Mrs. Harry L. Spatz lived in Birdsboro, a borough on the Schuylkill River in Berks County of southeast Pennsylvania.
Birdsboro, about 8 miles southeast of Reading, was a center of industry through the mid-20th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdsboro,_Pennsylvania
The US was engaged in the second World War, and Mrs. Spatz had a son, LeRoy, in the Navy.
In March of 1943, Mrs. Spatz received a postcard from her son.
Leroy was in Memphis, the bustling port and industrial center on the Mississippi River in western Tennessee.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis,_Tennessee
The face of the linen-style postcard is a photograph of Black workers picking cotton.
It seems that the photograph was staged, as the workers are attired in good clothes – some of the men are wearing suits.
The scene is entitled, “Cotton Picking Time”.
The postcard photograph was published originally by the Bluff City News Company of Memphis.
I believe that the photograph may be three decades older than this reprinting by the Curt Teich Company of Chicago.
This postcard scene is part of out celebration of Labor Day, but the message on the reverse is an amusing anecdote of a young man in service.
LeRoy writes, “Everything is fine’” and “Boy, I’ll sure be kept busy”.
Mrs. Spatz does not have to worry about her son having enough to eat – LeRoy reports, “I had two suppers tonight”.
The writer explains that the mess hall is cafeteria style.
After finishing his supper, LeRoy was still hungry and “I went around to get my tray filled again”.
Our hero concludes his remarks by exclaiming, “Some chow hound!”
As a serviceman, LeRoy could mail the postcard without paying postage -he carefully inscribed his rank and barracks number in the upper right of the reverse.
Mrs. Spatz preserved he postcard in excellent condition throughout her life.
One hopes that LeRoy continued to succeed in the Navy and that he returned safely from the war.
GENEALOGICAL NOTE:
William LeRoy Spatz was born in Birdsboro in 1922.
LeRoy was the son of Harry LeRoy Spatz (1900-1980) and Esther Elizabeth Hornberger (1900-1996).
This couple married in 1921, the year before William LeRoy was born.
Leroy had one sister, Edith (1924-1992).
LeRoy was drafted in 1942, when he was 19 years old.
Our hero survived the war, but it is unclear if he ever married.
(One genealogical site notes a wife, but there is no documentation of the marriage.)
Leroy died in Berks County in 2011 age 89.
