This postcard puts us in the middle of a family drama – of which we know very little.

In October of 1911, Lillian sends a postcard to her sister, Alice.

The face of the postcard is a printed motto, “Quit going around with a gloomy face”.

Beneath the printed legend is a hand-written addition, “Cheer up, Alice”.

Alice lived in Minneapolis, the largest city in the state, on the West Bank of the Mississippi River in southeast Minnesota.

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

Lillian lived with Olaf in the small community of Minnetonka Beach, about twenty miles west of Minneapolis.

(Minnetonka Beach is located one on of the many peninsulas that extend into the sprawling Lake Minnetonka.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnetonka_Beach,_Minnesota

On the reverse, Lillian gives an account of her activities in recent days – and it looks like Lillian and Olaf were active in their neighborhood.

In one afternoon, Lillian attended the Ladies Sewing Circle; the next evening she and Olaf attended a party with 10 others and enjoyed coffee, cake, ”and other good things”.

A neighbor visited one afternoon, and Bertha spent the day at Lillian’s “last Tuesday”.

I don’t know if Lillian was in the habit of sharing the details of her social life – it may be that she was trying to encourage Alice to become more active.

The message ends on a friendly note as Lillian and Olaf send “love to all”.

This is one of the instances in which one would dearly love to find a handful of postcards between correspondents – so that one could better understand the arc of the conversation.

We do not know why Lillian was commenting on Alice’s disposition.

It may be that the sisters had very different temperaments and often misunderstood the other.

(Although, it is a burden to deal with another’s continuous negative emotions.)

One hopes that Alice was pleased to receive the postcard and that she displayed a more cheerful mood toward Lillian.