QSL from Honduras: Cinco Niñas Lindas Copanecas

It's been nearly four years since I wrote about one of the QSL cards mailed to Melvin Reed of Frackville, Pennsylvania. See below for the full list of past posts about Reed and his QSLs.

Today, it's time for another! This is a unique one, for which we don't know a whole lot about the sender beyond basic details. It's HR5NLC, from Noe Leopoldo Cruz in Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras. It was mailed in March 1966 and the front of the card is what's most interesting to me. The text states Cinco Niñas Lindas Copanecas, which translates to Five Beautiful Copan Girls. Indeed, there are five illustrations of women from Santa Rosa de Copán with 1960s hairstyles. Is one of them Noe?

Atop this illustration are the postmark and the Honduras stamp, which commemorates the Honduran participation in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. See the full sheet below. 

That's about it. I can't find anything else about Noe Leopoldo Cruz or Cinco Niñas Lindas Copanecas, beyond the fact that Noe appears in the 1989 and 1993 amateur radio callbooks (under call sign HR5NC in both instances, a change from HR5NLC — and because I'm slow on the update I just figured out that NLC must stand for Noe Leopoldo Cruz).

I hope that someone with an interest in Santa Rosa de Copán and/or ham radio history might stumble upon this blog post and provide more information! And I'm happy that I was able to preserve this QSL card for posterity.

Previous posts about Melvin Reed and his QSLs

• Boris' Soviet-era QSL card
• 1957 QSL card mailed from France to Frackville
• Ragged QSL card from Romania
• In which we learn that Melvin C. Reed's nickname was "Midge"
• QSL sent from Loves Park in 1973
• QSL card that doubled as Eastern Bloc blanket advertisement
• Two dramatic QSL cards sent to Melvin Reed
• QSL from West Germany in 1963
• Two more Melvin Reed QSLs: Commerce and Münster

QSL card for Pioneers Radio Club of Tallinn, Estonia

OK, it's silly that this is my first QSL card post in nearly four years. Time flies! If this piques your hobby interests, please check out the QSL cards category tag to see more than three dozen past Papergreat posts full of vintage ham radio correspondence grooviness. 

This nifty card, UR2KAN, which details a communication on October 1, 1973, features the Pioneers Radio Club of Tallinn, Estonia, USSR. Tallinn is the capital and most populous city of Estonia, which parted ways with the Soviet Union's occupation in August 1991. These days, in a disheartening sign of the times, Estonia is bolstering its defense capabilities and practicing for evacuations in the event that murderous Russian President Vladimir Putin isn't satisfied with merely attacking and occupying Ukraine.

We're mostly left to imagine what the Pioneers Radio Club was all about, unless we get a miraculous visit from a commenter. The only hints appear on a webpage on QRZ.com, which discusses a slice of Eastern European ham radio history from the perspective of Boris Gavrenko, who was born in the Soviet Union in 1933 and much later came to live in the United States. 

He states, in passing:

"In 1961 I met the gang of UR2KAN - UR2KAW (then the club call of a Tallinn Pioneer Palace in Estonia). It was their support and guidance that enabled the opening of the UB5ARTEK (later U5ARTEK) - All-Union International Pioneer camp in the Crimea." 

 

It seems the Pioneers Radio Club may have been something of a youth group in Tallinn, but anything beyond that is a guess. But maybe someone will stumble upon this someday and tell us more.

Two more Melvin Reed QSLs: Commerce and Münster

Here are two more ham radio QSL cards sent to Melvin "Midge" C. Reed (W3AIT) of Frackville, Pennsylvania, 20 years apart. (To dive backward into Reed's many QSLs on Papergreat, see last year's November and August posts.)

First up is this seemingly homemade QSL, sent from "Lou" Seyler (KN5VVW) of Commerce, Texas, in 1960. Commerce is a small, rural college town in northeastern Texas and the birthplace of World War II Flying Tigers leader Claire Lee Chennault.

If I found the correct Seyler, he served as a physician in World War II. On Find a Grave, there is a Dr. Louis Walter Seyler (1908-1988) who died and is buried in Commerce. In a blog post earlier this year, historian Carol C. Taylor writes:

"The longest resident practice in Commerce was by Dr. Louis W. Seyler, who opened his hospital at 1606 Bonham Street in 1948 and, for over 40 years 'raised almost every kid in the post-war generation.' Whether you got a shot, had a cut finger sutured, a nasty cough, bad cold, etc., his fee was $5.00.

"Dr. Seyler spent many hours reading medical journals. He would often call a patient he had seen weeks before. 'I found a new medication. Go to “Abie” Cranford’s (pharmacy) and pick it up.' Doctoring was an art, a science and an obligation."

The second QSL was mailed to Midge two decades later, in 1980. It's from Ernst Knoll (DF1QU) in Münster, Germany. A version of the image on the front of Knoll's QSL is now available from stock photo vendors such as Alamy, which describes it as "Panorama of Münster, Pieter Nolpe, Hendrick Focken, Anonymou. Reimagined by Gibon."

The most I've ever learned about Münster comes from the 2013 episode of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast titled "Prophets of Doom." The 4-plus-hour podcast is described this way: "Murderous millennial preachers and prophets take over the German city of Munster after Martin Luther unleashes a Pandora's Box of religious anarchy with the Protestant Reformation."

Not the lightest podcast topic, but very compelling, especially if you're a history buff and have a lot of driving to do, which I did at the time I listened to it.

QSL from West Germany in 1963

Ham radio time again! Here's another QSL card that was sent to Melvin "Midge" C. Reed, who was last featured in August. (August seems so long ago, in this longest of years.)

This comes from German shortwave amateur station operation Kurt Jana (DL1VG) and features a contact from late February 1963. Jana lived near Braunschweig, West Germany. That city, which dates to the 9th century, struggled during the Cold War, according to Wikipedia, because of its proximity to the Iron Curtain and the loss of its nearby economic partnerships in East Germany. I wonder what Kurt had to say to Midge during their wintertime conversation 57 years ago?

The card itself appears to be advertising Roto-Werke, a printing press manufacturer (I think) that operated from 1912 to 1982 in Königslutter am Elm.

Two dramatic QSL cards sent to Melvin Reed

Here are two more QSL cards sent to Melvin "Midge" C. Reed of Frackville, Pennsylvania, in the 1960s. Both cards note communications that involved poor or interrupted signals, using codes such as QRM and QSB.

From ham radio operator Jacques Duquette (VE2 BKG) to Melvin Reed (W3AIT). Postmarked on March 9, 1962, in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec.

From ham radio operator Sid H. Solley (VE6AFQ) to Melvin Reed (W3AIT). Postmarked on December 7, 1965, in Lethbridge, Alberta. The structure pictured on the card is the Lethbridge Viaduct, which was built between 1907 and 1909. It is, according to Wikipedia, "the largest railway structure in Canada and the largest of its type in the world." It rises 314 feet above the river bed and contains 12,400 tons of steel.

