I have not yet been able to determine if the Florida trains of the 1930s were truly orange and green or whether the colorist was taking liberties.
Location unknown, FL
Category: Railroads
Houston, TX
I was not able to learn the significance of the word blockade on this card – search for “cotton blockade” and you either find Civil War references or links to this 1909 postcard.
The message on the back reads:
Dear Dick:
How is the old boy now? And how’s that old fusser G. Talbot? I’ve been switched around so much lately that I hardly know where I’m at. I just finished a trip in So. Tex. and now make a jump across La. into Arkansas. I have been shifted from boll weevil work and now am working on rice insect investigations with headquarters at Crowley La. I like this work better than b.w. for you are thrown in with a more progressive and intelligent set of farmers. I met Hemenway of Northampton in Beaumont last Monday. Say Dick would a list of the addresses of our class members inconvenience you too much. Let me know the news if there is any. I haven’t heard a word from anybody for ages. Best regards to you and G.T. from “Ich bin”.
Location unknown, Florida
Touring orange groves by train, on foot, or by automobile used to be a very popular attraction, judging by the number of postcards on the subject. I have been visiting my in-laws in Florida for over 25 years now and the idea has never come up once, evidence, I think, of how we have lost connection with where our food comes from.
Mt. Washington Cog Railway, Bretton Woods, NH
In recent years, this has been the site of the Railway to the Moon Steampunk Festival. I recently had to explain the term steampunk to a neighbor who thought I might have been talking about steamer trunks. Steamer trunks are pretty steampunk, agreed. Postcards, no so much. I think this crowd would prefer telegrams. On the whole, I don’t think I did a great job of explaining it. I might have to go to their 2021 event and attend the Steampunk 101 lecture.
In Italiano:
Di recente, questo è stato il sito del festival Ferrovia diretta alla Luna Steampunk. Negli ultimi tempi ho dovuto spiegare il termine steampunk a un vicino che ha pensato che forse volevo dire baule (il gioco di parole non funziona in italiano). I bauli sono steampunk, è vero. Le cartoline, non tanto. Penso che questo gruppo preferirebbero i telegrammi. In fondo, non penso che ho fatto una buona spiegazione. Magari devo andare alla festa nel 2021 e partecipare alla lettura pubblica “Steampunk 101”
(Lo steampunk è un genere della letteratura di fantascienza. Le storie possono svolgersi nel passato oppure nel futuro, ma la tecnologia è solo prima circa del 1930 (gli aeroplani e
la radio esistono, ma non i computer e la televisione o qualcosa di digitale e il carburante è il carbone). Qualche esempio classico sarebbero l’opere di H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, le storie diSherlock Holmes, Il dottor Jekyll e Mr. Hyde).
