Happy Thanksgiving!

These Thanksgiving postcards came from a flea market I visited in Iowa over the summer. Every time I look at old holiday postcards, I'm reminded that people haven't changed much over the years, and that what I'm doing with Castle in the Air would have fit right in with the folks of yesteryear.






















This one from 1922, is addressed to Mrs. Chas. E. White, and reads, "You should see me in my new rompers. I sure am getting fat and ah real sassy. I don't know for sure if we will be down Thanksgiving, will let you know if we can. --Mary Jane" Who wouldn't want Mary Jane as an aunt or a big sister? She's a stitch! The front of the postcard's got a boy threatening a turkey with a hammer and a sign saying "Off Comes Your Head"!






















One hundred years ago, in 1908, Mrs. Isadora Martin received this card from someone who in days gone by would have come to John McRae's paper plum pudding class: "Dear Sister, How are you all? I am better now so I went to the Grange last night. I wish I could spend Thanksgiving with you to eat turkey and plum pudding. Come up when you can. Love to all, Sister Tallie and G.W."























"Dear Minnie," writes a friend to Mrs. Minnie Peters of Syndon, Illinois, in 1908, "I would like to have one of your pictures of you please. From, Adela (Save me some of your turkey.)" Had Castle in the Air and Minnie been in Berkeley 100 years ago, she could have had her picture taken at Fourth Street's Santa's Wonderland as a souvenir from her trip to California.























The front of this card reads, "Thanks to him who spared our living / We're here, we're here, till next Thanksgiving." The sender of this card, L.B., was obviously a vegetarian like me -- a rare thing in 1909! She writes, "Dear Lida, How are you? I hope well. Have been looking for a letter from you. We are all well. Dr. Boyd died Sunday morning. They found him dead in bed. This pen is so bad I can not write with... Love, write soon." I could have hooked up L.B. with a new pen, too!






















This one has got a picture of a tricky pilgrim concealing an ax and luring a turkey to his doom. It reads "Let us be truly thankful that we two still are friends." Thankfully it doesn't seem to have been sent to anyone!

Although life has always had its elements of strife, there is always something to be grateful for. May you see your blessings this Thanksgiving, and may you be near the ones you love, even if it is only in spirit.