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- By Sandy Neilly
- The photo to the right above is not a recent photo of myself,
nor is it my dog. It does, however, capture the look of
puzzlement that this business of publishing and editing causes
me to wear frequently. It's an interesting business, to be sure,
but it does come with a substantial amount of obligations. Some
of these obligations are extremely pleasant and enjoyable, but
others are somewhat perplexing.
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- A few weeks ago, after a lengthy conversation with a nice
gentleman on the phone about the Wayback Times and the many aspects
of putting it together, he asked if I was retired. Retired? If
he had been able to see me at the time, I would have looked like
the dog above.
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- There is another related reason for the photo above, that
being that it's actually a portion of a postcard, and I recently
had a great postcard experience.
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- Being antique dealers, we've always had access to postcards.
To me, it seemed like there were plenty at every show. That was
before we attended the Toronto Postcard Show while dropping off
bundles of the Wayback Times. To the eye of the average antique
show attendee, a post card show looks like an antique show that
hasn't been set up yet.
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- Taking some photos was on the agenda, but the large room,
filled mainly with tables and crowds of people wasn't exactly
what I had in mind. I'm not sure what I expected - after all,
it was a post card show. As luck would have it one of the Wayback
Times' newest contributors was helping another vendor at the
show. Mike Smith, who has three books published on postcards,
was a pleasure to meet and graciously acquiesced to my request
for a photo. His wonderful books
are a result of his passion for postcards work and have been
a labour of love. It was great to chat with him in person and
get a photo.
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- My mission had been accomplished. Or so I thought. At a nearby
table, an up-right card in a box labelled "West Indies"
caught my eye and I recalled a cousin mentioning that there had
been about nine postcards produced from the 1930s to the 1960s
of the old family hotel in Jamaica. After wedging myself between
a few enthusiastic souls who were reluctant to give up an inch
I managed to have a look at the cards offered by Peter Howe,
a very nice gentleman from Trenton who was most helpful. (I think
he could tell I was a newbie). A few minutes into the pile ..
and bingo! There it was; a postcard of the old Chatham Hotel
with our beloved grandmother, Amy Foster, sitting under a garden
umbrella on the front lawn... with a really awful hat on. No
matter. The fact that I was able to find a little piece of family
history in a box on a table at a postcard show in Toronto thrilled
me. Not only did it thrill me, but it made me wonder if there
might be other cards at the show. Suffice it to say that I left
some time later with four cards. Two were duplicates, one might
not even be the hotel and the other definitely is, but there
are no family members featured on it.
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- This experience made me really appreciate the enjoyment of
collecting. And if there's a little passion behind it - all the
better.
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- Ironically, just a few days later while looking through an
old metal box which I thought held stamps, I found more postcards.
These were predominantly Crystal Beach cards from the 1930s and
were unused. I'm guessing they might have belonged to my maternal
grandmother. It would have been difficult for a poor family with
six growing kids to get away at any time but even more so during
the depression. Perhaps the postcards were the equivalent of
snapshots taken by a fortunate family member or friend who was
able to make the short trip from
Toronto to Crystal Beach, but was unable to own a camera of their
own.
We'll never know for sure, but the condition of the cards indicated
that they were treasured and cherished. While our lives are filled
with so many visual images and distractions, life in the 1930s
was enormously different. A simple postcard might have been just
the thing to keep a person hopeful for better days to come. I
have an entirely different opinion of postcards now than what
I did a couple of months ago.
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- On page 21 you will find a new column called "Wayback
Wines." It is at great sacrifice that we provide this useful
information for you. I promise that we will personally try each
wine that is featured. (It's a tough, demanding job, but I'm
willing to take it on.) Most of these wines will be moderately
priced so you won't have to think about selling Aunt Mabel's
diamond tiara to purchase a bottle. This ancient and romantically
historical beverage fits right in with antiques. As a matter
of fact, we are casual collectors of wine glasses. Very few of
them have any great value as we like to use them. Some are real
beauties and some are very simple to behold but have a nice balance
to them. Each one has its own small history and not only are
they a pleasure to look at, but they bring back memories of special
occasions. (It's that "collecting thing", I guess.)
We hope you'll find some of the wine recommendations enjoyable
and that you have some favourite glasses to use. We're certainly
not connoisseurs, but we thought this would be a great addition
to the contents of the paper. Drop us a line or email and let
us know about your favourites, or share your thoughts on our
suggestions.
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- Our extended fall season made us all think that we got off
easy this winter, but here it is well into spring and the weather
hasn't been very nice. Holidays taken in the spring can be a
bit chancy as the weather here just might be better than where
you've headed off to. Jay Telfer, who is vacationing in the south,
(as this is being written) is probably quite happy that he and
Cindy timed their holiday so well. Hopefully they're enjoying
incredible weather. Speaking of Jay, you will notice that "Jay's
Blog" is missing in this issue but don't worry, he will
return to page 10 in the July/August issue.
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- The long weekends will commence soon starting with Victoria
Day. (Where would we be without Victoriana?) Here's to sunshine
and long, relaxing days of hunting for that perfect antique you've
been wanting forever. Better yet - here's to finding it.
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- Cheers.
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