Previous posts about Melvin Reed and his QSLs

• Boris' Soviet-era QSL card
• 1957 QSL card mailed from France to Frackville
• Ragged QSL card from Romania
• In which we learn that Melvin C. Reed's nickname was "Midge"
• QSL sent from Loves Park in 1973
• QSL card that doubled as Eastern Bloc blanket advertisement

QSL sent from Loves Park in 1973

This QSL card, which looks like it's straight from the land of Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, was sent to Melvin "Midge" C. Reed of W3AIT in mid-December of 1973.¹ In a short note filled with ham radio abbreviations, Midge is thanked for a nice chat and wished a happy holiday season.

Littlejohn is a common name in the Loves Park area of Illinois. And there's no listing in any archived online directory for the call sign WA9SFY, so there's a little bit of a mystery here — even though we have a full name and full address. Would be curious to learn more about Clarence (Bud) LittleJohn, who lived at 5716 Hollis Avenue in Loves Park, Winnebago County, Illinois, 47 years ago.

Footnote
1. Also in December 1973: Pioneer 10 relayed the first close-up images of Jupiter and The Exorcist made its debut in U.S. movie theaters. (Pioneer 10 was 11.4 billions miles from Earth as of January 2019.)

From the readers: Geometry, Cheerful Cards, Mecki and more

To kick off the latest installment of reader comments in grand fashion, we have this wonderful email from Greg Frederickson, who refers to the 2012 post 1959 receipt from The Colonial Bookstore in York, Pa.

"Your [post] caught my eye, because I got a great start on a sub-obsession as a result of that bookstore. My mother Margaret had been searching there for a birthday present for me and found this obscure geometry book written by an Australian patent examiner. It was Geometric Dissections, by Harry Lindgren, published by D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc. in 1964. It sat more-or-less unexamined on my bookshelf at home until 1969, after I had graduated from college and had started a job teaching mathematics at a junior high school in Baltimore, Maryland.

"I wasn’t the most prepared math teacher that Baltimore had encountered, having had no instruction in education courses, aside from doing practice teaching in the summer school before the school year was to begin in the fall of 1969. But as an inner-city school district Baltimore was desperate for math teachers and was willing to take a chance on me. It was tough sledding that first year, and at times I was almost ready to give up and risk being drafted into the army and sent to Vietnam. But the supervisory personnel there were first-rate and gave me lots of good advice. One specialist from the downtown headquarters kindly observed that my classroom was a mess, with pencil scrawlings all over of the student desks and absolutely nothing on my pristine bulletin boards. Besides attacking the desks with soapy water, I ransacked the few math books that I had brought with me to Baltimore to see if I could find something to put on my bulletin boards. The cover decorations on Lindgren’s book were really eye-catching, so I took some colored construction paper and cut out large pieces, which I then stapled onto a bulletin board to illustrate how to cut one geometric figure into pieces that would rearrange to form another figure.

"My supervisor was sufficiently impressed. But more importantly, I ended up being intrigued by a number of geometric dissections in the book. Knowing almost no one in the city and having lots of time to play around with interesting things, I treated myself to a much more careful look at the book. The author had made a big deal about trying to find the fewest possible number of pieces for any given dissection problem. One morning on a weekend, I discovered a way to modify a dissection so that it used one fewer piece. Suddenly I was off and running: I had my first dissection record! Many more have come since then. Always they were unexpected — coming before work, late at night, during meals, or at other times when something else was planned.

"And after every couple of dissections I would hurry off to get them copied and then mail them halfway around the world to Harry Lindgren in Australia. When the original printing of his book sold out, the copyright was taken over by the paperback publisher Dover Publications. Since I was the one who had rendered parts of his book out of date, Harry assigned me the responsibility of revising his book. It was then retitled Recreational Problems in Geometric Dissections & How to Solve Them, and I was officially listed as the reviser.

"After my third year of teaching in Baltimore, I went on to take some courses in Computer Science at the University of Maryland and eventually graduated with a Ph.D. I landed a tenure-track position in the Computer Science Department at Penn State University in 1977 and then became a full professor at Purdue University in 1986. I transitioned to an emeritus professor there a couple of years ago. Besides my many publications in Computer Science, I have published four additional books in geometric dissections, listed on my webpage https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/gnf/

"So I enthusiastically acknowledge a big and grateful 'Thank You’ to the Colonial Bookstore of York!"

Much thanks to Greg for taking the time to share this story, the kind of behind-the-scenes history of a life that can so easily become lost. And it all began with that bookstore in York.

Examining the Tunguska Event via newspaper headlines: Tom from the ever-delightful Garage Sale Finds (highly recommended if you're seeking a nostalgic rabbit hole while spending more time at home) writes: "I remember reading The Fire Came By back in the 80s when I was fascinated will all things paranormal and space-related. It bothered me that Dan Aykroyd referred to it as the Tunguska blast of 1909 rather than 1908. Hey, I was (am) a nerd."

Smile-worthy old AP Laserphoto: I tracked down photographer Blake J. Discher on Twitter, and he responded: "Yep, that’s me. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Pretty funny photo. You can’t dream this stuff up... the guy fell asleep at work!"

Philadelphia Phillies spring training photos from March 1984: Wendyvee from the wonderful Wendyvee's roadsidewonders.net writes: "Which reminds me ... I think my mom has a picture with my Dad and Tug McGraw somewhere. I'll have to find it because it was an especially good picture of Dad. Also, I was 'Today Years Old' when I found out why he was nicknamed Tug ... and I maybe wish I wouldn't have, lol!"

1970s Woodsy Owl bookmark: "Give a Hoot! Don't Pollute." Two new responses on this one. Anonymous writes: "A relative by marriage (my great aunt's nephew Barry) was the voice of Woodsy."

And Carol Hunter writes: "I could have sworn the following lyrics were in the Give a Hoot jingle that I remember from my childhood: 'Give a hoot, don't pollute, let your outdoor manners show, help to stop pollution in the North South, East & West ... the Nooorth Sooouth East & Weeeest! Hoot Hoot!' Does anyone else remember it this way? Or did I make up lyrics as a kid because I couldn't remember the original ones?"

Anyone have any help for Carol? I can say that it's turned out that 50% or more of the lyrics I thought I knew as a kid were incorrect. Sometimes comically so.

"Only long enough to make a beginning": Joan writes: "I am pleased with your choice of photo-staging props." (She is referring to Titan and Foghorn, who were gratuitously posed with the book.)

Scholastic book cover: "Mystery of the Piper's Ghost": Checking in again, Tom notes: "I love those Scholastic mystery books. I have a number myself, but haven't seen this one. I love the idea of putting them in the Little Library to introduce to a new generation. I wonder if kids still like to read books like that. My own kids' Scholastic flyers are absent of anything like this. I never did get our Little Library built this year, shooting for this year. My intent was to populate it with Scholastic books from my collection as well."

