This cheery postcard was not mailed, so there is no personal story attached to it.
Printed in the “linen-style”, the postcard was published by the Curt Teich Company of Chicago sometime after 1935.
The design and the inspirational message on the face were copyrighted by the “Happy Hearts Club” of Aberdeen, Washington.
Aberdeen is a city on the Chehalis River in west-central Washington.
In the last quarter of the 19th century Aberdeen was a busy center of lumber production – with more than three dozen saw mills.
The city also had a reputation for danger, rowdiness, and crime.
It was called the “Hellhole of the Pacific” for the number of saloons, gambling dens, and brothels in which deadly feuds contributed to a high murder rate.
The population peaked at 21,000 in 1930, before the Great Depression ushered in a long decline of the local economy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberdeen,_Washington
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The face of the postcard features the background image of a large sun rising – in tones of red, orange, and yellow.,
A printed title proclaims, “Heavenly Sunshine”, and a subtitle of, “Youth and Old Age”.
An internet search reveals a dozen postcards of similar design with subtitles including, “Courage and Confidence”, “Remembering and Forgetting”, “Morning Prayer”, “Formula for a Happy Life”, and, “The Test of Life”.
Each postcard is crammed with positive words: “Faith”, “Hope” “Truth”, Peace”.
This postcard proclaims, “The Fount of youth springs from within the heart and flows out of the mind.”
A long prose passage then preaches the values of enthusiasm, optimism, wonder, freshness, and childlike appetite.
The bright postcard was published in the “linen-style” by the Curt Teich Company of Chicago.
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I have not been able to find a history of the “Happy Hearts Club”.
One can find a number of church groups, civic organizations, and social clubs with this name – but it is not clear if any or all of these groups were related to the organization at the address in Aberdeen, Washington.
Websites related to Aberdeen do not mention the Happy Hearts Club.
The “Positive Thinking” movement grew very powerful in the years following World War II – the best-seller, “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1983) was first published in 1952.
Departing from historic theological traditions, “positive thinking” became a cultural influence in many dimensions of national life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_thinking
One hopes that the collector of the postcard found comfort and refreshment in the uplifting message.
