Mom's post cards from her pen-pal 1938 (Two)

I'm happy that these boats will reflect somewhat on the theme over at Sepia Saturday this week!...go check out what other Sepians have come up with!.


Note the Sepia Saturday boat in the background!

My mother in San Antonio Texas was receiving these post cards, not through direct mail, but inside envelopes of some kind.  Then she wrote the date and where and who they were from on the backs...thus this one is listed from Birmingham, England, Hazel Autley, 5/38.

 

A church in Birmingham is interesting to be posted from Hazel.  Was this after my mother met the Rogers family, who were very active in Christian Science?  Was her pen-pal, Hazel also interested in this religion which spoke of how the same source of healing which Jesus had used could be available to people in modern days?  Yes, as I read the back of the card.  Now I know Hazel also had the Christian Science connection.

 

"I got this picture of Carrs Lane church because regular broadcasts are made.  It's associated with the Christian Science Monitor, and one of the regular speakers is in Los Angeles at the moment."  apparently in Hazel's hand.

My mother dated it "10/38, H. Autley."

I don't know the significance of the speaker being  "in Los Angeles at the moment" but there were lectures given often about the religion.  The Christian Science Monitor is still around as a conservative newspaper from Boston, MA.  To know that Birmingham England gave regular broadcasts shows the level of interest at that time and place of this religion.  I would guess that the broadcasts were of the lectures, rather than Sunday services.

Carrs Lane Church FYI

The church was founded as an independent chapel in 1748^[3] and then enlarged in 1812 at a cost of £2,000 to seat 600 people. A further enlargement was undertaken in 1820 to designs by the architect Thomas Stedman Whitwell, which was then re-fronted by Yeoville Thomason in 1876. The church became part of the Congregational Union in 1832.

The current building was begun in 1968 by Denys Hinton and Partners and completed in 1971. It became part of the United Reformed Church when the Presbyterian and Congregational churches merged in 1972. The church bears a blue plaque erected by Birmingham Civic Society in 1995 to commemorate Dr R. W. Dale, minister at Carrs Lane from 1854 until his death, and prominent preacher of the "Civic Gospel".

Since the closure of the Methodist Central Hall, Birmingham, the building has been shared with the Methodist Congregation, as a local ecumenical partnership under the name "The Church at Carrs Lane" noted as having the largest free-standing cross in the country.^[2][4]

Source Wikepedia

Carrs Lane Church, April 2011

Today's Quote:

Peace, like most beautiful things, begins small.

Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals

Mom's post cards of castles - One

My mother graduated from high school in 1934.  I remember her saying she went to some Catholic college for about a year, but don't know the name.  She didn't marry my dad until '39...so I don't know what she did during that time.  She did have a pen-pal.

It's interesting for me to remember writing letters to many people in my youth.  Sometimes you'd get assigned a pen-pal, who you didn't even know, that some group or another wanted to give young people a way to communicate across the world.

One of the few things my mother left me was her post card collection. Many of the cards are stored away somewhere, and I doubt that my kids or their kids will care about them.  I have scanned a few that at least had a note on the back indicating who wrote them from where.  They have no postmarks, so they may have been sent in envelopes with letters.

Hazel Autley wrote my mother on postcards, from Birmingham, England to San Antonio, Texas.  I think Hazel had probably been in school with my mother. There was a Hazel Pabst in her class, so perhaps she had married by 1937-8 when the cards were sent.

First let me share these three cards.  There will be more that I'll share in the future. After all these years, I only want to put a few up at a time.

Mataley's note in her handwriting says this card was received April 10, 1937 from her friend Hazel Autley, living (I think) in Birmingham, Eng.

Shrewsbury Castle was built around 1074 by Roger de Montgomery^[16]. Today the Castle is home to the Shropshire Regimental Museum, Shropshire, England.

History - The castle was built as a defensive fortification for the town, which was otherwise protected by the river. Town walls, of which little now remains, then radiated out from the castle and surrounded the town (although the area known now as Town Walls still has a small section of it and a tower known as Town Walls Tower and in the care of the National Trust).

In 1138, King Stephen successfully besieged the castle held by William FitzAlan for the Empress Maud during the period known as The Anarchy. The castle was also briefly held by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, prince of Wales, in 1215. Little of this original physical structure remains.^[2]

The Shropshire Horticultural Society purchased the castle from a private owner and gave it to the town in 1924. 

Source: Wikepedia

I think the typed note came from Hazel, with my mom's note saying it was now 5/38

  5/38 Postcard of Queen's Closet sent from Birmingham, England to my mother from her friend Hazel A.

You may notice discoloration of two tabs on the back sides right of each one, which may have been from tape which was applied in a scrapbook in which they were afixed so the backs could still be seen.

I confess I know next to nothing about  Windsor Castle. There are many folks in Sepia Saturday who have more knowledge about it, and have probably even visited it.  Take a step over to see what the Sepia Saturday folks are up to this week.
 I obviously wasn't able to follow their suggestion very well this week.



I used this resource and was overwhelmed!  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_Castle

So I'll be satisfied just to share my mother's pen pal's contributions, and not attempt to learn too much about the castle itself.

Today's quote:

Like a tree our growth depends upon our ability to soften, loosen, and shed boundaries and defenses we no longer need.
Madisyn Taylor on Daily Om