Mr. A. M. Brown lived in McCrea, once a small community around a crossroads in Cumberland County of south-central Pennsylvania.
The place is about six miles north of the borough of Newville, PA
https://www.mapquest.com/us/pennsylvania/mccrea-pa-283463169
An early settler of this portion of the Cumberland Valley was William McCrea who emigrated from County Tyrone (Ireland) with his wife and two children in 1790.
One young son, Walter, died on the Atlantic crossing.
At the turn of the 20th century, there appears to have been a cluster of farms in McCrea.
The post office closed in 1955 due to lack of residents, and the place name no longer is found even as a “census-designated place”.
Ginter’s MIll, an historic grist mill, is the chief identifiable feature of the erstwhile community of McCrea.
https://millpictures.com/mills.php?millid=1111
The McCrea family name is still prevalent in Cumberland County – it also exists on a road though this area of Mifflin Township and in the original family graveyard which is plotted on genealogical maps.
Sometime in a year near 1905, Mr. Brown received a comic postcard from an unidentified correspondent.
The postcard was mailed from the small town of McCrea, so we may assume that the sender was well-known to the recipient.
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The face of the postcard is a well-printed “certificate” of the “Down and Out Club”.
The name of “A. M. Brown” is written in the space where he is identified as “a dead one” and is named a candidate for the “Skidoo Treatment”.
I believe that the humorous references may be to a person who is “dumped” in a relationship or who is otherwise not partnered in a relationship.
Drawings of a man being booted “down the tubes” is consistent with the theme of being dropped or abandoned.
A hand-written note on the margin of the face expresses, “B. Greeting”.
If this is a birthday greeting, the theme would become one of being “over the hill” or past one’s prime.
I believe the postcard was made in the United States, but there is no indication of a publisher.
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The postcard was preserved in excellent condition -suggesting that Mr. Brown was amused by the humorous greeting.
One hopes that he did not maintain an extended membership in the “Down & Out Club”.
