Mr. and Mrs. John Jacob Oberholtzer lived in Bird-in-Hand, an unincorporated community in eastern Lancaster County of southeast Pennsylvania.
The first European settlers in this rich agricultural region were English Quakers and Swiss Mennonites.
The area, today, is still dominated by farms, and has a significant number of “Plain” residents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird-in-Hand,_Pennsylvania
We have seen other postcards from members of this extended family: “Harry Sees No End of Corn”, “I Saw Your Sweetheart on Saturday Night”, “Let’s Hang Together”.
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In December of 1941, the Oberholtzers received a postcard from Wesley and Elsie.
Wesley and Elsie mailed the postcard from St, Petersburg, a city on the Gulf of Mexico in west-central Florida.
Located on a peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf, St. Petersburg is one of the sunniest places in the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Petersburg,_Florida
The face of the linen-style postcard is a photograph of a parade on Beach Drive in St. Petersburg.
Marching bands and a sequence of floats can be seen stretching into the distance.
A printed legend tells us that this is the “Parade of States”.
Winter tourism was such an important part of the growth of St. Petersburg that we can imagine the parade attracted many spectators eager to see the representation of their home state.
Indeed, the postcard image reveals crowds lining Beach Drive for a great distance.
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On the reverse, Wesley and Elsie report that “We find St. Petersburg an interesting city in many ways.”
One hopes that the visitors continued to enjoy their sunny stay in Florida.
It seems that the Oberholtzers were glad to receive the souvenir of St. Petersburg as the postcard was preserved in very good condition.
