This is a Real Photo Postcard from the flea market in Detroit Lakes Minnesota.
Main Street someplace…can you guess where?
Mon eve Dear Bobby Here we are tonite bad hotel rooms the last three nites. Lots of snow here had dirt in the gas line today again it may be ice sat on the road an hour this morning before we got it going Hope to be home tomorrow if roads are nice still icy in spots did not go up to Annas sister Mom
It was sent to Mr Merlin Martinson Grand Prairie Texas Gen Del
What is very interesting about this postcard is that if you nice the postmark…MPLS & OMAHA TR 34 Jan 31 1949 R.P.O.
This postcard was sorted and postmarked in a railroad mail car. Train 34 R.P.O. most likely stands for Railroad Postal Office.
Main Street East Belmond IA
I have a friend that lives in Belmond so I mailed him the postcard…he enjoyed getting it.
Thanks for stopping by.
What a great postcard and I know your friend treasures it.
ReplyDeleteIt's a full circle! :)
ReplyDeleteI found a postcard photo taken from about a block further west and about 15 years later:
http://www.cardcow.com/355092/looking-up-main-street-belmond-iowa/
Belmond was hit hard by a tornado in 1966. Google Street view shows how the street has changed:
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.8459,-93.614378,3a,75y,81.49h,93.84t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s8ACNFPe7Lf6q7pEsB7s-_A!2e0!6m1!1e1
Yes it was a horrid tornado, the old timers still talk about it ...including our friend:)
DeleteMerlin Robert Martinson was born in 22 Jun 1932 and lived in Cokato, Wright County, Minnesota as a young boy. He passed away on 24 Oct 2002 and is buried in Cokato Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery.
ReplyDeleteGood find. I was wondering about the name 'Bobby'. So now we know where it comes from.
DeleteUgh. Dirt in the gas line. Reminds me of all the car troubles people used to have. Seems a rare thing today to see troubles like that, as long as a person is diligent about car upkeep. I think they've engineered those contraptions to be fool-proof, if at all possible.
ReplyDeleteI love seeing the old cars. Our town used to have street lights like that but of course they were replaced by more "efficient" ones.
ReplyDeleteBrings to mind James Taylor's "Our Town" from the movie "Cars:" 'Main Street doesn't look like Main Street anymore..."
ReplyDeleteIt is so interesting how this postcard made its rounds, and now resides in the town of its purchase. Purchased in Belmond, traveled on the train to perhaps Minneapolis and Omaha, sent to Texas to Merlin, who at some point ended up in his birthplace of Cokato again, and then the card winds up at a Detroit Lakes flea market. I wonder if Merlin hung on to it all of his life, then it was sold off after his death by someone that didn't value it? I wonder if the family was originally from Minnesota, moved to Texas for awhile (as Mom states they will be home soon and it is addressed to Texas), but was back in Minnesota to graduate from high school in 1950, according to his obituary. (http://www.herald-journal.com/obits/2002/martinson1002.html). I'd love to know how often that postcard passed hands through the years and the stories behind all of those hands. :-)
ReplyDelete