A family history told through newspaper blurbs: Nathan Bland writes: "My Grandmother was Francis S. Staley from the old blue Concrete business card in the post for the IDEAL Concrete Stone Co. in Yellow Springs, Maryland. In case you want any more info on the family tree."

Stay tuned, folks, because I'm definitely going to follow up on this. It's nice to have a chance to circle back to a 2011 post!

Sci-fi book cover: "Star Ways" (aka Kilts in Space?): Tom writes: "If you hadn't given the publication date, I would have guessed this was a retitled novel with the intent to ride the Star Wars wave of the late 1970s, especially the way the title almost looks like a sticker placed over the original."

Cheerful Card Company can help you earn extra money for the holidays: Unknown writes: "I am a legend of Cheerful House. I used to sell door to door. My neighbors would look through the catalog and buy from me. Christmas cards, birthday cards, oh my God those were the days. Every one who saw them wanted to buy them. That was back in 1972. Cheerful House just brought tears to my eyes and a lot of wonderful memories. I was 12 years old back then. Today I'm 60, and it feels like it was just yesterday — 48 years have passed. I thought they were gone for ever, but when I saw this ... it's a great feeling." ... Responding to another comment that children should not be prevented from working, Unknown added: "I feel the same way. I sold cards for them when I was 12. My mom got jealous. I was earning more than her full-time job."

I continue to be amazed at how the Cheerful Cards comments (28 and counting) took on a life of their own after that 2012 post. Having the ability to remember and discuss that cherished part of their childhood has been so important for folks. Glad to provide the outlet for it!

The One Where I Get Sucked into the Mecki Universe: Anonymous writes: "My mother brought one of these from Germany — it was 1953. She used to chase us around the house with it. It's not scary at all, unless of course it's chasing you, LOL. Mom has passed away but we still have the Mecki. It is about 2 feet tall and in great shape for its age. Who would have thought that doll would be a family heirloom like it has become?"

Story time: The Tale of the Gothic Lullaby: A trio of comments on this story that Ashar and I wrote together:

• Joan writes: "This is definitely the highlight of my week (and month). Thank you!!!"
• Wendyvee writes: "Which is why I always sit way, way in the back of the theater."
• Darlene Swords writes: "I am standing up and applauding the gothic lullaby. I loved it! It was beautifully written ... like James Patterson ... with short chapters."

Dick Gendron's QSL card featuring the Cherry Street fire: John Whitehouse adds some sad history regarding this October 1963 blaze: "The fire was at 108-114 Cherry Street, which housed BF Goodrich, a paint store and a barber shop, as well as eight apartments. A Deputy Chief, George Carty, lost his life due to electrocution. The building was a total loss. Dick (Gendron) was an avid photographer, as well as a very friendly guy. His daughter told me that most of his photos were lost when, ironically, his residence and six other buildings were destroyed by fire. Some of his pictures survive and hang on the walls in Burlington, Vermont, fire stations."

Delving into Henry K. Wampole & Company: "Dirtdoctorjak" writes: "I’ve a bottle 7/8ths full with the box that I recovered out of a old home demo in California."

Stay-at-home shelfie #10: Inky from On Shoes and Ships and Sealing-Wax writes: "This shelfie makes me happy given that quite a few of these grace my own shelves and book piles (I admittedly have not read The Angry Planet yet, but I love the cover). As a huge fan of Mervyn Peake, I highly recommend reading him."

Does anyone still own a 1-square-inch Texas ranch? Anonymous writes: "I was one of those suckers. Not sure where my deed is now."

Lamenting what we'll never know about Phyllis J. Stalnaker Harris: Unknown writes: "I don't know how I came up on this thread. When I looked into it it just made me really sad. Thank you for sharing a little bit about her life. Unfortunately she probably died because of domestic abuse."

Stay-at-home shelfie #20: Inky writes: "Hooray for the Ruth Manning-Sanders shelves! I've never come across any of her non-fairy tale books, though I certainly love her 'A Book of...' books and consider the mermaid one to be one of my favorite fairy tale collections."

1941 advertisement for the Modern Talking Picture Service: Unknown writes: "My AV department at South Orange Maplewood, New Jersey, ordered many films from MTP Service back in 1972. Also ordered films from Films Incorporated. I've often wondered where all those reels went. Be nice if they were offered on eBay."

Night of Household Items #4: "Makes your toilet paper sing!" Unknown writes: "I bought several of these when I lived in New Jersey in 1988. I still have one, but it doesn't work anymore. I loved them! They were great fun!!!"

Book cover: "So you want to be a Ham": Dave Conley writes: "I also discovered this book at the library, and just about reduced it to shreds by checking it out repeatedly. Robert Hertzberg was very good at communicating his love of the hobby."

"Siss Noch Unvergleichlich": 1962 Pennsylvania Dutch Days brochure: Wendyvee writes: "How very Pennsylvania. Also, one of my grandmothers made funeral pies that were so sweet, I swear I can still taste them. Eeek!"

Would you like to play a game of Wizzardz & War Lordz? "arik24" writes: "It's been archived at archive.org: https://archive.org/details/wizzardz_war_lordz"

Happy gaming, everyone!

In which we learn that Melvin C. Reed's nickname was "Midge"

As you can see, there's a silly monkey on the front of this dandy QSL card from Richard Kalakie of Ferndale, Michigan.¹ The card, with Kalakie's call sign of WB8BCA, was sent in December 1969 to W3AIT, a call sign I've featured in three previous posts:

• Boris' Soviet-era QSL card
• 1957 QSL card mailed from France to Frackville
• Ragged QSL card from Romania

W3AIT belonged to Melvin C. Reed (1906-1987) of Frackville, Pennsylvania. But the short note from Kalakie on the back of this card states: "Sri I lost u Midge. QRM got bad. Hpe 2 BCNU agn."

A lot of that text is Morse code abbreviations. Sri means "sorry," for example, and BCNU, as you might intuit, means "be seeing you." And QRM (man-made interference) is specific to ham radio. But what intrigued me was the reference to Midge, which also appears on a number of the other W3AIT QSL cards I acquired. I wondered if Midge might be Melvin's wife, and perhaps she also participated in the hobby. But it's simpler than that, even. Midge was Melvin's nickname.² I found that via his obituary in the July 31, 1987, edition of the Pottsville Republican:

"Melvin 'Midge' C. Reed, 80, of 336 Lehigh Ave., Frackville, died Thursday morning in Pottsville Hospital where he was admitted
July 1. He was born in Frackville, a son of the late Jacob and Edna Heim Reed. He was employed by the former Reading Railroad Co. for 48 years, retiring in 1971. ... He was a Scoutmaster for many years in Frackville. His wife, the former Mary Zimmers, died Feb. 1, 1980."

