Sunshine Park, Orlando, Florida

Sunshine Park, Orlando, FL

Orlando, Fla.  February 2, 1940

We have not played as much shuffleboard as we did before the cold.  Even with the sun beaming on you, you could freeze to death.  Today was lovely and in a few days well will have forgotten the cold.  All the flowers are gone but soon there will be others to take their place.  Carolyn Mara is entertaining us tomorrow night.

Love,

S. Downing

Mrs. Harold Holbrook

Arch Street

Dover, N.H.


Google Maps will show a Sunshine Park in Orlando, but it was a National Guard Armory from 1938 to 1983, and is officially known as the Orlando Downtown Recreation Complex, with no shuffleboard courts in sight.  Shuffleboard as a sport started in Daytona in 1913, reaching its peak in the 1940's, especially among the growing retired population in Florida.  According to the Florida Shuffleboard Association, there are no teams currently playing in Orlando anymore, and I can't recall any surviving courts within the city limits.  If you want to know more about the sport, the blog Visual Epherma tackles the question of preserving this sport seriously and thoughtfully, along with photos of existing (and sadly deteriorating) courts around central and south Florida.

Dover, New Hampshire has been a thriving commercial center since the 1700's.  Through shipbuilding, cotton and brick manufacture, and the University of New Hampshire, the city has flourished for centuries.  (at least that's what the city's website implies.)    The Social Security Death Index lists a number of Harold Holbrooks who would be an appropriate age to receive this postcard in 1940, and there is a Harold Holbrook scholarship at the University of New Hamsphire's Whittemore Business School that started in 1972 in a memorial to the former banker.  There's also an honorable mention of a Harold Holbrook in minutes from the city in 1945 that praise Mr. Holbrook for his war bond efforts.

Coincidentally, there is a prominent photographer in south Florida named Carolyn Mara.  She is most likely way to young to have entertained our writer.

Washington’s Headquarters, Valley Forge, PA

July 29, 1918

Dear Friend:

I am glad to hear from Mrs. N. that you are all well and hope you will all have a good summer in spite of the heat here.  Well it can’t last forever. 

Yours, Mrs. Hammond

Mrs. Adams

Brookline, N.H.

R.F.D. 40

George Washington’s headquarters has been a tourist attraction since the birth of our country, but this little house, built by Isaac Potts in 1773, didn’t get designated as a National Historic Landmark until 1972, almost 200 years later.   Archeological digs have revealed quite a bit about life during and after the American Revolution- they even have a blog that documents recent activity at this National Park. 

Of course, my focus is on the identities of Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Hammond.  Postal addresses from the early 20^th century omit much of the information we take for granted today.  The town of Brookline, New Hampshire and surrounding Hillsborough County have historical societies that link to genealogical information such as marriages through 1912.  Further research shows there was an Alacia Hammond married to a Frank A. Austin in 1907, so perhaps in this small New England town, Alacia had a sister who traveled to Pennsylvania for some patriotic sightseeing. 

The record high for Valley Forge in July was 99 degrees set in 1988. 

As Mrs. Hammond states, “Well, it can’t last forever.”

St. Petersburg, Florida (Sunken Gardens)

February 16, 1971

228 ½ 12 Ave No.

St. Petersburg, FL 33701

Hi Ardeele.  Here we are in the sunny south and some days not so sunny.  On the whole it has been very nice.  Guess you have had a bad winter.

Love Pauline + Willie(Nellie?)

Mrs. Robert (McCombies?)

75 Manor Drive

Portsmouth New Hamp

03801 


Sunken Gardens was built by a plumber.  In 1903, George Turner drained a lake that was on his property and set clay tiles around the muck that would provide the rich soil for his garden.  Through three generations and the purchase of a former Coca-Cola bottling plant, Sunken Gardens thrived as the tourist destination it is today.  Facing financial hard times, the city of St. Petersburg bought the property in 1999, restoring it to its former splendor.  Growing up in Tampa, I remember many family and field trips to this place, and how boring it was without the thrill rides and shows I had come to expect as a Florida boy living near Busch Gardens and Adventure Island in Tampa.  


Portsmouth, New Hampshire is a very old city, founded in 1653.  It's the birthplace of John Paul Jones, the naval hero and Ronnie James Dio, the rock hero.  The small house still stands at 75 Manor Drive, but the Rockingham County website does not seem to support property searches by address.  There are a few obituaries, and even a sex offender with variations on Robert McCombie (McCombies?), but neither birthrates nor surviving relatives match with anything on this postcard.


This postcard is typical of many postcards from Florida, with the sender really rubbing in the fact that it's sunny and warm with no snow.  I admit I do the same thing every winter to my brother in Seattle by phone.  (Oh, you had an ICE storm!  Wow!  I went to the beach!)  But old Pauline and Willie really put an passive-aggressive spin on things, with the right scintilla of concern- "guess you had a bad winter."