Roadside America Linen Postcards - Green Parrot Restaurant Houston Texas

Green Parrot Restaurant Houston Texas linen postcard 

(click image for larger view)

Getting a little peckish on your road trip? How about a chicken dinner at the Green Parrot in Houston, Texas? Let's hope it is chicken and not Polly Parrot...

Roadside America Linen Postcards - Paul's Tourist Hotel Court Chattanooga Tennessee

 Paul's Tourist Hotel Court Chattanooga Tennessee linen postcard, circa 1950s

A multi view postcard might give the traveler a fuller picture of what they might expect if they pulled off US 41 on their way into Chattanooga.

Roadside America Linen Postcards - Bel-Air Motel, New Orleans, Louisiana

Bel-Air Motel, New Orleans, Louisiana linen postcard (click on image for larger view)

In town for Mardi Gras? Then perhaps we can put you up at the Bel-Air motel on Gentilly Highway, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Roadside America Linen Postcards - Colonial Cottages Gulfport Mississippi

Colonial Cottages, Gulfport Mississippi linen postcad. Click on image for larger view

Why not sit awhile at the entrance to the Colonial Cottages motel in Gulfport Mississippi, watching the travelers arrive and depart? Heat and humidity getting to you? Why, then, you can amble inside and recline near one of the electric fans so prominently advertised on the sign overhanging the motel entrance.

Roadside America Linen Postcards - Maple Motel Nashville Tennessee

Maple Motel Nashville Tennessee linen postcard, circa 1950s (click on image for larger view)

Roadside America linen postcards are a popular collecting category. The vivid colors and sharp details of the linen cards certainly catch the eye. Seeing this view of the Maple Motel outside Nashville might have tempted one to stay there overnight. Of course, most guests would see the card once they'd checked into their room, rested awhile, and thought about sending a postcard to family or friends to advise of their journey's progress. Today, postcards are not much considered as a means of communication with a text message, cell call, or email being the preferred line of communication for the roadside traveler.

Golf Widow Fantasy 1910c postcard

Guys, this is what she wants to hear. Not "I'm going golfing. Have a nice day. See ya later."

Hawaiian Woman Orchids Hawaii 1952 postcard

Another in the "who is that on the postcard" vein:

"Had to have this postcard...the woman is my great aunt! :)"

Chinese Girls Chinatown San Francisco CA 1932 postcard

Another story behind - or in this case "on" the card:

I received a message thanking me for "the postcard of my grandmother". So, curiosity getting the better of me, I replied asking which one she was. 

In response: "My grandmother is the one sitting down. She is on other postcards, too. I always keep an eye out for her."

1122 Jennings Avenue Fort Worth Texas 1916 postcard

One of the joys of postcarding is the stories that one happens to come across that connect the past to the present. This often happens in quite unexpected ways.

The postcard above is a limited run privately-produced postcard that was sent by the family at 1122 Jennings Avenue in Fort Worth Texas as a Christmas greeting in 1916. I came across the card in an antique mall in southwestern Indiana a couple of months ago. I listed it on eBay and it sold within a few hours of going onsale. 

The buyer, a Fort Worth local historian, sent me this follow-up message:

" "I told a friend, a landscaper, about this card and he replied:

"...Oh MY God... OMG... I remember that house and EXACTLY where it was because guess what!!??? My swinging door between the dining room and kitchen was the front door to that house! I picked it up off the curb in 1985 when I was redoing my house the first time around and used it between the two rooms because of the glass in it and it has all this cool applied carving. AND, before the house burned and was torn down several years later, a poor kid that rented there worked for me for about three months. I remember the window hood (the decorative "roof" over the front window) very well. How about THAT?!..."

Small world, huh?" 

Small world, indeed.

Stop Horsing Around - Cherrelyn Horse Streetcar Denver Colorado 1910c postcard

Horse Drawn Streetcar with Horse as Passenger, Denver, Colorado 1910c postcard (click image for larger view)

According to the caption on similar cards of the Cherrelyn horse drawn streetcar, the horse would pull the streetcar up an incline slope in Denver and would be placed on the platform at the end of the car for the ride back down on the return journey.

If the horse were a reflective sort, it might have wondered why it couldn't just ride up the slope like everyone else since that was the toughest leg of the journey for it.