John Newswanger was a baby, living on a rural delivery route outside Ephrata – the pleasant community northeast of the city of Lancaster, PA.
The area surrounding Ephrata is still home to many family farms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephrata,_Pennsylvania
At Christmas in a year near 1915, Baby John received a Christmas postcard from his cousins – Ruth and Dorothy.
The postcard was not mailed, which may mean the cousins lived nearby.
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The face of the postcard is brightly-colored drawing of a small boy in “onesies” looking at the enormous visage of Santa at the window.
The boy’s garment is buttoned down the back, and has a buttoned flap at his butt.
Santa’s head is unnaturally large, even accounting for the young age of the boy – to whom adults might seem huge.
Snow is falling, and Santa is wearing leather gloves on his hands – one of which is raised in a gesture to the boy.
The printed legend suggests that the boy is stammering in surprise:
“H-H-Hello Santa
A Merry Christmas”
I could not find a publisher’s mark, but the postcard was “Made in the USA”.
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On the reverse, the written message begins without a greeting.
The senders write: “From your cousins Ruth and Dorothy”.
The family name of “Newswanger” is not uncommon in the counties of southeast Pennsylvania, and many of the families are large.
I traced several persons by the name of “John Newswanger” born circa 1910-1930, but have not found one who had first cousins named Ruth and Dorothy.
One hopes that Baby John and all of his extended family enjoyed a wonderful Christmas.
