Hotel postcards of the past: Summertime road trip nostalgia

On my endless list of projects, I really need to index all of the Papergreat posts on the topic of old hotels and motels. There are more than you could shake a stick at. You can't swing a dead cat around Papergreat without hitting a post about an old motel. You get the drift...¹

Here are two more to add to that collection of posts. At some point, I'll probably accidentally blog about one of these hotels or motels for a second time, but today is not that day.

First up is this unused postcard — no year or publisher is indicated — for the Ocean Grove Motor Inn in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. Ocean Grove is an unincorporated place a little bit south of Asbury Park.²

The back of the postcard touts the very-pastel Motor Inn as being New, Modern, Complete, and "Open All Year." The hotel was, at the time of this card, owned and operated by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association. The OGCMA was founded in 1869 and is still going strong today.

Here's an excerpt from an article in the September 14, 1975, issue of the Asbury Park Press with the headline "Summer's Twilight Falls on the Grove":

Ms. Victoria Davis, manager of the almost-always-full Ocean Grove Motor Inn came by and talked of the golden days, finally offering her definition of the community:

"Ocean Grove is not for subways. It's for strolling. And I like that."

Next up is this undated, unused postcard for the Mammoth Cave Hotel at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.³ The color photo is by W. Ray Scott⁴ and this postcard was published by National Park Concessions Inc. of Mammoth Cave, Kentucky.

This room really has it all — brick walls, faux-wood paneling, heavy drapes, reddish-orange vinyl chairs and what appears to be an autumn-themed bedspread that "ties" everything together in a way that I'm sure would have given Walter Gropius a seizure.

The text on the back of the postcard adds this description:

"The Mammoth Cave Hotel Rooms are furnished for comfort and convenience. There are Studio Rooms as well as double and single bedrooms. Each room has Patio or Balcony. Air Conditioned — Open all Year."

Footnotes
1. That whole paragraph would be a nightmare for ESL students. My apologies.
2. I once spent an hour in the newsroom of the Asbury Park Press, prior to covering the 1990 Atlantic 10 men's soccer championship game between Penn State and Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights, whose roster included Alexi Lalas, won the game, 3-1.
3. It was almost precisely one year ago that I wrote about Crystal Cave in Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
4. According to this Flickr site maintained by Jeff Kubina, "W. Ray Scott (1913-1987) was National Park Concessions photographer and public relations director from 1946-1967. ... He was renowned for his skill at cave photography." That also tells us that his postcard is likely from no later than 1967.

Happy Fourth of July (Post No. 2,200)

Happy Independence Day, fellow Americans and hoping-to-become Americans! (Feel free to use me as a reference.) For Papergreat's milestone 2,200th post, here's a clip show featuring links to some of the blog's past content related to Independence Day and nostalgic summer-ish themes.

Enjoy your day safely and responsibly, and heed these wise words:

One-eyed Pete & Three Fingered Jake are great pirate names. But you are not a pirate. Be safe with fireworks & Happy 4th! #IndependenceDay

— Cheryl Zaidan (@FeralCherylZ) July 4, 2017

• American flag history, compliments of Leinbach & Bro. in Reading
• Excerpts from 1856 book: "Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution"
• The Life of Abraham Lincoln For Young Folks
• Prudential booklet on signers of the Declaration of Independence
• Rev. Rickard's complimentary copy of "Good-by to G.I."
• Guy Brown Wiser, artist and World War I aviator
• Swift's Premium, Meat power and two fried chicken recipes
• Clambake at Cabbage Island (Maine): Then and now
• Touting milk: "Dairy foods add enjoyment to outdoor eating"
• Illustrations from 1936 textbook "Visualized American Government"

Tattered dust jacket: "The Mercer Boys at Woodcrest"

This colorful maritime-themed dust jacket, with a trio of guys who look like they need some Fisherman's Friend lozenges, was wrapped around The Mercer Boys at Woodcrest, which was first published in 1929 as the second book in the 10-book Mercer Boys series. This was the jacket for The World Publishing Company's edition of the book, which was published about two decades after the original A.L. Burt edition.

