Miss Florence Egan lived in Lodi, a town on Seneca Lake in Seneca County of central New York.
Originally settled by Dutch farmers from New Jersey, Lodi was a popular stop for steamboats in the early 20th century.
(The population of Lodi in 2020 was almost identical to the population in 1910.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lodi,_New_York
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In January of 1920, Florence received a postcard from Maggie.
Maggie mailed the postcard from somewhere in Florida – the postmark is very blurred.
The face of the postcard shows an amusing drawing of two young women pulling on the arms of a young man standing between them.
The contest takes place before a large red heart.
One of the woman claims “possession” due to having made the earliest claim; the other asserts that she is loved the best.
The conflict arises from the old tradition of Leap Day (later, “Sadie Hawkins Day”) on which a woman could claim an unmarried man as a beau.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadie_Hawkins_Day
Below the drawing, a printed legend explains the scene, “An Object of Dispute”.
This postcard was published by D. B. Crane in 1908 – for an earlier Leap Day.
One can see on the face that an older date has been erased and a new date of “1920” written in its place.
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On the reverse, we see that Maggie apologizes for the postcard – “Excuse card it was all I had”.
Maggie’s message has nothing to do with romance, rather an order of baskets that she is sending to Miss Egan.
It isn’t clear if making baskets was a business of Maggie’s; she does identify a price of 35 cents for the big baskets.
In other news, Maggie was very pleased to receive a letter from Miss Egan, and she was delighted by a recent visit from Mrs. Wicks.
We trust that Miss Egan was thrilled by the hand-made basket and she disposed of them as directed by Maggie.
One hopes that Maggie found time to write a letter, and that the correspondence continued for many years.
