A Towering Blossom for Valentine’s Day – Millersville, PA (circa 1906)

Master Aaron Frey lived in Millersville, the college town in Lancaster County of southeast Pennsylvania.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millersville,_Pennsylvania

Sometime around 1906, the boy was given a Valentine postcard from a friend, Charles Walton.

The postcard was not mailed, so a precise date cannot be determined – it has an undivided back, so was published before 1907.

The postcard gives no clues about the relationship between Charles and Aaron.

Charles may be an adult acquaintance of the family or may be another young person – a neighbor or classmate of Aaron.

The honorific, “Master”, was usually given to boys younger than 12, so Aaron could be attending school or Sunday School.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_(form_of_address)

The face of the postcard is a charming drawing of two children, a boy and a girl, admiring a gigantic “Morning Glory”.

Beneath the drawing is the legend, “To My Sweet Valentine”.

The morning glory was once a common adornment to pillars and posts of rural homes, but the creeping and trailing vines have become invasive and are now banned in the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_glory

This amusing drawing is similar to other postcard illustrations of gigantic blossoms or insects that we have seen.

The postcard to Aaron was published by Raphael Tuck & Sons, an English firm, and was (probably) printed in England.

One hopes that Aaron was delighted by the Valentine, and that he and Charles remained friends for many years.

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