Moonlight Over Lower Tampa Bay Showing Main and Channel Bridge of Sunshine Skyway

Touring the Sunshine Skyway is like going to Sea in your Automobile.  Fifteen miles of sun, sea, and sky and stops on the wide causeways are permitted to fish and enjoy the warm surf.  The Sunshine Skyway is reached from the Norht by U.S. 19, from the South by U.S. 41 and is part of the new West Florida Coast Speedway

Saint Petersburg, Fla., March 1, 1960

2-29-60

Sunshine, oranges, grapefruit & 78 degrees warm.  This is hard to beat.  Hope the snow melts a bit by the end of week.

Robert Cook

Mrs. Hazel Hawley

North Street

Morenci, Mich.

Morenci, Michigan is a small town of about 2,400 people situated in the middle of Michigan's shared border with Ohio.   The town was founded in 1833, and the residents there seem intent on preserving a "small town" way of life.  Unfortunately, there is no Hazel Hawley mentioned in that small town way of life for the past 100 years.  The Oak Grove Cemetery has three members of the Hawley family interred, with the most recent burial happening in 1906.  


"Going to sea in your automobile" is a very poor choice of words, considering what would happen to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge 20 years after this postcard was sent.

Suicide Oak in City Park, New Orleans, La.

Suicide oak in City Park is one of the old monarchs of the forest, which add so much to the beauty of New Orleans’ Parks with their drapery of gray Spanish Moss.  The story of the tree is that in 12 years 16 men committed suicide under its branches.

New Orleans, La., December 10, 1945

December 10, 1945

Dear Irene,

Hi!  Guess who!  I’m down in New Orleans with Steve while he gets his discharge, but it isn’t going very fast and I guess we won’t be back for Christmas like we planned.  The weather is warm but damp. 

Love, Audrey and Steve

Mrs. Donald Miller

232 Cobrain St., S.W.

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Only New Orleans could make a tourist attraction from a natural suicide assisting device.  City Park in New Orleans also has the Dueling Oak, so homicide is included as well.  During World War II, the city was home to a large Personnel Separation Center for the U.S. Navy, so perhaps Steve was returning from a Pacific Theatre Tour.   If Audrey is thinking that the process will take 15 more days, did the sheer numbers of returning servicemen jam up the system, or was the process always this slow?

Maybe this postcard was a subtle cry for help.

War Department Theatre, Camp Grant, Illinois

Rockford, Ill, May 14, 1942

Pvt Don W. Rich

Co. A 29^th BR 3^rd Pl

Camp Grant, Ill

Hello Kids:

How is the farming coming along.  Is your garden producing yet.  Leo Everst add. Is co. A 29 BR ist Pl.  He is just a couple of bldgs from me. 

So Long,

Don

Mr. and Mrs. Donald Miller

232 Colrain St., S.W.

Grand Rapids, Michigan

I'm not certain if our military got franking privileges in 1942, but I do like Private Miller scrawling the word "free" where the stamp goes.  That's just the sort of Moxie Uncle Sam needs, Private!  In all serious, I am not familiar with World War II era Army structure, so I ask any readers to see if Private Miller's address contains more than just where his mail was delivered.

Donald and Irene must have moved in 1942, since since their Floridian winter resident friend Vicki was sending her correspondence to a different address.  Unfortunately, again this residence is home to more empty lots and redevelopment.  The Miller's new address is now the home of a branch of Cofessco Fire Protection Systems, which has only been in business for the last 41 years.  There are plenty of houses in the 100 block of Colrain Street, which leads one to believe that the warehouse development in the 200 block happened sometime after 1942.

Camp Grant is also a place no more as well.  Used as an induction center for draftees during both World Wars and the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression, most of the Camp was razed to become the Chicago Rockford Airport.   There is a museum (listing only-no website), a great website with photos of the camp during World War One and a restaurant called "The Command Post" in one of the few remaining buildings.

It is also very probable that the Millers, like an estimated 20 million other patriotic Americans had planted a Victory Garden.

Florida Moon

Lake Worth, Fla.  February 11, 1942

407 N. “M” Ave., Lake Worth, Fla.

I would like to hear from you if you have time.  c/o Mrs. Camp

Dear Irene & Dear-


Well I got here fine & on time.  Are having loads of fun but still can’t believe we are ourselves.  Went swimming in the salty brine Tuesday & got in our eyes, nose and mouth.  It smarts too.

Gee the town is just beautiful.  Palm trees with coconuts, hibiscus in bloom & several other flowers.  Are going to drive to Palm Beach this P.M.

Gee this card doesn’t hold much.

Love Vicki

P.S.  We will see no full moon while here now.  Shucks!

Mr. and Mrs. D.W. Miller

141 Goldsboro Pl. N.E.

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Vicki, tantalized by the beautiful full moon on the front of her inadequately spaced postcard, suddenly realized that she came to Florida for the moon!  Vicki-  it's called "the Sunshine State" for a reason!  Still, Vicki's style of writing calls to mind some fast-talking dame of a 1940's movie, with just the right balance of poetry and interjections.

