Mrs. George Furman lived in Great Bend, a town on the Susquehanna River in northeast Pennsylvania.
Great Bend, named for a feature of the river, is near the border of New York State, only 11 miles from Binghamton.
(Today, it is a “bedroom community” for Binghamton.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bend,_Pennsylvania
On November 17, Mrs. Furman received a Thanksgiving postcard from her sister in Amsterdam, New York.
Amsterdam is in the Mohawk Valley of central New York, a few miles up-river from Schenectady.
In 1917, the area was a prosperous center of carpet and textile mills – these industries are now gone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam_(city),_New_York
The sister does not inscribe her name; she refers to herself only as “Sister”.
The face of the Thanksgiving postcard shows a rural home beyond autumn foliage.
The inscription offers the hope, “May your heart be glad on this Day of Thanksgiving”.
The drawing is more sparse and less-detailed than most postcards from the pre-war years.
This postcard was printed and published in the US by the Owens Card Publishing Company of Elmira, NY.
On the reverse, Sister laments that she has not heard from the Furman family for a long time.
Everyone in Amsterdam believes Ruth to be “a fine big baby”.
Sister is disappointed that the Furmans did not “come up”.
This suggests that the families could not celebrate together the birth of Baby Ruth.
One hopes that all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving and that the families of the sisters might meet in 1918.
