Sepia Saturday 736 - Postcard Memories

These days it is sporadic that I see a postcard when I open my letterbox. But there was a time, some of you may remember, when it was quite common to communicate with family and friends, by sending an illustrated postcard. When on holidays or on the occasion of a birthday, a postcard was carefully selected. The postage was less than required for a letter. So all space available was used to the very last millimeter to convey the news that the weather was fine, the food delicious, and the birthday happy. That was the pre-digital era my mother lived in. Her name was Ann de Langen. She was born on Oct. 31, 1917, and she closed her eyes precisely 99 years later in the early morning of Nov. 1, 2016. She liked to send and receive handwritten letters and postcards. And I consider myself lucky that she kept many of them in a shoebox which I found after the funeral. Altogether over 400 items including a collection of pre-WWII movie star postcards. Based on the postmarks she collected those when she was between 15 and 18 years old. Below are a few examples of cards showing the stars of the past. Some names still ring a bell. 

As you will see I have taken the liberty to imitate Alan's SepSat-lay out.

Marie Magdalene Dietrich (1901-1992)
Mail stamp The Hague, August 9, 1933
Postcard written by best friend Ineke Weststeijn (1918-before 2011)

Maurice Auguste Chevalier (r) (1888-1972) and junior?
Mail stamp The Hague, July 25, 1933
Postcard written by Ann's mother Antje de Langen-Doelman (1892-1984)

William Clark Gable (1901-1960)
Lucille Fay LeSueur Crawford (1908?-1977)
Mail stamp The Hague July 25, 1935
Postcard written by friend Lenny (Maarleveld?)

Lilian Helen Muriel Pape (1906-1968)
John Boles (1895-1969)
Mail stamp The Hague April 21, 1934
Postcard written by little sister Thea de Langen (1921-1996)

The stamps on all these postcards have a value of 5 Dutch guilder cents. At the time that was the rate for domestic delivery. In euro, that equals something like 2.7 euro cents. To illustrate the word 'inflation', today's domestic rate is € 1.14 ...

On the Lilian Harvey postcard above, you see a second stamp. That is additional postage because the sender forgot that the address was in Belgium. The extra expense came to the impressive amount of 70 Belgian franc centimes equalling approx. 3.5 Dutch guilder cents.

The last postcard is an uncirculated one. It shows the film song title of a 1929 composition by John Frederick Coots. So I don't expect there are Sepians around with a vivid memory of this blockbuster starring the famous (but murdered) Ramon Novarro (1899-1968). His co-star Anita Page (1910-2008) was at least equally renowned. She earned her credits during the silent movie era. 

Ramón Gil Samanlego and Anita Pomares

Since I am fond of making lists, most of them useless, I'll list the names, other than the ones mentioned above, of all the movie stars in my mother's collection. In case you are a fan of a particular star, I can mail you a scan of the relevant card(s). And if you don't recognize some of these names, it just means you are young of age.

Truus van Aalten (one of two postcards in my mother's collection displaying a Dutch movie star)

Hans Albers

Georg Alexander

Gitta Alpar

Tala Birell

Maurice Chevalier and Sylvia Sidney

Maurice Chevalier and Jeannette Mac Donald

Gary Cooper

Jackie Cooper

Lil Dagover

Marion Davies

Lien Deyers (Dutch)

Martha Eggerth

Charles Farrell

Willi Forst

Willy Fritsch

Willy Fritsch and Lilian Harvey

Willy Fritsch, Lilian Harvey, and Willy Forst

Willy Fritsch and Camilla Horn

Willy Fritsch and Renate Müller

Gustav Fröhlich

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo and John Gilbert

Janet Gaynor

Gold diggers (group)

Dolly Haas

Dolly Haas and Heinz Rühmann

Liane Haid

Liane Haid and Georg Alexander

Lilian Harvey and Willi Forst

Brigitte Helm

Trader Horn

Jan Kiepura and Marta Eggerth

Jeannette Mac Donald

Renate Müller

Renate Müller and Hermann Thimig

Käthe von Nagy

Käthe von Nagy and Hans Albers

Ramon Novarro

Anny Ondra

Henny Porten

Heinz Rühmann

Anna Sten

Tarzan (Johnny Weissmüller?)

Hermann Thimig

Rudolph Valentino and Alice Terry

Otto Wallburg and Mady Christians

There are 85 movie star postcards in the collection. Not an impressive number but the cards must have had a certain value to my mother. Otherwise, she would not have kept them in a box for more than 80 years. During that period she moved 15 times! So it is a small miracle that these cards survived all the packing and unpacking. And now they have become part of my family archive. Hopefully, that will survive the next 80 years as well...

