Postcrossings to close out 2023

December was a busy month for sending and receiving Postcrossing cards and cards from some of my pen pals. Pictured are some of the jolly postcards that came to our mailbox. I got cards this month from France, Germany, China, Scotland, India, the Netherlands, Poland, Bangladesh, Slovakia, Czechia and elsewhere. 

One sender wrote of enjoying their first snow of the season. Another spread the message that we should be kind. A high school student shared that he's a movie lover and recently saw Christopher Nolan's The Prestige.

Also nice have been the email messages acknowledging receipt of Postcrossing postcards I've send around the globe. Here are a handful for the holidays:

Anne from Finland wrote: "We have some 30 cm of snow here and it's so beautiful outside. So it's going to be a white Christmas here as usual. I hope you'll get the rain you need there soon."

Sylvia from Ireland wrote: "Thank you Chris for your postcard with your nice message. We are sharing lots of hobbies — I also like collecting books — especially vintage ones; and old movies — Gone with the Wind, White Christmas are my favourites, and I have to say I did see all movies with John Wayne (my husband has all of his movies, so I had no choice); and folklore — especially Polish, as I'm originally from that country (just finished a beautiful chain for a Christmas tree made out of straw and crepe paper, from book published in 1920s). I'm reading books every morning before my kids wakes up. And I, actually my whole family, are animal lovers. We do have 2 cute dogs and nearly 16 years old cat lady. And I'm always on the go."

Marit from Norway wrote: "Thank you for your nice postcard. I am not a big fan of winter, especially when it snows a lot, then gets mild with rain, and then get cold again with ice as a result."

Simone from Germany wrote: "Thank you for your lovely card. It put a smile on my face. Now all the lovely snow is gone and it looks like a green and mild Christmas time for the rest of December. Now I am enjoying a hot tea and Postcrossing. I wish you a wonderful advent and Christmas time."

Linda from the Netherlands wrote: "Thank you so much for this cute postcard, I love it! And I get your love for cats. It so happens that my boyfriend (who's name is Chris) has a cat as well and I love snuggling with her and getting that unconditional love. Like you said, it is so wholesome in this world and how it is at the moment. I will check your blog out!"

Naomi from Japan wrote: "Thank you for sending me such a romantic postcard from the Arizona desert! I was surprised that you know so many old Japanese movies and actresses! I'm also a fan of Ozu. And his birthplace is very close to my house. It is now a very small museum and occasionally shows his films for free. By the way, my favorite American directors are Hitchcock and Nolan."

Hulya from Germany wrote: "Thank you so much for your beautiful card with the cats. My favourite films of Daniel Day-Lewis are My Beautiful Laundrette and Eversmile, New Jersey. I wish you beautiful Christmas days."

Merry Christmas postcard sent to Muskegon in 1916

We're still in the midst of the 12 days of Christmas, so here's a Merry Christmas postcard that was sent to Miss N. Bosch in Muskegon, Michigan, in December 1916, a month in which more awful things (including avalanches) were happening amid World War I, author Shirley Jackson entered the world and Grigori Rasputin exited it in grisly fashion.

I love the snowman on this Azo real photo postcard, though it doesn't look at all like it's actually made of snow. I suspect it was set up in a photo studio, and folks would come in and pose with it, then leave with their personalized RPPC to send to friends and family. On the back, Jane B. writes only "Merry Xmas & Happy New Year."

I used a Google image search to try to find the same snowman. No luck, but I did find a similar RPPCs here, here and here.

Snowmen have been around since at least the Middle Ages. According to Wikipedia, the tallest one ever built was 122 feet! Genesis has a 1978 song about a snowman titled "Snowbound," but there's debate over whether it's about an actual snowman, or a poor guy who has died of hypothermia. Here are part of the lyrics:

Hey there's a Snowman

Hey, hey what a Snowman

Pray for the Snowman

Ooh, ooh what a Snowman

They say a snow year's a good year

Filled with the love of all who lie so deep

1909 Christmas postcard mailed from Auburn, New York

Have you mailed your Christmas cards yet? This vintage "Happy be your Christmas" postcard from 114 years ago was postmarked at 3:30 p.m. on December 22, 1909, in Auburn, New York, and mailed about 22 miles northeast to Syracuse, New York. I wonder if it arrived by Christmas Eve.

The recipient was Mr. Clinton L. Borst. The postcard is from his mother. It states:

My Dear Son,

I was so glad to get your letter today for I had been thinking of them all day — sorry, very sorry. I am fealing [sic] good now. I was [nauseous] last week. I do miss Miss Howl some and I miss you two. Are you going out to Euclid Christmas day. Hope you will have a good time. 

Mother

If I am correct in my genealogy websurfing, Clinton Borst lived from 1879 to 1947 and thus was 30 when he received this postcard. 

