Thursday, April 2, 2015

EASTER HORROR...

I’m drawn to postcard shows like a moth to a flame; I’m unable to resist them.
          I’ll spend hours sitting in a nasty folding chair; hours flipping through stacks of cards, looking for the early ones – early 1900s, that is. They’re easy to spot by the handwriting and the one-cent postage.
          I’m looking for the messages, mostly; but sometimes I flip them over, and sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised.
          Or amused.
          Or baffled.
This one got me on all three counts.

This card was mailed in South Portland, Maine in April of 1911; addressed to a Miss Ruth Chaplin, who lived in the nearby town of Bridgton. Ruth was born on Christmas Day, 1905, to Eugene and Mary Frances Chaplin.
          So she was six years old when somebody sent her this card.
          “Easter Greetings,” it proclaims.

At first glance, first quick glance, I thought it was cute: the old standards – Easter chicks, a pretty butterfly, etc.
          A perfect card for a six-year old.
         
But when I looked closer, I was horrified!
          One little chicken, flat on its back in the pathway, stumpy wing flapping on the ground and little feet sticking upright, looks positively deceased.
          The other seems to be running for its life, legs extended like a sprinter at a track meet; beak open, eyes intent...
          ...while above them both, a menacing butterfly swoops down for the final kill!

Happy Easter to all!



10 comments:

  1. That is pretty bad! You have to wonder - first of all, who would ever pick out such a picture for an Easter card in the first place; and then who would pick out such a card to send to a six-year old . . . or anyone else, for that matter. Good Grief, as Charlie Brown would say!

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    1. At first I thought I was seeing things, but then I gave it a good, hard look and realized I wasn't. It really is bad, isn't it?

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  2. A local hardware store has a sign outside advertising Easter Chicks for sale. Ehh -- you know the fate of those poor things once they are no longer cute baby chicks. Cats will have a feast.

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    1. Do people REALLY do that? Give 'em to their cats? Oh, goodness....

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  3. I’ll never look at butterflies the same way again!

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    1. What WERE they thinking? It's like sci-fi!

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  4. How bizarre! It makes me wonder if there was perhaps a nursery rhyme or popular ditty - now long forgotten - starring a chick-scaring butterfly, something akin to Chicken Little and the sky falling in.

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    1. I thought of Chicken Little, too, Brett. But it still doesn't add up. That butterfly is totally creepy to me...and although fairy tales and nursery rhymes can have a "dark side," I still can't figure out what's going on here.

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  5. This card makes no sense. Or maybe we are all missing something from time past?! (as Brett suggests?)
    I am so with you on spending hours combing through boxes of old postcards.

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    1. I thought I was missing something, too. If you get any ideas, let me know!

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