Wednesday, April 16, 2008

"Dear Mina": Postcards from Germany

My cousin, Ellen Blais, sent me a stack of postcards and photos that had been in the Fort Wayne Williams family for decades.
Beautiful, old-fashioned German handwriting covered the backs. My favorite photo reads, "On a hot June day, with all the roses bluming." The photo shows a man and two women standing among brilliant white blooms, all scowling at the camera.
My favorite postcard shows a pretty, dark-haired girl named Anna, who writes to another Anna about her coming confirmation. I suspect the recipient was Anna Krueger, our grandmother. The date fits -- 1909. The girl was writing from Essen, Germany.
The writing on the "Dear Mina" postcard contains a couple of grammar errors; it seems to have been written in the United States, perhaps by someone who was learning German or didn't speak it fluently.
Viel Spass!

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