was written for
A Canadian Family
A Festival of Postcards Blog Carnival

6th Edition, December 2009: White

PFF - The Friday After Thanksgiving

Maybe today is a good day to make a resolution to never eat too much.

Are you full of gratitude or full of pain?

VTT - Thanksgiving Turkey Wishbones

This Thanksgiving postcard by the artist Ellen Clapsaddle shows one of the traditions associated with Thanksgiving, the wishbone pull. As the verse on the postcard says:

May your Thanksgiving be happy,
And when the dinner is through,
May the biggest part of the wishbone
be the end that's held by you.

I was born on Thanksgiving and have collected many Thanksgiving postcards, mainly those featuring children. When I was young, my birthday was celebrated on Thanksgiving, and I was usually given one end of the wishbone to pull. One time I decided to keep the wishbone instead of pulling and breaking it. This wishbone is at least forty years old.

For lots of interesting turkey facts and figures, including the purpose of the wishbone, see The skinny on snoods, wattles and wishbones.

Vintage Thingies Thursdays

PFF - Mary Chilton - Pilgrim and Silver

This postcard advertises Towle Manufacturing Company's sterling silver pattern "Mary Chilton," patented in 1912. The sampler shown behind the spoons is an adaptation of the old samplers made by young women of the colonial period. The 1620 date is the year the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts; the 1913 date is the date of postcard.

Thirteen-year-old Mary Chilton is believed to be the first female passenger of the Mayflower to land on Plymouth Rock. Her parents died while still aboard the ship, and many of the other Pilgrims died during their first year in America. Those who survived celebrated a successful harvest in 1621 at Plymouth. This celebration is what is known as the first Thanksgiving.

VTT - Thanksgiving Gobblers and Shakers

I don't know whether turkeys were ever found in the city of New York, but picturing them with the Statue of Liberty makes for an interesting and unusual Thanksgiving postcard. This scene is actually less fanciful than most scenes of turkeys found on Thanksgiving postcards.

This week I am showing part of my collection of vintage turkey salt and pepper shakers. When I decided to collect turkey shakers (about 15 years ago), I didn't realize how easy it would be to find them. I think I ended up with seven sets within a short time, and I haven't added any since then.

These are the ones I have been leaving on a display year round. Maybe I'll get the others out next year. All of my sets include both a male and female turkey, which I think are more interesting than a pair of identical toms. As you can see, there is quite a variety in the way the turkeys are colored. All of the ones shown here are made in Japan.

Vintage Thingies Thursdays