Private Ray L. Andrew was stationed at Camp Meade, a US Army cantonment established between the cities of Baltimore and Washington, DC, in July of 1917.
https://history.army.mil/html/bookshelves/resmat/wwi/pt02/ch07/pt02-ch07-sec04.html
Today, Fort Meade remains an important Army installation; the US Department of Defense manages several national security operations from this compound.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Meade
Although serving in the Army, Pvt. Andrew was not forgotten on his birthday.
In January of 1918, Ray received a Birthday postcard from his mother.
Mother mailed the postcard from Cashtown, a census-designated place in Adams County of south-central Pennsylvania.
Cashtown is on the original Lincoln Highway, about 9 miles northwest of Gettysburg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cashtown,_Pennsylvania
The face of postcard features a verse describing the many qualities – “mirth, frolic, kindly smiles” – that are wished for the birthday boy.
The verse is enclosed in a geometric border of which the spaces are filled with pink blossoms.
There is no attribution of the artist or of the author of the rhyming stanza.
On the reverse, we see the simple inscription “from Mother”.
We may assume that our hero enlisted in the war effort or was called up in the draft for World War I.
One hopes that Pvt. Andrew was delighted by the postcard, that he enjoyed his birthday in Camp, and that he returned safely from the war.
