In May of 1910, Gertrude was in St. Petersburg – the sunny city on the Pinellas Peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Petersburg,_Florida
On Saturday, Gertrude plans to leave St. Petersburg for DeLand, Florida.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeLand,_Florida
In an earlier postcard story, we met the town of DeLand – a town designed for fruit cultivation and for winter vacations by northerners.
DeLand was created by an industrialist and entrepreneur, Henry Addison DeLand from New York State; he purchased a large tract of unused land north of Orlando for his ambitious plan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Addison_DeLand
The face of the postcard is a lovely example of original postcard art.
The drawing was copyright in 1909 by A. C. – the initials seem to be the publisher, Arthur Capper of Topeka, Kansas.
A weathered tree is firmly rooted to a rocky crag. The evening sky is beautifully rendered in yellow and orange tints.
In the sky, a printed verse proclaims a dreamy feature with a special “You”.
On the reverse, Gertrude reports that she attended “a dance here last night”, and asks “are you having any there now”.
Gertrude adds, “Hope we’ll be fortunate enough to enjoy one more…”.
The postcard is addressed to George Wood of DeLand, a person Gertrude is “anxious to see”.
Mr. Wood maintained an extensive postcard correspondence with many friends in Florida, New York, and abroad.
An antique dealer has more than a hundred postcards related to George, and we will see other postcard stories related to him.
One hopes that Gertrude reached DeLand safely and that she and George enjoyed a dance in the Spring of 1910.