Here's an excerpt from the promotional text on the back of the dust jacket:

"The dangerous and unusual adventures of the Mercer boys with their friend Terry Mackson while exploring strange a strange island; cruising in their boat the "Lassie" and solving mysteries at Woodcrest Academy, yield many thrilling moments. The encounters of the three lads with smugglers and pirates, and their quest for a phantom treasure galleon, makes this an exceptionally entertaining new series of books for boys."

That blurb could have used a copy editor.

A Goodreads reviewer wrote this very short review of The Mercer Boys at Woodcrest: "Opa's book when he was a kid. Interesting adventure. I liked the game they played — hare and hounds."

Here are some facts about Albert Capwell Wyckoff (1903-1953), who penned The Mercer Boys Series:

• His father died when he was young, and so he wrote to help support the family.
• Early in his career, he had two stories published in Weird Tales magazine: "The Grappling Ghost" (July 1928) and "The Guillotine Club" (July 1929).
• He followed The Mercer Boys Series with The Mystery Boys Series, which included four books. 1934's The Mystery Hunters at Old Frontier is described thusly: "The Mystery Hunters become students at Frontier College in New York and investigate a nearby abandoned hospital rumored to be haunted."
• He used money from his books to help finance missionary work and became and ordained minister later in life.
• There is a Capwell Wyckoff Fan Page on Facebook. The administrator notes that, when The Mercer Boys Series was revised and republished in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the books "were updated. For example, lanterns became flashlights, a horse-drawn wagon becomes a station wagon, etc. Search out the older A.L. Burt editions for the original words of the author."

Sources for the above include lakeswan.tripod.com and Terence E. Hanley's Tellers of Weird Tales.

The Mercer Boys Series, as a mystery-focused set of books, was a predecessor to The Three Investigators series, which I last wrote about in October 2015. A good article about this genre of juvenile literature is "Series Books: Through the Lens of History," which was published in 2010 by by David M. Baumann

Note: No monies were paid to Papergreat by Lofthouse in exchange for the Fisherman's Friend mention in this post. No lozenges, either.

Cool illustrations: The New Human Interest Library (Part 20)

(This series might end up taking longer to finish than The Winds of Winter.)

When we get the inevitable rainy day this summer, and the kids are bored of playing the Atari 2600, Mouse Trap, and the Castle Amber module, here's 1929's The New Human Interest Library to the rescue!

Print out these four vintage puzzle pages, along with the handy answer sheet for yourself, give them some old-fashioned writing devices called pencils, and let them have hours of fun. The puzzles involve all sorts of wordplay and even some rebuses, with pigs and goats and bunnies and ducks mixed in.

In some cases, past readers have written in the answers (which just shows you how loved this book was), so you'll need to use Wite-Out or Photoshop to clear those away and let your kids start fresh. No biggie.

It looks like all of these puzzle illustrations were created by Conrad (Cobb) X. Shinn, whose name has come up a lot during this series.

Enjoy!

Delightful illustrations from "The Blue Domers in the Deep Woods"

The Blue Domers in the Deep Woods was written by Jean Finley and published in 1928 by A.L. Burt Company. It was the third book in an eight-book series, with all eight books being published between 1928 and 1930.

Mary Crosson's "No Frills" Juvenile Series Book Information Site, describes the Blue Domers books: "This series follows the mild adventures of a group of children who love to play outdoors under the sky (hence 'blue domers.') The books are aimed at the same age audience as the Bobbsey Twin series, but the plots are somewhat tamer and more slowly paced. ... The illustrations are charmingly drawn in shades of black and orange, and the full-color appliqué covers are beautiful."

It's those illustrations that spurred this post. They should be saved for posterity. Plus, there are elephants! Here are three pieces of artwork from this book...

In addition, this hardcover book has endpaper illustrations, with separate artwork at the front and the back (which is really uncommon, in any era). Click on the images to view larger versions.

