Dear Unknown Friend
Christmas Postcard
21 December 1922

[ Postmark: New Orleans, 21 December 1922 ]

Dear Unknown Friend,

I have heard a lot
about you so I thought I
would write. I hope you
won't get angry because
I hope to hear from you
real soon. Wade has told
me so much about you I can't
wait to get the answer.

Your Friend

H. A. Schroder
549 Pacific Ave. N. O. La.
  

[ To: ]

Miss Vera Howe
492 — 31st Ave.
Milwaukee
Wis.
  

  
Notes by RWF:

The recipient is a sixteen-year-old girl in high-school: shy, but not lacking in social invitations.

I know nothing about the sender beyond what is here: not the age, nor even if male or female. My guess is that the sender is a very young man. The obverse of his chosen card is a pretty design with a nice verse sentiment. He was too hurried, or indifferent, to affix the postage stamp rightside-up.

The odd thing about the message is that it's mostly meta-communication: except for referencing the mutual friend / informant / booster "Wade", the salutation and the heart of the message emphasize its own awkwardness in presuming friendship as a first communication. Better, I think, to have let the awkwardness go unsaid, and use his limited space to say something about her, and something about himself.

Whether Vera replied, I do not know. She did keep the card, but then she already was a collector of stamps and postcards.
  

© 2011 Robert Wilfred Franson