For this week's theme at Sepia Saturday, "Games," I really had to dig deep. I couldn't find any old pictures featuring games, but I do have these old postcards and one special baseball card. Being a transplant in south Florida I really enjoy the old scenic views. This first one is from my adopted home town, Fort Lauderdale postmarked 1936. These people, winter tourists most likely, were playing shuffleboard at the Lauderdale Arms Apartment. I couldn't find any information on the Lauderdale Arms, I'm sure it is long gone. However, one interesting and sad note is the postmark. For nearly 100 years a Fort Lauderdale postmark has been on all mail posted in Broward County, FL. However, the US Postal Service has recently announced that in an effort to reduce costs they will most likely close the processing center in Fort Lauderdale and all mail will be processed and postmarked out of Miami. It seems like a minor thing, but it is a blow to the identity and historical presence of Fort Lauderdale and Broward County.
This second postcard, which is probably technically more a sport than a game, is Greyhound Racing at the West Flagler Kennel Club in Miami, FL and postmarked Valentines Day 1942. The back of the card says, "Nightly thousands of fans gather at Miami's most beautiful dog track, the West Flagler Kennel Club, where the Greyhound is King. Steam Heated Grandstand." Not sure what that means and why they would need that in Miami!
Now, where the baseball card comes in - baseball is of course, the all American past-time, the game of games. This card which was put out in 1992 is a republication of a 1925 card for Jack Warner of the Detroit Tigers. It's relevance to me and my family is that Jack Warner was married to my maternal grandmother's aunt which would make him I guess my great grand uncle. His full name was John Ralph Warner, he was born on 29 Aug 1903 in Evansville, IN and died 13 Mar 1986 in Mt. Vernon, IL, my hometown, where he is also buried. After his career as a baseball player was over, Jack became a baseball scout for the Chicago Cubs and later a coach for the Los Angeles Angels. If you would like to read more about him you can check out this post on my other blog Teresa's Tangled Roots or see Wikipedia.
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| Great Grand Uncle John Ralph Warner |
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| Jack Warner Stats |
There are more games to be played at Sepia Saturday so check them out.
I love the message from cerruti. "and all that twaddle". She sounds like a real fun loving lady.
ReplyDeleteSo nice to have such a star in your family.
Nancy
I totally agree with you. My sister-in-law lived for years in Dania, which I believe is a suburb of Fort Lauderdale? (which Fort L. is a much nicer name and alive with so much history of it's own) and Miami is like another loaf of bread all together! Once when I was visiting her, I stumbled upon the great history of the "Barefoot mailman" right there in Fort Lauderdale> Barefooted he walked and roamed the sandy beach and boated in places just to get the mail through....you know the story I'm sure!
ReplyDeleteUncle Jack LOOKS like a baseball player! How neat to have his card. My grand uncle played in the minors and had a card, but no one in the family has one. I've seen it online but not for sale.
ReplyDeleteI am always attracted to Florida postcards, even though I have never been to Florida. There are a lot of postcards of people enjoying themselves in Florida, something that is not true of the postcards from other states.
ReplyDeleteAnd Uncle Jack was a DETROIT tiger!
ReplyDeleteWE always regard baseball as the American game, but it has never really caught on in England. Collecting sports cigarette cards used to be a boyhood hobby of mine - I wonder what happened to them all.
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard of shuffleboard before now two posts with it in have appeared on Sepia Saturday. It's a great place to learn new things! You managed to pull a couple of great cards out for this week.
ReplyDeleteFlorida's charm has faded as retiree's leisure time activities have changed. Sadly it was announced that my town's US postal center will close later this year, sending the postcards, etc. to SC. What will this mean to future postcard historian? More confusion and misdirected research. Argghhh!
ReplyDeleteFrom shuffleboard to dog racing to baseball in just a few hops.
ReplyDeleteYou'll guess I've enjoyed the journey...
:)~
HUGZ
Great cards, I now want to play shuffleboard:-) The "heated grandstand" IN FLORIDA! reminded me of a friend who emigrated to Australia from northern England, they arrived in their winter and wondered why they were the only ones on the beach, the next year they had acclimatised and they too switched the heating on and thought it was much too cold for the beach!
ReplyDeleteShame about the postmark, its one of the things I love about old postcards seeing exactly where they were posted and echo what Mike B said. We are in the same boat here, the latest to go is the Liverpool postmark.