So that's a bit more about Melvin "Midge" C. Reed. There should be plenty more to come. And one of these days I must also return to the tale of Loring A. Daniels and his QSLs.

Footnotes
1. According to Wikipedia: "Ferndale is well known in the Detroit area for its LGBT population and progressive policies. ... In 2006 the city passed an anti-discrimination ordinance protecting LGBT people from discrimination in public accommodations, housing, and business, with 70% in favor and 30% in opposition. Affirmations, a 17,000-square-foot LGBT community center in Downtown Ferndale, opened its new, expanded building on Sunday June 3, 2007, the same year the city elected the first openly gay mayor in Michigan." Way to go, Ferndale!
2. For future researchers who might be seeking information on me, my only nicknames, to the best of my recollection, are Toast, Ottoman, Toph and Topher. I've tried to encourage folks to call me "Hoss" but it hasn't really stuck.

Ragged QSL card from Romania

This water-stained and pinhole-filled QSL card was sent from Bucharest (București), Romania, to the United States in 1957. The call sign of the Romanian operator, handwritten, appears to be either Y05-1641 or YO5-1641. The contact information on the front states:

REPUBLICA POPULARǍ ROMİNǍ
PSE QSL TNX
P.O. BOX 95
BUCUREŞTI
Sent 62 years ago, this QSL card was a response to a contact with W3AIT. That's a call sign that Papergreat readers should be familiar with. It belonged to ham-radio enthusiast Melvin C. Reed of Frackville, Pennsylvania. In May, I featured QSL cards that Reed received from the Soviet Union and France.

1957 QSL card mailed from France to Frackville

On the heels of last week's 1962 QSL card, here's another from what was once the collection of ham-radio enthusiast Melvin C. Reed of Frackville, Pennsylvania.

Following radio contact, this card was mailed from Camille Faulque (call sign F8NU) at 5 Bd. Victor Hugo, Cholet, France, to Reed, all the way across the pond. As the crow flies, there were about 3,628 miles between their connections (or 14.5% the circumference of Earth).¹ The card itself says "C. Faulque" but I got the full first name from the Fall 1957 Radio Amateur Call Book. (Also, Amitiés Camille appears to be written on the card. Amitiés means "Friendship" or "All the best.")

The QSL was mailed with a pair of dark ultramarine Nice stamps, which were originally issued in 1955.

Fun facts about Cholet: Its name probably comes from the Latin word for cabbage, and it is home to numerous megaliths.

Fun facts about Frackville: It's named for early settler Daniel Frack, and this sentence appears on its Wikipedia page at this moment: "Frackville is indeed surrounded by many prisons."

Footnote
1. It would take a cheetah, running at full speed without stops, two days and 22 minutes to run from Cholet to Frackville. If it had a bridge across the Atlantic Ocean. And maybe some Cheetah Snacks.

Boris' Soviet-era QSL card

This QSL card between UA3-9 in Moscow, USSR, and W3AIT in Frackville, Pennsylvania, was filled out in 1962, at the height of the Cold War. I know that W3AIT was in Frackville, because I have other QSL cards sent to that operator, who was named Melvin C. Reed. He's also listed, with that call sign, in the Fall 1952 Radio Amateur Callbook. If I found the correct Melvin C. Reed on Find A Grave, he lived from 1906 to 1987.

Melvin made a lot of international connections with his ham radio hobby. And that includes this one with Boris in 1962. I wonder if they had a short conversation. Did Boris understand English? Did Melvin understand Russian? Or did they only know enough mutual ham radio lingo in order to log the connection over the airwaves? QSL cards are wonderful ephemeral evidence of past exchanges. But they leave so much that can never be known. I find it fascinating that, in the same year as the Cuban Missile Crisis, someone from a small town in Pennsylvania was connecting directly with a fellow ham enthusiast in Moscow. (Also, since there's no stamp or address on this QSL, I have to assume that Boris sent it to Melvin in an envelope.)

QSL card that doubled as Eastern Bloc blanket advertisement

Here's a dandy QSL card for ham-radio operator DM2AOL that also served as an advertisement for Blankets of Kirschau in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany, 1949–1990). Perhaps this was one of the few avenues they had at the time to spread the word about Eastern Bloc goods and services.

If I'm reading the information on the back of the card correctly, the contact (QSO) occurred in 1979. There's no stamp or address, so this card was possibly mailed in an envelope.

This additional information about the company appeared on the back of the card:

Blankets of Kirschau
from:
VEB Vereinigte Grobgarnwerke
DDR-8604 Kirschau
Exporteur: Textilcommerz
DDR-108 Berlin P.O.B. 1206.

Searching these terms, I discovered some photographs of a mid-century textile company, some provided by the German Federal Archive, in the Wikipedia Commons. Here they are:

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-P0425-0008 / Häßler, Ulrich / CC-BY-SA 3.0 [CC BY-SA 3.0 de]

Deutsche Fotothek‎ [CC BY-SA 3.0 de]

Sludge G [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Beyond that, though, I don't know much about this company, so it's a bit of a mystery. Help from overseas would be very welcome!

The Amazing Colossal Edition of "From the Readers"

I have been delinquent again. It's time to open the bulging digital mailbag and catch up on Papergreat's amazing reader comments...

Linen postcard: Parachute jump at Steeplechase Park, Coney Island: "Kayo56" shares this memory: "My uncle had been a paratrooper in Germany, and this was the closest thing he was going to come to recreating the experience in Brooklyn. He persuaded our mother, his twin sister, to go with him, and take my brother and me. We must have been preschool age, since we're 61 and 62 now. I don't remember being bothered by the ride up, but on the way down, I decided the ride was over before it was over, and attempted to stand up in preparation for disembarking. When we did actually come to a landing, it was with a bit of a thump, and I banged some part of me. I wasn't hurt, but it hurt at that moment, and I connected it with the ride, not my own actions. Although he was willing to take us on again, I refused. Since the parachute jump was still standing, for a long time, I was unaware that it was no longer in operation. When I learned that it was closed, part of me regretted the lost opportunity for a repeat ride, and the other part of me was glad I'd never be asked."

Miscellaneous snaps from the family shoebox, Part 4: Wendyvee, who authors the dandy Roadside Wonders blog, writes: "I can't get a female re-boot of Reservoir Dogs out of my head with the group shot."

Cheerful Card Company can help you earn extra money for the holidays: The comments keep flowing for this 2012 post. Anonymous writes: "My mother sold these cards every fall to earn money for our Christmas gifts. Without the Cheerful Card Company we might never have had Christmas gifts. Definitely not a scam and I still smile remembering looking thru the 'selling book'."

Selections from the 1967 Top Value Stamps catalog: Eric Ferguson writes: "Santa brought me that Handy Andy Tool Set for Christmas in '70 or '71. It kinda sucked. The hammer was way too tiny to pound anything. My parents didn't even buy it: Just used their stamps. My mom always shopped at Kroger's, so she got the Top Value stamps."

