This postcard was not mailed; there is no personal story attached to it.
My first thought upon seeing it in a box of vintage paper was that a diminishing number of people will remember (except in New Jersey) when every gas station had attendants to pump the gas.
From the Google Summary:
“In 1949, Congress passed a statute titled the Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act, which prohibited retail customers from pumping their own gas. Today, New Jersey is the lone state that maintains this law, and requires a professional to pump your car’s gasoline.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filling_station_attendant
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Here, we see a fastidious woman leaning out of her automobile to critically examine the way the young attendant performs his duty.
The woman is calling, “Careful now, young man, don’t you spill any”.
It is clear that the driver had never pumped gas, and the exasperated look of the attendant suggests that her observations are not helpful.
The humor lies in the common situation where a fussy observer intrudes in a task that the attendant must have performed dozens of times per day.
Although the drawing is not polished, and colored with clashing neon tones, there are amusing details that heighten the dramatic tension.
Our heroine is wearing a severe bonnet with a chin strap, her dark dress is fringed with lace at the wrists, and she sports a stole of animal fur on her shoulders.
Her lorgnette, which had become a symbol of wealthy pretension during the Depression, is grasped firmly in her gloved hand.
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The postcard was published in the “linen” style and with the patented “Colortone” process by The Curt Teich Company of Chicago.
On the face, we see that the image was copyrighted by the publisher, but there is no printed date.
The style of the postcard is circa 1940.