Sadly, Vicki's winter getaway is now a parking lot for the Sacred Heart School which opened about two years after this postcard was sent.  As discovered in previous posts, the Miller's residence suffered a similar fate, so it's difficult to discover exactly who the Millers were, even though we now know Mr. Miller's wife's name.

Municipal Auditorium, Lake Worth, Florida

Lake Worth, Fla., February 17, 1942

Dear Irene:

I am a lovely shade of pink today- just mild case of sunburn.  No matter how careful I am, I manage to resemble a well-cooked lobster.  I was going to write before, but I couldn’t because I didn’t get sunburned until today.  We’re still enjoying every minute here.

Love- Ubendeer?

Mr. and Mrs. D.W. Miller

141 Goldsboro Pl. N.E.

Grand Rapids, Michigan

This is on the top of the list for the lamest excuse for not writing.  I didn’t get sunburned, no obviously I couldn’t write.  I can only put pen to paper unless I am going through horrific agony with lasting and perhaps permanent damage to my skin.  At least she's not "Great Balls of Fire" like Vicki was in yesterday's post.

By now, the Millers are probably horrified that the unforgiving sun is charring and disfiguring their friends in Florida.  Since Miller is a common surname, and Grand Rapids is a fairly large town, I still have not found any credible clues to their identity.

The Municipal Auditiorium in Lake Worth, FL (incorporated as Lucerne in 1912 by the Palm Beach Farms Company) is now home to City Hall and is one of the prominent points of their Historic District.

Florida's Stately Royal Palms

Lake Worth, Fla. February 17, 1942

The palms are beauts!  You are good.  You get 2 cards from me.  Lucky devils

L.W. Fla. 2-16-42

Dear Irene & D.

Well, Irene how does it see, to be a stay-at-home for a change.  On the 13^th I remarked that was the last day you worked.  Al wouldn’t write what I told her to write you so I will say it.  Right now I feel like great balls of fire but am as brown as a potato. Ran into Theda Koeze? Waolker? This P.M. at the beach.  The only day she expects to spend in Lake Worth.  Strange?

82 degrees here today- still zero up there?

Love Vicki

Mr. and Mrs. D.W. Miller

141 Goldsboro Pl. N.E.

Grand Rapids, Michigan


I don't know if I've ever described a sunburn as "Great Balls of Fire," but Vicki must have had a deep tan from that burn.

The Royal Palms pictured here are native Florida species, and were planted to line the streets in many south Florida communities.  I'm sitting under one right now.

As to the Miller family- we ran across Beatrice Miller yesterday, living in Lebanon, PA.  The Michigan Geneaologist from the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries lists a Miller and Cochran Furniture Store from 1894.  Their house no longer stands, most of it developed into a large campus of an unknown organization.  Another interesting coincidence is that a Dr. D.W. Miller, Jr. wrote a recent paper against water fluoridation that began in Grand Rapids, MI in 1945.  

New Florida Hotel, Lakeland, Fla.

January 9, 1947

Lakeland, Fla.

922 E. Lime St.

Dear Friends- You should load your car with eggs and come down.  75¢ a doz.  And they are shipped from Kansas.  Has been unusually warm ever since we came down. 

Gilmore (?) called one afternoon also Dr. and Mrs. Shepard

The Bilbraughs

Mr. and Mrs. Wm Leary

Remus, Mich

American Poultry Journal

WLS Chicago


The Florida Hotel in Lakeland, FL was built during Florida's land boom, opening in 1926 before the interior was fully completed.   The 9 story building quickly closed, and was re-christened as the New Florida Hotel in 1935, staying open until the early 1960's, when it became a senior center.  It has been restored into an apartment building that retains much of its historic character.

Remus, Michigan is a small community 76 miles west of Saginaw.  In 1907, the residents formed a Creamery Cooperative, and the town website has many more historic photos of the town in the middle of Michigan's lower peninsula.

The Bilbroughs were possible permanent residents of Lakeland, as indicated by a 1971 death listing and a 1972 Lakeland Ledger public notice executing the estate of a George Bilbrough.   Even though the house at 922 Lime St.  seems to exist, no property records show up for the address at the Polk County Porperty Appraiser's website.  A search for Dr. and Mrs. Shepard turns up no information, but there is a Shepard Road in Lakeland, with the same spelling, so perhaps the street was named for the Bilbrough's esteemed guests.

A William Leary is mentioned as a surviving brother in this 1967 obituary for a Mrs. Myrtie Beckwith.  The Internet Archive and Google Books have digitized several editions of the American Poultry Journal from the 1880's to the 1950's, but nothing authored by a William Leary appears.  According to this thepeoplehistory.com, the price of eggs in New Jersey was 64 cents, so perhaps the capitalistic Bilbroughs had some good advice for their northern friends, if only they could get a hold of a refrigerated truck to combat the 73 degree weather back then.