Earth Day 2018 thoughts: Edward Humes' "Garbology": Joan, who writes Unschool Rules while juggling a zillion other things, writes: "I can't thank you enough for lending me that book. I know I have a long way to go but it really does open your eyes."

Burrill's beautiful "fluff", or "Hey, that Papergreat guy is creepy": Wendyvee writes: "Which reminds me of this article that I read some time ago: Mementoes of Grief Go to Auction from the US’s Only Museum for Mourning Art."

And Joan adds: "This is a rather unusual post, but I really like it. I also want to know what envelope the Coby hair is in."

Provenance clues in 1878's "The Old Church, and Other Stories": Stealth Research Assistant and Executive Vice President in Charge of Ephemera Reunions "Mark Felt" once again provides some excellent sleuthing: "It is quite possible that 'Hiram William M. Bickel' is a name which refers to one person. See this grave in Shillington, Pennsylvania. His date of death matches this obituary in the Reading Times (scroll down or search for "Reading"). That obituary lists his parents as Moses and Mary Bickel. At the bottom of Moses' grave is the inscription 'Erected by H.W.M. Bickel.' At the bottom of Mary's grave is the inscription 'Erected by Mrs. Ella M. Gromis.' Might that be Ella M. Bickel's married name? Perhaps, yet despite assiduous sleuthing, there the trail goes cold..."

Damaged but dandy dust jacket: "Mystery at High Hedges": Tom from Garage Sale Finds writes: "Great cover. I love the covers from youth mystery novels from that era. They hook you and make you want to read the book."

The evolution of Barry Leffler's KCC2188 QSL cards: Mark Felt writes: "Finally, a reference on Papergreat to a living person! Contact Barry Leffler directly [on Facebook] to fill in all the details. As for the Vocaline Company of America, here is the SEC's record of the initial public offering of that company in 1959, with a brief overview of the company's products."

[Chris adds: Yes, I did see that Leffler is on Facebook, and I've tried that route. He hasn't actually posted on Facebook in 6.5 years, and it can be difficult to contact/message someone that you're not Facebook friends with. But we shall see.]

Punch-card bill for The American Garden Guild Book Club: Anonymous writes: "What are the punches for?"

[Chris replies: The card could be fed into a punch-card reader, thus "quickly" entering data — subscriber information, an account number and/or billing information — into an early computer. The "punched card" entry on Wikipedia adds, rather dryly: "A punched card or punch card is a piece of stiff paper that can be used to contain digital data represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Digital data can be for data processing applications or, in earlier examples, used to directly control automated machinery. Punched cards were widely used through much of the 20th century in what became known as the data processing industry, where specialized and increasingly complex unit record machines, organized into semiautomatic data processing systems, used punched cards for data input, output, and storage. ... While punched cards are now obsolete as a storage medium, as of 2012, some voting machines still use punched cards to record votes."]

1913 postcard: "You can put it in a frame and hang it up": Matt Hinrichs, who authored a blog titled The Joyce Compton Shrine, writes: "I don't blame you for finding Ruth's message vague — it sounds to me like she took a pre-printed photo postcard and hand-colored it herself."

A handful of artistic travel snapshots taken by my grandmother: Mark Felt writes: "'Somewhere in France' [pictured at right] is the town of Cordes-sur-Ciel in the south of the country. The hotel and restaurant indicated by the sign in Grandmother Helen's photograph is referenced here. Grand Écuyer translates as Great Squire."

Miscellaneous snaps from the family shoebox, Part 3: Wendyvee writes: "These are all lovely; but I would hang a litho of the Jean Pratt picture in my living room for sure."

Plethora of pudding within 1888 "Cyclopedia of Practical Information": Mark Felt writes: "Well, if Mom wasn't a Paul Thomas Anderson fan, then Chris certainly is. By the way, in 2007 this was the world's most expensive photograph."

[Note from Chris: Indeed, I am a major fan of Paul Thomas Anderson's films. I'm fairly certain that Mom never saw any of them. These were her favorite movies.]

A little bit more about Helen Goodrich Buttrick: Joan writes: "This led me down a small rabbit trail also related to fashions."

Get duly inducted into the Silent Mysteries of the Far East: Donald Gergely writes: "My uncle had this card also."

Saturday's postcard: Kozy Kabin Service Station & Kafe: Mark Felt writes: "The ineluctable march of progress forced owners Ralph and Julia Johnson to shutter the Kozy Kabin Service Station & Kafe in 1954, eighteen years after it opened. The history of this location and an impassioned eulogy for Mr. Johnson can be found here. Requiescat in pace."

1961 Ginza Tokyu Hotel guest booklet: Mark Felt writes: "You may find it interesting to learn of the basis of the $1/¥360 exchange rate which was in effect from 1949 to 1971: The word for the Japanese currency (pronounced 'en' in the native tongue but which we transliterate as 'yen') could mean 'money' or 'circle' in various contexts — try typing 'yen' into Google Translate — and there are 360 degrees in a circle. Also see The Yo-Yo Yen: and the Future of the Japanese Economy."

Wonder Bread bakery destroyed by 1933 Long Beach earthquake: Wendyvee writes: "Mother Nature is a fierce mistress. Also, don't you just wish we could know the stories of all of the people looking at the destruction."

Family Circle's "Most Beautiful Christmas Tree" of 30 years ago: Mark Felt writes: "Third-prize winner Mary Cooksey Wilks of Verona, New Jersey is still decorating and lighting her annual Christmas tree and giving back to her community in many ways."

Sorry "Infinity War," the greatest Avengers crossover was 34 years ago: Wendyvee writes: "This is EVERYTHING. It needs a live-action movie right this minute."

[Chris adds: Casting a young version of David Letterman will be difficult.]

The ephemera of families separated by the United States: Everyone gets their say here, as long as they're polite, so here is a response from a commenter referring to himself as Mr. Derp: "Poor illegal invaders and their hellish offspring who come here to lower the wages of the working class liberals claim they care oh so much about."

Дайте миру шанс [a Samantha Smith post]: Mr. Derp writes: "Pining for the 'good ol' days' of the 'workers paradise', I see."

In which I was 24 and really, really awful at journaling: Joan writes: "You still use the word schlonkered. Hopefully more ironically."

How to promote your hotel with a disturbing illustration of a dog: Mark Felt writes: "This is an example of a Victorian trade card, the predecessor of the modern business card, printed and sold by chromolithographers, and customized by businesses of all varieties. Trade cards often depicted animals in comic scenes. This card in particular was designed by George M. Hayes of Philadelphia, active from 1878 to the 1890's. However, this primary source announced his retirement, or perhaps a continuation in a new venture, in 1884. Other businesses which customized the same bulldog design include the following: Hartman's Bookstore, Ashland, Pennsylvania, French Confectionary, and a blank bulldog card. Other similar cards designed and/or printed by George M. Hayes include: Collection of four trade cards (including the bulldog design); examples from the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas; and various feline designs.

