Hey Thanks

If you're celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, don't eat too much!

If you're not, you still might enjoy these vintage postcards:

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Back In Time

For this week's #ThrowbackThursday, here's a postcard I posted here on the site back in June of 2014:

Postcard from Tokyo, 1915:

Dear Friend,

I beg to thank you very much for your pretty card. I sent you a Japan news papers and which I beg of you to accept from. I will send you some Japan fairy tales if you send me a few United States fairy tales. I hope too that you will soon write to me.

Your loving friend

Found in "In The World's Attic" by Henrietta Sands Merrick. Published by G.P. Putnam, 1931.


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Happy 4th

If you home enjoying the holiday today, I wish you all the best and the best of weather. Here's a bookmark I originally posted back in 2010, a handwritten / typed transcription of "The Star Spangled Banner."

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I Don't Care If You Can't Write Fancy

I'm home with my daughter today, so I am sharing a classic from the archives:

I Don't Care If You Can't Write Fancy

These are lists from Dora Lee Club of Chicago, which appears to be some kind of pen pal or dating club. Each sheet has a short "headline" from someone looking for a pen pal.

The envelope is dated May 12, 1959. Here are some of the headlines:

*name removed* Auburndale, Fla. Age 36 LIFE IS FUNNY. YOU NO DOUBT CAN REMEMBER TIMES IN YOUR LIFE WHEN YOU WERE HAPPY, JUST DOING NOTHING. I'M THAT WAY I CAN BE HAPPY AND CONTENTED AS LONG AS I HAVE SOMEONE TO JUST CARE FOR ME.

*name removed* Syracuse, N. Y. Age 41 I WANT A LETTER; I DON'T CARE IF YOU CAN'T WRITE FANCY. MAYBE YOUR HEART IS IN THE RIGHT PLACE; I KNOW MINEE IS AND I'M SINCERE AND LONELY. YOU WON'T BE SORRY, TRY ME.

*name removed* Philadelphia 23, Pa. Age 29 NEVER LET IT BE SAID THAT TWO CAN LIVE AS CHEAP AS ONE. BUT ONE THING FOR SURE IN THIS OLD WORLD. TWO CAN LIVE HAPPIER THAN ONE. IT'S HECK TO BE LONELY.

*name removed* Paducah, Ky. Age 47 I LIKE A MAN THAT LIKES TO EAT. I GUESS MY MAN WOULD GET FAT AS IT PLEASES ME TO GET IN MY KITCHEN AND COOK A MEAL THAT MELTS IN THEIR MOUTH. DROP ME A LINE. -Click to enlarge photos-

Duty Calls

I'm home with a sick but still chipper little one today, so I'm gonna cheat a bit and post one of my favorite finds from the past:

"Some day I'll be dancing..."


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Gone Fishin'

One of the best parts of my job are the occasional house calls to check out books. Today I'm off to Gilbertsville, NY to go through 20-30,000 books that belonged to a former schoolteacher. It's one of my favorite local villages, and the sun is out (for now) so it should be a good day.

Sadly, that means I won't be in the shop to post a new bookmark for you. Instead, I'll repost one of my favorites:

Letter on thick-stock personalized card:

 Julia *****

 Dearest David, I am returning the beautiful necklace you gave me - not as a gesture if finality of our friendship, but because it is a special token in your family and I could not in good conscience keep it. I hope you understand that I do and will care deeply for you and that I have every bit of confidence in the beauty of your unique David-ness. I am just selfishly at a point in my life at which I can not make the sacrifices and take the risks that are necessary to make any relationship that we would have work. We are both at such profound transition points in our lives, and our situations are too unstable to offer the foundation necessary upon which to build the tremendous life changes that we idealistically believed possible. I want to know and believe, as I think you do, that I will always be a loving and caring friend & confidante to you - I know you would reciprocate that. Thank you for remaining the David I will always adore! Your strength and beauty will perpetually preserve that.

Much love
Julia
4/5/00

Found in "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro. Published by Vintage, 1990.

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