I saw this on eBay about six years ago and couldn’t resist sending the owner a couple of bucks.  This is an envelope sent from the Overstreet Hardware Company of Lexington, Kentucky on 12 May 1942 to the Karr Range Company of Belleville, Illinois, and is proof that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

I’m not able to find any mention anywhere of the Overstreet company, but the Karr Range Company made range ovens for years.  An example is pictured at right, and one that’s in good shape will fetch about $200-$400 today.  One wonders if the Overstreets were selling them bolts or something.  To my knowledge, this company is in no way related to my family, but I do have some roots in that part of the country.

Also of interest is the fact that this is a postal envelope (with the 3 cents postage embossed onto the envelope) along with a return address made by a printing press.  Did the postal service offer items like this back then?  Or was the return address printed after the fact by a third party?

Today on a whim, I stopped by an antique shop on my lunch break, one that I’ve driven by dozens of times in the course of my work. I scored what appears to be four separate collections of cards. Although the cards were being sold individually for $2 or $3, I was able to make a deal and walked off with every postcard the man had for about 12 cents each.

The first collection was a small group of humorous linen postcards from the 1930s, inside of a brown album with the legend “Post-Cards” on the front. The album appears to be contemporary with the cards and was sold to the original owner (according to a sticker inside the front cover) by E.H. Ketchum Co., Stationers, 24 Main Street, Jamestown, NY. There were several duplicates, which will wind up on eBay; I’ll be posting each card to the site around the same time that I post the duplicates on eBay.

The second collection was in a 1950s-era white photo album, containing mostly linen postcards from the late 40s, with some early chrome postcards from the 50s and 60s. About 15-20% of them were addressed to Miss Kay Anthony of Spartanburg, SC; it appears that she had a few regular correspondents, and that their goal was to exchange postcards for their collections. Kay had almost 200 postcards in her album.

The third collection was in a 1970s-era brown photo album, and contained mostly vintage chromes, but with several early white-border cards and linens, along with a lot of deckled Continental-sized cards from the 70s. The album was designed to hold 304 photos and was full of that number of cards. In addition, in pockets on the inside front and back covers, was a lot of ephemera: souvenir shop pictures of local sights, ridiculously oversized souvenir postcards, and the like.

Last but not least, the fourth collection was a cardboard box with just over 500 cards, another very good mix, but again mostly vintage and modern chromes. It also contained a couple dozen souvenir books. A great many of the cards were written by someone called “Wart” from places across the US, sent back to a couple in Stone Mountain, GA (probably Mom and Dad). In future posts I will refer to cards from this box as the Wart Collection; while the phrase itself sounds disgusting, it’s short and to the point. Wart was kind enough to have purchased a few duplicate postcards here and there as well, mostly of things like aircraft from the Smithsonian.

In other words, my collection has almost doubled overnight, but I’m still sticking with my plan to post an average of a postcard a day (well, maybe three or four on weekends). I don’t expect to start posting any cards from these new collections for at least a couple of weeks — not until I figure out what I have.

Oh, lest I forget, in today’s mail, there was another batch of 102 cards from Florida, mostly linens with the odd white-border or vintage chrome. I bought these on a whim on eBay because these cards remind my wife of her childhood there.

I hope you’ll enjoy seeing all these cards; I’m looking forward to posting them.

“…Located in the health-giving southeast coast… Situated along the Boulevard to the Beach in a beautiful three acre Park of Tropical Palms, Shrubbery, Flowers and Fruits… Surf Bathing… Boating… Fishing… Golfing… Shuffle-Board and other Sports for your entertainment and happiness… All outside rooms with private bath or shower… Rates $2.50 up.” Oh, and it was also AAA approved.

This “Genuine Curteich Chicago ‘C.T. Photo-Colorit’ Post Card” is in pristine condition. The production number of 8A-H2121 indicates that it was manufactured in 1938, and the stampbox asks you to “place one cent stamp here.” I spotted this card on eBay in early 2003, and bought it because it’s such a beautiful card, and because the subject was within driving distance of my home at the time. I paid $1.50.

Here’s the Dania Beach Hotel today, still in operation (so far as I know), looking a little worse for wear, and doubtless charging more than $2.50 for a room: