Thanks.

I recall having some fabulous apple pandowdy dessert in Winchester years ago.

I love old postcards. They are so bright and cheerful.

Sometimes the lettering and handwriting isn't that good...





This is "San Diego, the coming Metropolis of So., Cal"

The sender of this card has handwriting almost as bad as mine.

The rest, I don't know.

I had relatives living in San Diego in the 'twenties, that's why I picked up this card in a thrift store.

This is from the same place...



(I figured, since you'd already warned people...)

She was among the first group of Navy Nurses sent there when the Naval Hospital was completed. Most of the photos are labeled Santa Margarita Ranch, not Camp Pendleton - that is how early along she was there.

Among the pictures was a set of little picture cards - business card sized things with a picture on one side and a description on the other. One was for Ramona's Marriage Place, Old Town, San Diego, California. Apparently it was one of the attractions back then.

This weekend I get to scan her pictures from when she was transferred to Hawaii, Aiea Heights Hospital. One of her memories is that she got to see many of the men she had met while at Camp Pendleton when they returned from various battles across the Pacific Islands and she treated their wounds in Hawaii. She says that the men were happy to see a familiar face after all they had been through.

Other pictures from the Camp Pendleton set include beach parties at Oceanside. It's cool seeing my Mom as a young woman having fun on the beach and horseback riding on the ranch.

But I don't spend time actively seeking them out because I already have too many!

I always scan family pictures, that way everyone can have them.

The story of Ramona was still a big deal to my grandparents' generation, their mythical California, a myth promoted by the Southern Pacific Railroad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramona

Thanks! In my thick head I was thinking it was someone the postcard writer knew.

But he did it virtually. He'd search eBay and copy the images. After he passed away last August, I found files and files of the images he'd saved. Some are neat, some are too pixelated to appreciate since he only saved a thumbnail. I'm glad he didn't actually buy the things - we have hundreds of photos and other things the family has saved for generations. I'm trying to scan them and organize them.

For instance, Mom's pictures she collected while in service. They were just thrown in envelopes and plastic bags, no sorting, no organization, few notes. I understand a little - quite a few men she met and she didn't want Dad to be jealous, I guess. But we never saw them while Dad was alive, just Dad's momentos of HIS time in the Navy.

Now I want to get Mom's memories organized while she is still here to help. At 93 her short term memory might be shot, but given some time, she can dredge up her memories from when she was young.

I'm putting together a book of the pics of my oldest sister's life - her sons were not old enough when she died for them to have much memory of her so it is for them. I also want to do that for Mom and try to sit down with her and have her tell me more about the pictures I have of her when she was young. Those will be my summer projects - I'll get to spend a LOT of time on them while it's hot outside.

We saw Prince of Wales
Today also visited Ramona's birthpl marriage
place- read Ramona by
Helen Jackson and I will
tell you much that is interesting
Unc. Will

Ramona is a book published in 1884. My husband has a copy, and after reading the Wikipedia entry about it, and with my husband's recommendation, I think I'll read it.

I looked up the addressee on your card, thinking she might still be alive if she had been a young girl in 1920. I found that she was in the 1940 census at age 39, so she was 19 when the postcard was sent to her, and would be 113 now.

Once I bought an old postcard at an antique shop here in Northern California because I was surprised to see addressee was an old family friend of my grandmother in New York state. They were both born in the 1880's, so died quite a while ago.
I sent it to the addressee's daughter, and she thought that was cool!

www.cardcow.com
You can look at the fronts and backs (some have a message and an old stamp, some are blank), buy them, or send one as an e-card. There are many categories; towns, states, foreign countries, holidays, animals, comic, flowers & plants, amusement parks, etc.
They will appraise a postcard collection or shoebox full of postcards at no charge you can sell postcards on their site, or at auction, for a low consignment fee.
I just wish all postcards had dates on them; the ones that are postmarked do, and some have a copyright date, but many don't.

Handley High School on your Winchester postcard looks pretty old and substantial. I looked it up and it's still there. I was glad to see it hadn't been torn down and replaced with a modern building that would likely have to be rebuilt every 40 years or so.