"Mother" is Catherine Malissa (Sitterly) Borst (1848-1938). It's pretty neat to have a postcard that is handwritten by a woman who was born the same year that the California gold rush began.

The April 7, 1919, edition of The Auburn Citizen noted that Clinton L. Borst of Auburn and Marvin E. Borst of Canastota, who did business as Borst Bros., in the town of Throop, filed a bankruptcy petition.

A 1975 introduction to horror cinema

Here's Smoky with 1975's Movie Monsters by Thomas G. Aylesworth. This is a battered (aka "much read") copy in a school library binding. Although someone removed all of the circulation cards and tried to obscure its provenance with a thick black marker, I can tell you that this copy was in the Brandywine Heights Elementary School library in Topton, Pennsylvania. 

This was a right proper book for an elementary school library in the 1970s, when monster-loving kids wore turtlenecks and corduroy trousers and inhabited a world with the hue of Polaroid photos and the haze of cigarette smoke. Aylesworth's book covers King Kong, Godzilla, Frankenstein's creature, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, the Fly, Dracula, The Bride of Frankenstein ("the greatest monster sequel," it states), Mr. Hyde, the Invisible Man and Dr. Moreau's creatures (Charles Laughton version). 

There's also a section on the greatest copycat monsters, which basically calls the Hammer creatures of Christopher Lee and Oliver Reed nothing more than "interesting copies." And there's a short section on the greatest monster actors of all time, which cites only Lon Chaney Sr., Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr., Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Vincent Price. The list could have been a bit lengthier and more expansive — Fay Wray? Elsa Lanchester? Barbara Steele? Agnes Moorehead? I know the idea of Scream Queens was still a few years away in 1975, but it would have been nice for Aylesworth to honor some horror actress pioneers.

Still, this book served as an solid gateway to horror cinema for a lot of kids nearly a half-century ago. In a 2009 review on Amazon, Rodney writes: "This was quite possibly the first book I purchased on my own as a kid. It set the stage for a life long love of monsters and horror movies."

And in a 2018 review on Goodreads, Timothy writes: "I had any of Aylesworth's books I could get my hands on ... when I was a kid. Read them over and over. It's 40 years later, and I am still an obsessed Monster Movies fan. I wish I could have met the man as an adult and told him how much joy I got from reading these little books, over and over and over."

Indeed, Aylesworth (1927-1995) wrote a lot of books for kids who were curious about monsters, ghosts, spooks and the paranormal. Even by 1975, he had quite the impressive bibliography, as seen here on the "Other books by..." page at the front of Movie Monsters. 

His papers from 1968 through 1983 are held at the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi. That website's biographical note states that when Aylesworth began writing nonfiction for children, he focused topics of science and the environment: "He enjoyed tremendous success with This Vital Air, This Vital Water (1968), a book on environmental pollution that was translated into seven languages. After hosting a houseguest with an interest in astrology and witchcraft, Aylesworth began writing juvenile books on the occult. Servants of the Devil (1971), a book on witches, was well received and followed by similar titles on vampires, werewolves, mythological beasts, and paranormal phenomena. He also served as ghostwriter for young readers' autobiographies of several celebrities and co-wrote a series of seventeen travel books with his wife, Virginia."

Update on an amazing house in Coudersport, Pennsylvania

From the Facebook page www.facebook.com/fwknoxvilla, posted November 23, 2023.

During a fun trip that Joan and I made to northern Pennsylvania in May 2013, I snapped a photo of a dilapidated house in Coudersport, Potter County. I added some filters and posted it here as a quickie snapshot of a "creepy old house." Later, I made it available as a postcard on Redbubble.

But it's no longer creepy!

Thanks to a post by On the Road in Pennsylvania that showed up in Facebook feed in early November, I learned that this house is undergoing an amazing renovation. 

The restoration is being documented on Facebook, Instagram and a blog so that everyone can follow along. I'm so glad I found out about this! Without that out-of-the-blue Facebook post, I probably wouldn't have known any of this. Now I want to help spread the word in my small way.

It turns out that there is a good bit known about this house. Located at 4 North Main Street in Coudersport, it's an Italianate house built in 1880 by Franklin W. Knox, a prominent lawyer and businessman. It was also formerly the Old Hickory Tavern.

According to the blog, "Construction began in 1878 and was completed in May of 1880, only a few weeks before a fire swept through the town." Knox had seen a similar house in Pittsburgh and wanted one for himself in Coudersport, built with locally sourced "maple, cherry, black birch, pine, oak, hemlock, chestnut and butternut." The estimated costed was $10,000, which would be a little north of $310,000 today (though I suspect using so much valuable wood would send the price far higher).

The house was electrified around 1905. After a couple of transfers of ownership, it became Coudersport's second Old Hickory Tavern around 1928. After a string of additional ownership changes over the decades, it was purchased by those who are currently renovating it in 2016.

