A Comic Postcard for “Leap Day” – Florida (1920)

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.

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