For more postcard memories please send yourself to Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday 723 - The Cyclists

I am certain I am the first Sepian cheating. Cheating? Maybe I should explain. My intention to post a contribution once a month or so combined with Alan's invention of a monthly theme, enables me to write a single post merging the four weekly subjects. And that is what I will be doing this week, for the first time. So this month the prompts are about coaches, cyclists, and cars (and cocktails but they need to be better represented in my shoebox archive).

So let me start with the coaches. After my mum passed away we found some pre-war albums with pictures of her high school trips mainly to Germany. My mother was born in Rijswijk, a small town near The Hague, in 1917. The trips took place during the years after the infamous stock market crash in 1929. But that apparently did not stop her parents from letting her go on a trip abroad. In those days school trips to other countries were exceptional for most children.

The first photo was taken in Koblenz, situated alongside the river Rhine and some 150 kilometers from the Dutch border.

The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring in Koblenz 1932

My mother Annie de Langen sits above the rear wheels, a little to the left. Next to her is her lifelong friend Ineke Weststeijn. The coach is operated by still existing Kraftwagen-Verkehr Koblenz G.m.b.H. (KVG)*. It is seen here passing the Barbara Denkmal on the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring. This military monument commemorates a German artillery regiment stationed in Koblenz in the previous century. But also other nations made use of this monument. After the First World War, the French occupied this region and thought it a good idea to demonstrate their presence.

The French Rhine Army parading in front of the Barbara Denkmal in Koblenz in 1924
(Postcard made by Karl Albert Zimmermann (1885-1943**)

Judging by this postcard, the locals were not overly interested in this noisy display of power. 

Seeing the monument I wondered whether it survived the Second World War. And it did. The following image is a Google screenshot. The location is probably the same but the street name changed.

The Barbara Denkmal on the Friedrich-Ebert-Ring today

The city of Koblenz suffered from frequent bombings during the last World War. If you compare the background in the screenshot with the other two pictures, it is easy to see changes. None of the old buildings made it through the war. It is a small wonder that the Denkmal suffered minor damages only.

Apparently, the school was fond of sightseeing tours. The next year, in 1933, the school trip went to Göttingen, also in Germany. But this time the students traveled in a rented coach owned by a company called VIOS*** from Wateringen near The Hague.

The VIOS bus in Göttingen, Germany in 1933

My mother is seen here looking at us from the bus' rooftop. She is the girl on the very right and next to her Ineke. 

This is the end of the coach section of this post. Also for the cyclist pictures, I start before the Second World War.

Ber Schregel and Jan Miebies in approx. 1938

The photographer apparently was late by a few seconds. Now we see the backs of Ber Schregel, a friend and colleague of my father, and my father Jan Miebies. Their luggage suggests they are going on a camping holiday or maybe to a youth hostel. I recognize the location, it is the Mispelstraat in The Hague, the street where my mother lived. Knowing this street, I can see they cycle south. The only thing that puzzled me was why they were cycling on the left side of the street. But then it dawned on me that I have been looking at a mirrored print ever since I know this picture. So I reversed it again.

At least now I know they left in a northerly direction. It is never too late to set history straight ;-)

The picture that follows shows a married couple to be. They are family members of my wife. Their names are Sibbeltje Klopstra (l) and Aaldrik Kroeze. Although we are far from certain, we believe this photo was taken in the city of Groningen in the early years of the Second World War when it was still safe for men to go outside without being arrested and deported to Germany to forcibly work there.

The somewhat surprised look on Aaldriks face makes me believe this was not a planned situation. This picture is rather the work of a street photographer. In any case, their trip together continued. They got married in December 1943 and had two children. She turned 96 and he was 93!

The first car in this post is also from the pre-war era. Based on the text on the front wheel cap I found the car is an Opel Kadett. It has German plates. This model was in production between 1937-1940. 

Opel Kadett cabriolet****

This information, together with the fact that the friend, Wim Tuk, had a job in Germany, dates the photo below to approx. 1938. My father is seated next to the driver; my mother is in the left-hand rear seat. 

The last car on display is an Austin A30. It belonged to acquaintances of my mother. The boy next to it is my brother and I date this picture around 1955. Possibly my mother borrowed this car to spend a day in the countryside.