Writing on the blog in 2021, co-owner Holly Mauser states, "I’m thankful for that, that so many people can see the beauty in an old house. They saw that beauty years ago when it was really not looking it’s best. I’m thankful that they saw potential like we did. I hope more people keep seeing the potential in these amazing buildings wherever they live." (The full post is quite wonderful.)

If you're interested in learning more, I highly recommend checking out all that's been documented on Facebook and Instagram about this epic renovation. I think we're all looking forward to the day when its 1880 beauty is restored as fully as reasonably possible. Coudersport is already a great place to visit, and the restoration of the old Knox house is just one more reason to take that road trip.

Extremely rare Sweetnik doll by Lada Draskovic hits eBay

It was more than 12½ years ago that I first learned of Lada Draskovic's "beatnik dolls," officially called Sweetniks, thanks to a small photograph in the 1961 Compton Yearbook.

Over time, I compiled everything I discovered about Draskovic in 2013's The Incomplete Lada Draskovic and 2018's An Addendum to "The Incomplete Lada Draskovic." It's a history tale for which I still have far more questions than answers. And the dolls themselves are rarer still; there can't be many still in existence. 

But another doll has cropped up. I have an eBay email alert for "Sweetniks," just in case it might provide a lead to learning more about Draskovic or her dolls. This newly listed doll is different than the other two I've seen color pictures of (one purple-haired, with a matching cat, and the other blonde). This one has brown hair (with maybe a hint of magenta) and is wearing an outfit that I think definitely qualifies as beatnik. It's amazing how unique each doll is.

It's listed on eBay for $1,300 by a seller in Illinois. That sounds about right, because we know that one Sweetnik was initially listed on eBay for $1,200 in 2018, and that the buyer later accepted the best offer (which was undisclosed). It, of course, only takes one collector who knows about the Sweetniks, is aware of their extreme rarity, and has the available funds in order to make a sale. So it will be interesting to see if someone snatches this one up. It's certainly a beauty.

The eBay listing doesn't tell us much that's new, stating "Vintage 'Sweetnik' doll from early 1960’s. Made in Italy by artist Lada Draskovic. These are very rare. Original made for Saks. Very few made it into the United States. Excellent condition. Hand painted. Doll is almost 15” tall."

But the photos are excellent — some of the best I've seen of these elusive dolls. I'm going to share them here for posterity; this post should be around much longer than an eBay listing, and I feel a deep obligation at this point to document everything that's known about Draskovic's Sweetniks.

Send the Popcorn Clown to get me

For the second year in a row, I whiffed on October/Halloween posts. I had so many grand plans and so much spooky/fun stuff lined up on the runway. Once again, I blame cats, work and the Phillies for stealing all my available time, but ultimately the blame should be directed at me. I just wasn't disciplined enough to keep Papergreat rolling during the best month of the year.

This clown was going to be part of the Mild Fear festivities. Maybe my punishment should be having to hang out with him in a haunted house on a dark and stormy night. 

Anyway, this colorful postcard was published in 1968 by Yankee Colour Corp. of Massachusetts. It shows — in the happy days long before Poltergeist and Bob Gray flipped the script on clowns — a red-haired clown selling popcorn in a Boston-area park. The caption on the back explains:

"Ye Days of Yore ... saw this Popcorn Wagon built by Mr. [Eleftherios] Alexion in South Boston, Mass., in 1915. Travelling Boston for 48 years, he became friend of young and young-at-heart at his frequented stop between the Common and Public Garden. Acquired by Mr. [Joseph A.] Coyle in 1963, this wagon still pops corn in a wire basket over white gas flame."

I wonder what happened to the wagon, which would be 108 years old now and would certainly be museum-worthy. 

When this postcard was posted on Facebook by Vintage Roadside, most of the comments were exactly what you'd expect. But I did like this one from Mary Beth: "I think this is really sweet, but I’m from the pre-scary clown era. What a lovely man to have spent 48 years brightening up days for kids and adults with fresh popcorn. Hard for me to see anything other than good vibes here. Send in the clowns — I love ‘em."

Maybe it's time to bring back Good Clowns and give them another chance. What do we think?

In the meantime, now I have the upcoming late autumn and winter to put all of my belated Halloween posts onto Papergreat. Winter chills, indeed.

Postcard of cat on a broomstick

This is one of my favorite Halloween-themed Postcrossing cards that I've received this autumn. Unfortunately, there's no clear indication who the illustrator is on this Hogwarts-inspired card. 

It was sent by Yi-Ning, who lives in Taiwan with four cats — Bacon, Babao, Licon and iPhoenix — all of whom are rescued strays, which warms my heart. Yi-Ning has some limitations due to health issues, but works part-time helping elderly citizens at the hospital and is a powerhouse on Postcrossing, with more than 8,000 cards sent and received. Postcards really do let you travel the world and meet other people, with the mailbox serving as your magic portal. I'm glad our portals connected.