Miss Teresa Gomond lived in Elizabeth, the city and county seat of Union County in northeast New Jersey.
A center of industry, Elizabeth preserves beautiful neighborhoods of historical and cultural interest.
(I once led some workshops in Elizabeth and enjoyed walking through the beautiful structures in center city – not far from the train station which connects to Penn Station in Manhattan.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth,_New_Jersey
In July of a year near1920, Teresa received a comic postcard from L.
The postcard was mailed from Long Branch, a coastal city in Monmouth County which has been a popular resort of east central New Jersey since the 19th century.
Many historic cultural events and many famous visitors have been associated with Long Branch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Branch,_New_Jersey
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The face of the postcard is a humorous drawing of a beach as seen through the legs of bathers.
The men appear to be wearing striped bathing suits, while the women sport suits of solid color.
The ample proportions of some bodies seem designed to create amusement, as does the suggestion of an enormous body floating on the waves, and the pair of feet wiggling in the air.
Above the scene, a printed challenge emphasizes the limited view:
“$5.00 REWARD IF YOU FIND ME IN THIS CROWD”
The postcard bears the publisher’s insignia, but I have not yet identified it.
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On the reverse, L. begins the message without a greeting –
“Don’t think I forgot your birthday”.
Teresa’s correspondents are not swimming at the shore, but are fishing.
L. explains, “We are going from one beach to another trying to catch fish.”
Teresa seems to have enjoyed the comic postcard as she preserved it throughout her life.
One hopes that Teresa enjoyed a wonderful birthday, that the fishing party was successful, and that the correspondents exchanged many more postcards.
RESEARCH NOTE
Because the surname was unfamiliar to me, I searched for Teresa Gomond.
On July 6, 1904, Teresa Catherine Gomond was born in Union County, New Jersey.
She was the daughter of John Baptiste Gomond (1871-deceased) and Catherine M. Roberts (1868 -1941).
John and Catherine were married in 1903; both had been married previously and Catherine had two sons from her first marriage.
Teresa was the first child born of this marriage and she had, in addition to her step-brothers, a younger brother and sister.
All the children lived into adulthood.
In 1925, when she was 20, Teresa married Francis Michael Donohue (1902-1983).
Teresa and Michael had one child (son), Francis Michael Donahue, Jr. (1925-1988).
From 1915 through 1950, Teresa was a resident of Elizabeth, NJ.
In 1985, Teresa died in Ocean County, NJ.
Francis and Theresa are buried in St. Gertrude’s Cemetery in Middlesex County, NJ.
The son of Teresa and Francis, Francis Jr., was married in 1947 and had a son who may still be alive.