If you're interested in collecting this series, either for the stories or the illustrations, prices range from about $5 to $25 per volume, from the standard online sellers. Conditions will certainly vary greatly. This is a cute little book, though. Crosson was correct when she described the adventure as "mild." There's not much at stake or in jeopardy. And there are characters with names like Barney, Bert, Zed, Big Tim, Marietta Pancake, Percy Pickle, Bingo and a gnome named Paddy McQuoddy.

Want some ephemera? Course you do!

Pardon my "wry" sense of obscure Return to Zork humor there.

I have been mentioning, perhaps ad nauseam, that I'm in the midst of trying to downsize my Stuff Situation this summer. Books can be donated to book sales and charity. But then there's the more delicate matter of ephemera — inherited papers from the three-plus generations that came before me.

Some of it (gasp) can just be recycled.

Too much of it, I'm keeping.

And then there's a third category: Miscellaneous ephemera that doesn't interest me, but that others might find interesting. Cool old paper, for sure, but paper that just doesn't make the cut here in the land of Too Much Stuff.

So I'd like to find it a new home.

If your lifelong dream is to be mailed Random Old Ephemera from a family you do not know, it might just be your lucky day.

Send your name and snail-mail address to me at chrisottopa (at) gmail.com, and I'll send you a lovely package that will have the others in your household exclaiming, "Why, exactly, did you want that stuff?" First come, first served.

* * *
Unrelated to this post, I received an email today from an awesome reader named Lisa who wants to send me some interesting ephemera that she came across. This isn't helping the downsizing, I know. But how can I resist such a nice offer? Lisa's hobby is postcards, and you should check out her website, where many nifty cards are featured.

Good morning. Here's a postcard for this fine morning.

It won't last, but we're in the midst of a beautiful stretch of midsummer days in which the temperature is between 75 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and it's sunny with a perfect light breeze. No need for it ever to be any hotter than that.

So here's an old "Good morning glory" postcard for you to enjoy. I'm assuming she didn't wear those slippers to bed, and has just put them on, so that she can trod downstairs and have some cantaloupe and corn flakes. Or perhaps some Egg-O-See cereal.

This postcard has never been used, and it has a big pink blotch on the back. A tiny logo indicates that this was a Bergman Quality postcard. That New York company was only in business in 1912 and 1913, according to Alan Petrulis' magnificent MetroPostcard.com.

Pair of York County QSL cards

Here are a pair of York County QSL cards that I picked up, I think, within the past year at the store in York New Salem. The first one is from my new "town" of residence — Dover. (Technically, I'm in Dover Township. There is also a borough called Dover, with the township and borough being adjacent. Pennsylvania small government is weird. Actually, there is technically only one town in all of Pennsylvania — Bloomsburg. But even though it's incorporated as a town, it's treated like a borough. So there.)

The above card was for David Baker, whose call sign was 3W1763. There is no date anywhere on the front or back; this card was never used or mailed. Best guess for this QSL would be the 1950s or 1960s. I think my favorite part of it is the font used for PENNA.

This is a postcard that was turned into a makeshift QSL for Ernie from Dallastown. The black-and-white postcard shows St. Joseph's Roman Catholic School and Rectory, a parish that dates to 1850, according to its website.

Written in cursive on the front of the card is:

3W3834 - Base
128 W. Maple St.
Dallastown Pa.
Ernie

I like how Ernie dots the I in his name with a circle. The back of the postcard has never been written on. It was published by The Tecraft Company of Tenafly, New Jersey.

* * *I recently mailed an old QSL card to a Postcrossing card recipient in Japan who had mentioned, in his profile, that short-wave radio was one of his hobbies. After receiving it, he emailed back:

I appreciate your mail. I have never seen such an old QSL card! To tell you the truth, I was a ham radio operator... I got a license over 20 years ago when I was high-school student, but I stopped doing so because I was too busy for study. Newspaper business is changing in Japan too, as young people are not interested in reading it. It is hard to survive, but still journalism is important job, so good luck for your job!
Have a nice day,
--Yasushi