Menus and recipes shared by Mrs. Anna B. Scott in 1936: Wendyvee writes: "Yes to the Chocolate Icebox cake but a great big NO to the Sardines!!"

Joan adds: "Also not sure about mock turkey."

[Chris replies: The mock turkey recipe itself sounds interesting, and pretty easy to make. No need to shape it into a bird, though.]

Receipt for Knights of Pythias and Tweets of Old: Mark Felt, self-titled "Royal Order of the Genus Capra", writes: "A link is worth a thousand words: The Strange Case of the Mechanical Goat in the Fraternal Lodge."

* * *
Complete roundup of that
Madison Square Garden postcard word

In late March I featured an old postcard of Madison Square. The message on the back contained a word that was difficult to discern, and the meaning of the message changed, depending on how you deciphered it.

Here's a recap that repeats some previous information but also presents it all in one place...

This undated postcard was mailed to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the message on the back is fairly easy to decipher with the exception of one word. And that one word is crucial.

Mother,
I am going over to Brooklyn. it is 2 o'clock a.m.
[???] in this Joint are no good.
Johnnie

So, that [???] is the elephant in the room. Intially, four parties, myself included, took a stab at it and compared it to all the other words and letters on the back of the postcard. The chief possibility, we thought then, would turn the final sentence into an ugly ethnic slur.

So, at that point, we thought the mystery word could be:

• Jews
• Jeus (a misspelling of the above?)
• Tens (a shortening of tenants?)
• Something else

Part 2: Later, Ephemera Detective Extraordinaire "Mark Felt" checked in with this assessment:

The abbreviation "Tens" refers to "Tenements", squalid living quarters common in lower Manhattan at the turn of the century.

Note the cursive uppercase "T" which contrasts markedly with the cursive uppercase "J" in "Joint".

Furthermore, leaving Manhattan for Brooklyn as a means of avoiding individuals of Jewish heritage would have been counterproductive, then as now.

The writer and sender of this postcard was one John ("Johnnie") H. Moulfair (1901-1964), son of John Sipert Moulfair (1880-1946) and the addressee Miriam M. (Selin) Moulfair (1882-1963). All names and dates are readily found on findagrave.com.

The exact year of issue of the 1¢ stamp is no simple task from [this] website alone, but should be between 1908 and 1923.

Still, if Johnnie were out and about in Manhattan at 2 AM — and if his postcard were postmarked at 2:30 AM — and based on the level of his handwriting and his date of birth in 1901, this card was most likely written and mailed in the early 1920s.

Part 3: But then, in response to Felt's comment, an anonymous commenter going by "L" left this tantalizing response: "It just sez 'Pens'. Compare the P to the one in "Penna" (nearly identical, except where the former faded), and note the lousiness of the pen the writer is using in several places — most significantly, in the two letters right before the sentence in question, which had to be gone over more than once."

Part 4: And, finally, this was Felt's rebuttal to "L": "The writer may very well have intended to write 'pen', but not in the sense of a writing utensil, rather 'any small enclosure in which someone or something can be confined'. See definition 1.2 under the second section here. That would make more sense in the context of the postcard."

So, to sum up, our likeliest choices are now:

• Tens (a shortening of tenements)
• Pens (writing utensil)
• Pens (small enclosure)
• Jews

We will never know the answer for certain, but I like the reader-submitted solutions of tens and pens (either variant) quite a bit, and I've now moved off my initial assumption that the writer was using a slur.

* * *
But wait, there's more...

The more F's the better, plus a little mystery: Karlee send me an email regarding this 2011 post: "Hi, Chris, I was doing some research on the PJ Mann Printery when I came across your blog page. I'm the great granddaughter of PJ Mann. In the mid-1930s the print shop moved locations from Calumet Avenue to 642 Conkey Street and was at that location until it closed in 1975. Thank you for posting that brain teaser."

Some 1965 Amazing Stories ads were too amazing to be true: Michael Bonesteel also emailed with this fun memory: "FYI, I ordered a number of books from the Werewolf Bookshop back in the late 1960s when I was about 12 or 13 years old. I always received the right books, but I also noticed that they always had a distinctive perfume-y odor to them. Not a bad smell, just peculiar. Maybe the owner burned a lot of incense."

Old-style Ruth Manning-Sanders library book borrower's card: Sometimes I get queries. This one is from Jessica, who wrote: "Hi Chris, I hope that you are well this evening. I was searching online for ephemera and specifically a library borrower card when I found your blog. I was wondering if you would allow me to use the image at the link below, to place on a shirt and/or tote to sell? I have an Etsy store, and I think there a lot of folks who would enjoy the nostalgia of this image."

Who am I to say no? You can check out the Ruth Manning-Sanders themed items at Jessica's Etsy store. I love the idea of folks walking around in a T-shirt featuring one of her library circulation cards.

Illustrated "mapback" on vintage Dell paperback "Death with Death": Meanwhile, I received this friendly email query from Deb: "Hello Mr. Man of a Thousand Interests! Do you know where or if there is a schedule of the artists who drew covers and maps for Dell by book?"

I don't know if there's a specific directory of the artists. The best resources I know are Bookscans.com this Flickr gallery. Plus, there are some articles that I note in the 2013 blog post.

Perhaps a reader can provide a better answer for Deb's specific question...

Advertisement for Murine Eye Remedy Co. in "The Rival Heiresses": This final comment is clearly from a Bot, but I wanted to share it because there's a response!

"Actually, I am facing some difficulties to understand the meaning of the blog. If you have any short video film related to your blog, then I would request you to share here. It would be great help."

There is a short video film for that. This was created by Wendyvee in early 2013:

The evolution of Barry Leffler's KCC2188 QSL cards

Shown above are a pair of old QSL cards for York, Pennsylvania, ham-radio operator Barry Leffler. They show the evolution of Leffler's response cards for his communications under call sign KCC2188.

The first card, undated and never used, is a badly mimeographed, five-inch-wide card for "The Fantastic Five Watts" of "Little Red." There's a little map indicating the rough location of York County and York City in southcentral Pennsylvania.

The second card, the more standard 5½ inches wide, is fully professional. "Little Red" was apparently using Vocaline Commaire as his ham-radio setup. (I found some good photos and technical data regarding various Vocaline transceivers, but if anyone knows more about the history of that company and its products, please drop a note in the comments.)

The second card was never used, either. It includes the standard lines on the back to fill in date, channel, signal strength, etc. Also, oddly, there's a pre-printed reference to KCC 3373 — a different call sign — on the back of the card. That's Ronald E. (Joe) Sellers, who I wrote about in January. I wonder if Sellers did some side work helping fellow ham-radio enthusiasts with the design and/or printing of their QSL cards.

Click on the QSL cards label below to see 30 other Papergreat posts related to QSLs and ham radio.

