William Morgan: Postcard of assignation?

Unlike the usual old postcard finds, with their recitation of visiting the scene on the front of the missive, this one, sent 114 years ago to Fred P. McFarland in the New Hampshire town of Raymond, offers both a bit of mystery and a hint of romance. The unnamed sender, M.––––, got across quite a bit of information, along with the hint of a possible tryst. Compared to a contemporary Facebook post, an e-mail, or a text, the writer managed to convey considerable private meaning in a very public medium.

The attractive but hardly remarkable bridge depicted here is labeled Lovers Leap, while the one-cent stamp is attached upside down – in my day the inverted postage was used only on mail to girlfriends.

While chest-nutting is probably not a code for some other more physical activity, Miss M.––––suggests meeting at Lizzie Seavy’s for a husking bee. An article on husking bees in the Dakotas at the same period notes the beyond-harvest courting aspect of peeling corn stalks: a red ear of corn discovered by a girl could be a gift to her beau, but if a boy found a red ear, he was allowed to kiss the object of his affections. I would hesitate to speculate on  the meaning of Fred’s “working hard.”

The seemingly forward and determined M.–––– was also confident in the postoffice’s ability to deliver her card by the next day, in time for Fred to decide if he wanted to go husking. Some postcards nowadays might take weeks to be delivered.

William Morgan is a Providence-based writer and photographer. As a chronicler of New England art, especially architecture, he has contributed to such publications at The Boston Globe, The Providence Journal, The Hartford Courant and The Portland Press-Herald