A Voice from the Past

Five years ago I went to Michigan to be present for the birth of our first grandchild. After that important event had come to pass my daughter and I, with the new baby in tow, made a few fun little trips around the area. One of the places we went was a large antique store. The store had a wall size old library card file. This large wooden piece had many rows of small drawers. In the drawers were old postcards that had been cataloged according to their subject. Food, flowers, cars, tractors, fishing, hunting- any subject that had ever been on a postcard were in those drawers. There was also one drawer for each of the fifty United States. I spent a lot of time digging in the Oregon drawer and ended up buying nearly every card in it. I think I bought forty or fifty Oregon themed antique postcards. I took them home and sold most of them at a local gift shop for twice what I paid for them.


But I did keep a few special ones for myself.

This is a picture of our valley, a view we see nearly every day.

This is the Hood River bridge that crosses the Columbia River to Washington state. We've driven over this bridge countless times.

This is a scene just up the road from our place. It's a paved highway to the mountain now.

The famous Multnomah Falls, before the development and bridge...the postmark on the back of this one is 1906.

...and another from after the walking bridge was built.

This is one of my favorites, but not for the picture of the gorge and the well known Crown Point on the front.

I kept it because of the sweet love letter on the back. It was written by a lonely soldier during World War II who was stationed in the Northwest, far from his midwestern home where his wife waited for his return.

3-29-42 11:30 a.m. Sunday

(Notice this is almost exactly 68 years ago!)

My Darling Mummie, Just a week ago today is when I received the letter you wrote on the 22nd. Gee Mummie I get awful blue, when I don't here from you. Mail don't mean much if you don't write. I walked Guard 8 hr a.m. awful tired, got off at 9:00 ate + shower + shaved + was in church at 10:00 was a splendid sermon, was thinking of you Continuously was praying for all + especially you my Darling Wife. They have silent prayer + Mummie, I prayed you'd be O.K. + we'd get together safe soon + never be parted again. I Love you Darling true blue as can be. Later in the week, you'll see why I went to town. I couldn't buy anything, but sure sent my Love and Kisses with what I did. I received a letter from "Al" I sure was surprised, but I thought it was from you, when I heard I had one I came off guard + looked up the sgt. and was disappointed it wasn't from my Mummie.

Such aching emotion. I'm sorry I don't have the card that was written following this one that may have had his name.