"Mountain Man" QSL card

This undated, never-used York County QSL card, with the call sign KCD 0301, was for Art and Jo Mumie of Columbia, Pennsylvania. Apparently "Mountain Man" was their nickname, and there is a definite "out in the woods" feel to the illustration on the card.

The ham operators' full names are probably Arthur A. Mumie and Joann Ann Mumie. They are senior citizens now and probably trying to keep their lives quiet and low key, so there's no need to delve any further on them.

It's enough that this little slice of one of their hobbies from about a half-century ago has now been saved for posterity. It's a cool QSL!

From the readers: Witches, fruitcake, QSLs, Jell-O, mysteries and more

This is long overdue. It's been nearly 100 days since the last full "From the readers" segment. So there are a lot of dandy contributions from all of you to present today. Let's get started!

Halloween Countdown #3: Things you shouldn't put in Jell-O: Audrey Hutchison writes: "Actually if you use lime jello, sour cream, celery, green olives with pimento cut in half and tuna it's good. Don't use a mold, use a flat casserole dish so it can be plated with other salads or fruit."

Mystery photo of riflewoman: Jim Fahringer writes: "I really like the idea of writing your own story to go with this picture. When I taught 4th Grade I would purchase all the old (mostly Victorian era) photographs I could find reasonably. We would then study the culture of the era. Each student would receive an antique picture and pretend that they were the person illustrated. They would make up a name and tell all about themselves including things like: why was this picture taken, what were you doing in this picture, what kind of things did you have to do to get ready for your portrait, what were your hobbies and pastimes, explanation of your hairstyle (How did you do it, how long did it take, etc.), description of your clothing (was it comfortable or were things like starched collars and corsets really miserable to wear), family description, difficulties and trials (like disease, death, war, and other disasters), your occupation or chores, how you died, etc. These neat old photos are a wonderful tool that can stimulate creative writing in the classroom."

Chris adds: Thanks for sharing this story, Jim! What a wonderful idea for using ephemera as a teaching aide.

Witches, pickles and good fun at an 1893 party in Pittsburg, Kansas: Stealth Research Assistant and Executive Vice President in Charge of Ephemera Reunions "Mark Felt" writes: "For the second time I quote Fargo by the Coen brothers: 'I'm not sure I agree with you 100% on your police work.' This site gives the date of your article as March 16 (not 23), 1893 — or might the same blurb have been published twice, one week apart? 'But' (or even 'Bud') is not the first name of the individual in question, nor is 'Byrt' his last name. Rather, 'Byrt' is short for 'Albert', just as 'Bella' (Byrt's sister) is short for 'Isabella', and both shared the last name 'Maxwell' (before her marriage to Otto Greef) — see Find A Grave. Thus, Byrt and Bella (Albert and Isabella — elsewhere 'Isabelle') were brother and sister who hosted the 'Witch Party'. Byrt sold bicycles as of 1894. Byrt's wife Estelle also died young (at age 38 in 1910), as did his sister Bella (as you stated). Byrt and Estelle's son Donald fought in World War II, dying shortly thereafter. Donald's wife Thelma died in 1980 in Texas — and there the clues stop for that particular branch of the family tree. A collateral descendant, Stephen E. Greef, is a genealogist, and presumably knows how to fit the remaining pieces of the puzzle together."

Chris adds: Thanks for the corrections and great legwork! This article definitely appeared The Pittsburg Daily Headlight twice, on both March 16 and March 23, 1893. The two pages on which the article appears are otherwise different, so it seems they just published it twice. Newspapers can make mistakes, it turns out. Though that doesn't make their content fake.

Also with regard to this post, commenter "Kansas Kate" adds: "If you're on Facebook, check out the group Historic Pittsburg Kansas, where there's a c.1902 photo of the Greef house at 407 W Euclid."

1970's "The Halloween Hut" by Miriam Fuller: Joan writes: "Seeing books get discontinued is what triggers 'mild fear' in me. Of course, it's also how I got Nobody Plays With a Cabbage, so..."

Cheerful Card Company can help you earn extra money for the holidays: There are three more new comments from the post that has kept everyone buzzing over the years.

• Wendy Applegate writes: "I recently went through a box from my grandparents home and found 11 Salesman samples folders that have these cards in them. They look to be from the mid 50's. I love the suggestions on how to personalize your cards 'Mr. and Mrs. J. Bell and their little "Chimes"' is one of the suggestions. Love them! Not sure what to do with them, but so cool."
• Anonymous writes: "I sent in the ad from the back of a comic when I was 8. I sold Cheerful Cards to all of my family, friends and neighbors. It was my first job, first money of my own and a strong lesson on meeting and dealing with different kinds of people, including some difficult cases. I would not take anything for the experience now and I am just retiring at 66! Wonderful, vivid delightful memories! You are simply uninformed if you think we were all 'suckers'!"
• Zizzybob writes: "I worked for the Cheerful Card Company in White Plains NY in the summer of 1965. What a nightmare that was. It was like being in prison."

Memory from the Gettysburg Times: Joan writes: "This is a wonderful story that I cannot believe I'd never heard before. Thanks for sharing it!"

Fruitcake: Lost corners, rabbit holes and recipes: Mark Felt writes: "In Alex Cox's 1984 cult film Repo Man, Emilio Estevez discovers that his love interest (played by actress Olivia Barash) works at a mysterious venue named United Fruitcake Outlet. (The initials belie the venue's true intent.) Skip to minute 2:47 here.

Chris adds: Fruitcake and UFOs. Perfect!

* * *
Wendyvee Says...

Wendyvee, who authors the fabulous Roadside Wonders blog, is a frequent and loyal reader and commenter, so I'm gathering her feedback together in this one section...

Pete and Jeff's lending library: "Wow, that brings back memories. In third grade, my friend Nadine and I spent hours making index cards and card holders for all of her books. Same summer that we wrapped yarn around glass Pepsi bottles and thought we would make a killing. Where was Etsy when we needed it?"

1969 Jersey Devil postcard illustrated by Ed Sheetz: "The Pine Barrens have lots of cool roads and historical places to explore. Load up the Scooby Mystery Machine. Of little, or no, consequence, 'puckish' is one of my favorite adjectives."

Postcard: Graffiti-covered "student prison" in Heidelberg: "Great piece. I'm going to form a band ... and we will be called The Academic Miscreants. You can say you knew me 'when.'"

Book cover: "The Dunwich Horror" (from Bart House Books): "I'm not sure if I love this cover or hate it ... which is not necessarily a bad thing."

Old keno pamphlet from the Stardust casino in Las Vegas: "The Stardust still hasn't been topped in Las Vegas logo design (IMO)."

Vernacular photos: Fire trucks and the great outdoors: "Great found photos. I have an everlasting love for pedal cars."

Florence Darlington: Without her, there would be no Papergreat: "Oooh, a mystery. Hope we find out more about her at some point."

