Comments on the comments

Interesting comments on the previous post, & this is my response to them. First, thanks everyone for your comments, I appreciate them very much.



"TrishaRitchieNC said...
Sounds good to me. I agree that she's uppper class. It's easier to make fun of poor and ambitionless people when you've got plenty of money. It's a good social commentary overall for the era."



That was my feeling, just from the tone of the statement. Although that could just be my bias showing through.





Sheila said...
I know people do want to collect unused and mint postcards, but I much prefer them to have some sort of message, in particular one like this, where you get a little social history tied in with it.



I sell a lot of postcards on eBay, and I've never asked a customer why they buy a particular card, though I would very much like to know. Sometimes people tell me - and the ones who do usually say its because it means something to them, something sentimental. But I know there are lots of reasons people collect cards. There are some who are looking for postmarks - specifically postmarks from post offices that no longer exist. In the USA about 30-40 years or so ago, a lot of small country post offices were closed - some people now collect postcards with those postmarks. Others have different reasons, of course. A few know all about catalog numbers & have their check lists and so on. As for me, I'd be drawn to things that are a little quirky, and to things like this - that have some written information describing how people lived. I remember one card I had were someone had mentioned that there was "diptheria down to the village". She gave it the same weight as the weather and gathering eggs, things she described in the same message. The card was from 1905, written by somone in New England, and it gave me chills. This was a deadly disease that this person just accepted as part of life, no big deal. I don't know if anyone collects a card for what's written on it, but I find things like this very interesting.

Ms. O. D. said...
I definitely get the sense the person moved to tampa, maybe just retired... staying for the winter or more permanently, a "snow bird" from new york or from the east coast.

I had the feeling she came from one of the large Northeastern cities (Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York or Boston) and was in Florida for the winter. I have no way to prove it & it would have been very interesting if we new where she was sending the message.

No hour and wage law? Here's an interesting link to Wage Law History:http://www.nwfca.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3&Itemid=6

Ah, you've given me another link to check out - thanks! For much of this nations history - especially the last part of the 19th century, government took the position that workers had very few, if any rights. Working 12 hrs a day Monday thru Friday then a half day (only 6 hrs) on Saturday probably was not uncommon. It's hard to imagine working 66 hours a week for $6 or $7.00, or even $25.00. Even accounting for inflation.

"A *good* steno gets 15.00 a week + clerks 6.00 or 7.00 a week."

Yep. "got" was a typo. No matter how often I look thru these things, I always manage to screw something up. It's just part of my nature, it's why I'm not good with power tools.

It looks like "Ford" too by the way she writes her F in Florida... maybe $15 for license plates?

I think it's "Ford" too, and if it is then it's reasonable to assume she's referring to license plates. That made registering your car in Florida in the 1920's fairly expensive - more than 2 weeks salary for a clerk.

It's difficult to make out what it is between poor / am-bitionless... I think it's "or"

Yep looks like it is. Thanks so much for going thru this and giving me your thoughts.

Martin in Bulgaria said...
Yes, defininately a class above most of us. Some interesting history coming out here.

Howdy, Martin in Bulgaria! Well it's possible "cousin Elizabeth" had more money (relatively speaking) than most of us, but I don't know if that put her in a class above or not. She does provide some interesting statistics about the cost of living in Tampa, Florida, most likely in the 1920s. But her statement about most people being "poor or ambitionless. Don't care to work" leads me to believe that as an observer of the human condition, she probably only saw what she wanted or expected to see, that she didn't have the interest to look below the surface of things.

Interesting card.