My brother and an Austin A30

Please turn to the Sepia Saturday site for contributions of honest, non-cheating Sepians.

Notes and credits

* Next year the company exists 100 years! It was established on March 19, 1925.

**Barbara-Denkmal (Koblenz). (2022, August 10). In Wikipedia. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara-Denkmal_(Koblenz)

*** Founded in 1922, also VIOS still exists!

****Bestand:Opel-kadett-1936.Jpg - Wikipedia. In Wikipedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Opel-kadett-1936.jpg

Sepia Saturday - Can you put that in writing?

Team GB after winning the Olympics bronze medal

This week's theme is a group of Irish hurling players back in 1921. I think it's best to confess right away that the enthusiasm of the Dutch for this sport is fairly limited. In fact it is non existing. However, it may very well be that hurling is the mother sport of what we call hockey. (My friends in the US and Canada call this land hockey.) And in hockey we are good, London-Olympics-Gold-Medal-good. This may be a somewhat painful statement for British readers as "we" beat Team GB in the process. They won the bronze medal which is not bad but playing in London... But I digress. 
Looking at the theme picture again I still had no idea what to write about. But then it dawned on me. Thank you, Kat!

Text written in mirror writing on the theme picture

Kat was kind enough to crop the text on the theme picture. She did so with a purpose. Could we please come up with a transcription. It always strikes me how difficult it seems to read reversed writing. It must be our brain having difficulties with the "translation". And of course, if you really concentrate on what you see, it can be done. But human beings are lazy, at least I am. So I prefer to reverse the mirrored writing instead.

Aided by the information already supplied, my partial transcription reads as follows.

Michael Collins ......................

..ayers before throwing .. ...

... ball at Croke Park match

                     (KilKenny team

        v. .ip.. .

I'll leave it to the Irish/native readers to complete the text and to correct my suggestions.
Accomplishing this task it occurred to me that handwriting is something very personal. Usually you can easily recognize the handwriting of people you know. Handwriting is not something you are born with but it develops during childhood. And then, at a certain point in time, it is what it is and it stays until your hand loses its steadiness. But until that time it is almost like a signature. Until not too long ago employers required job applications to be written manually. And then it frequently happened that a graphologist was consulted to analyze the applicant's character. I haven't got a clue what the invention of the computer annex keyboard has done to this profession. But I do know that my own handwriting deteriorates because I hardly write anymore. So it remains to be seen whether people ten generations from now will still master this art. My prediction is that graphology eventually will be a vanished profession. To convince you that handwriting does add a certain beauty to a communication, I'll show you some examples from my ancestors. Without exception I can read these letters without any problem. But as the content is not relevant for this post, I will not burden you with translations of each of them. I am merely interested to show you some "pictures" (please click to enlarge). Maybe also to hear whether handwriting in your country shows some similarities or that you were being taught a style of writing that is completely different.

A 1945 draft letter written by my Mother J.H. Miebies- de Langen
when she was 28 years old.

A 1945 letter written by my Mother's best friend I. Weststeijn
They did grammar school and high school together in the same class.
I believe I see certain similarities.

A 1945 letter written by my grandmother A. de Langen-Doelman.
I am still impressed by the regularity of her writing.
Here she was 52 years old.

A 1945 letter written by my 56 years old grandfather G.Th. de Langen.
For people in possession of sharp eyes or a magnifying glass.

A 1939 letter written by my father J.C. Miebies.

Just a small side step. The above letter was written on August 31, 1939. It was during the very early stages of the WW2 mobilization  In the letter he is complaining about the horse he received. It came from an undertaker and was not accustomed to be ridden...  He called it "a big black devil but beautiful to see." Apparently the army was in need of horses and they confiscated every horse they could get.
The following two manuscripts are very special to me. They were given to me by my above mentioned grandmother. It is a school exercise book that belonged to her grandfather! His name was Cornelis Doelman (Maasland, Sept. 25, 1829 - Rijswijk, Jan. 17, 1903). He made these penmanship exercises when he was 13 years old in 1842.

Het is dwaasheid iets tot een anderen dag uit te [stellen].
It is foolish to [postpone] something to another day and time.

He initialed every page with "CD M 1842" (Cornelis Doelman Maasland 1842).
Here is another page from the same exercise book.

patriottismus
patriotism

Now that I have hurled all these handwriting's at you, I hope I haven't caused any hurly-burly in the back of your graphological minds. However, should this be the case, you may distract yourselves by scoring a point at Sepia Saturday.