Spoiler #1: There is another post about Florence Darlington coming.
Spoiler #2: It's going to be sad.

Have a very Fritos Thanksgiving: "'More and more people are being captivated by the enticing taste of these new Mexican crisp chips, and are constantly finding manifold uses for their nourishing goodness.' ... I now feel my degree was a waste of time. I shall never be able to achieve such levels of cazzate elevate."

P.S. from Chris: I should also note, with regard to this post, that readers Undine and Johnna Fick believe that the recipes for "Fritos Dressing" sounds "pretty good."

Bettina's Thanksgiving in the country (and more): "'Two Business Girls Entertain Two Others in Their Kitchenette Apartment' ... The most interesting 10 words that I've read today."

Snapshot & memories: Me and Pop-Pop in the kitchen: "I love everything about this post. One set of my grandparents had Door #3 too. That noise ... and the sound of my Grandmother's giant creaky-doored gas range are the soundtrack to my childhood visits."

Ink blotter for Cook, Watkins & Patch memorials: "Technacraft seems a very modern product description for a company that existed so long ago. My marketing ancestors were slinging "jargon" even then."

Learn about the Solar System with Swift's Space Travel Guide: "1. I tend to overuse the word fabulous; but this is FABULOUS.
2. I want to make Interplanetary Delight (unless it involves shredded coconut or anchovies). Heaven Forbid should it include both.
3. I want every single raygun on "Doc Atomic's Attic of Astounding Artifacts"

Some vintage board games you probably won't get for Christmas: "I don't think we ever played it; but I think I have a copy of Bermuda Triangle that was in a box lot at an auction once."

1914 postcard: "Road to White Horse Ledge and Echo Lake": "Now I want to go the New Hampshire to find this ghostly gentle man and his carriage."

1970s Christmas snapshots of me: "Awwww, loved all these pics. We got snow block makers for Christmas too. If I recall correctly, the year that we got them was particularly snowy so we used them a lot!"

Science-fiction book cover: "Invaders from Rigel": "Best sentence that I've read all day: 'The white knight, he wrote in a fit of impish perversity, is climbing up the poker.'"

Book cover: "Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint": "Holy leaping creepers ... that's a cute cover."

* * *

Colorful 1960s QSL card from the White Rose City: JJ writes: "When I came across this name [Ronald E. Sellers] in a [USS Blue Ridge] link it rang a bell, especially his academic studies of graduate computer science. I found his name in the '73 BR on-line cruise book in Operations as an officer, but because of the strange way they listed the scanned names on that page, I'm not sure of his mug. I didn't find him in either the '72 or '75 cruise books for BR and I have no other memories of that name. It is relevant to me because he may have been in that time period on BR that I got the Operation Buckshot assignment for helping EW to track those first Soviet satellites for radar tracking of our bird farms (US-A, US-P). I was told by my officers that they may have an officer aboard BR that could help me, but never heard any more about him or his name."

Mystery: John Briden's Circus in Newark, New Jersey: Herb Kingsland says that John Briden, Mini-Circus Ring Master, was a longtime next-door neighbor of his father's family in Newark, New Jersey. Kingsland shares some of his memories in this Facebook album.

Edward Drosback's 1932 Christmas card to John Bryant: Regarding this 2012 post, a reader writes: "Ed Drosback was my grandfather. Where did you find this Christmas card?"

Chris replies: That's a great question, after all these years. Most likely it came from a lower-end antiques store here in southcentral Pennsylvania. There's one in York New Salem that I frequent, and I know I've purchased Christmas items there. It might also have been purchased for me as a present, by someone who knows I love ephemera, in which case it still probably came from this general part of Pennsylvania. Sorry I can't be more specific after all this time.

Vintage ink blotter supporting Quigley for mayor of Chelsea: Graham Quigley writes: "Hi there! Wonderful to read this. I am the youngest grandson to the late Mayor Lawrence F. Quigley. My father was Lawrence F. Quigley Jr. He passed away in 1983 when I was 8 years old. I never got a chance to meet my grandfather as he passed before I was born."

Bookmobiles, #FridayReads and some recent articles worth reading: Tom from Garage Sale Finds writes: "The Bookmobile would come once a month to my elementary school. It was always exciting for me because I had access to books our school library didn't carry. There was no public library nearby. I don't remember when I stopped seeing the Bookmobile, but I would guess it was soon after our town finally got its own branch of the country library."

A mysterious Daisie: Mark Felt writes: "The obscured initial before the letter 'A' on the calling card appears to be 'E.' A certain 'E.A. Daisy [sic] Roehrer' was a graduate of Ephrata High School in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. According to this source, she graduated from that institution in 1895. That would place her year of birth in or around 1877, consistent with the year indicated on the gravestone you referenced above; however, the spelling of her first and last names remains inconsistent."

One child is chosen to be "It": Joan writes: "I want to refuse to comment on account of the floating pun, but I will play along and say we played a LOT of Red Rover all the way up through high school."

Coupons from the E.H. Koester Bakery Co.: Pop Pop writes: "We have a large, heavy metal tray with Koester logo. Love the weight of it."

Book cover: "Cloe Spin and her Happy Family": Joan writes: "I think it's incredibly sexist that Cloe and her mother need to cover themselves but the men don't. Whatever."

The Hams of Vesuvius, Virginia: Robert Hulvey writes: "Hi Chris. Well, it has been nearly 3 years. I had sent my mom a note about this, but she didn't respond, so I forgot about it. Anyway, she just sent it to me again so I came back to this site. I don't suppose you ran across the book again? I'm sure my mom could tell you a lot more about her father than I. They lived in Staunton, VA, along with his wife's mother (my great grandmother Garber, nee Curd). His mother, Rosa Ella whom you mentioned, lived right next door when I was a kid. He served in WW2, I believe in Iceland and in Germany. P.S. I am still thoroughly baffled as to why anyone would send an algebra book to an 'oyster and fruit' company, or why any company would sell both oysters and fruit. I think bartering was a more common thing back then, as my mom tells me that her father once traded a gun for a flute she still has, so maybe he traded the book for something. I'd also guess that AMH was probably his sister, Maxine, whose full maiden name was Audrey Maxine Ham. She passed away just a couple of years ago."

The Lost Corners of Paul Crockett: Anonymous writes: "Actually Crockett didn't live near the family at Spahn. He came into contact with the family in the desert as he was a prospectors. He ended up becoming the manager of Brooks and Paul's band. Later he told Paul he could heal Paul of cancer if he abandoned his family and paid a lot of money, according to Paul. He also ended up leading his own cult which Brooks was part of, again according to Paul."

Lost Corners: The Skyrim dog tale: Joan writes: "I KNOW THAT DOG. At first I thought the photo actually went with the tweets and I about lost my mind that there was a dog out there that looked JUST LIKE COBY. But then I figured it out. (It's 11:20 p.m. and I am not doing my best mental work at this time.)"