Postcard Friendship Friday -Pvt. Burns, Part VI

This is the final post of the Pvt. Burns postcards. As I mentioned last week, the Mister and I made another trip to the antique shop in Tarpon Springs and looked once more through every Florida postcard. The Mister also looked through every NY postcard in our attempt to find more cards to Mrs Burns. We found three and I will share all of them with you today.


The first card shown was written December 7, 1943. This was the first anniversary of Pearl Harborand is the earliest date of all the Pvt. Burns cards

The scene is identified as "Exclusive Hotels on Collins Avenue, Miami Beach Florida.
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Pvt Burns wrote on the picture " I live around here somewhere (Arnold Hotel) Just like these"

On the back of the card he wrote:

Dear Mrs. Burns

Well I just finished knocking off cards to everyone so I thought I would send one to my Wife even if I just sent a letter a few hours ago.

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Tell your family I didn't send them any because I don't know their addresses.

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Boy it's like August here except there are more flowers, etc. I went swimming today. Water perfect.

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Don't forget to write.

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Love

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Me

PS how is Stinky?

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My guess is "Stinky" is their son, Robert Jr. The Arnold Hotel still exists, and was one of many Miami hotels that housed soldiers during WWII. As you will see in a moment, this is the only other card I could find from Pvt. Burns. We can only guess how he fared during the war and whether he made it back home to his Mrs. Burns and Robert Jr.. I'd like to think he did, that they had several more children including 2 girls who liked to dress alike, that they found a small post war bungalow with a fenced yard and a nearby park with a sledding hill . I'd like to imagine that they turned the basement into a rumpus room, added a dormer to the house when the kids were in their teens and enjoyed a good long life together.

Surprisingly, we found two more cards addressed to Mrs. Burns although neither is from her husband.

All of Pvt. Burns' cards were written during December 1942 and January, 1943. The card shown above was postmarked December 9, 1944 The "Lumitone Photoprint" picture is of the Roger Smith hotel in White Plains, NY. The caption reads:

The Roger Smith, White Plains, N.Y.

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Home of (radio)Station WFAS

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Is one of the modern fireproof hotels of the Roger Smith Group, which also operates hotels in New York City, Washington, D.C., Stamford, Conn., New Brunswick, N.J. and Holyoke, Mass.

This card gives us Mrs. Burns name! Anna! It is also addressed to San Raphael California. The residential street address still exists.

It reads:

Dear Anna,

Billy got home late last night. Coming over here tomorrow.

Write.

Love Bubba

No cigarettes here either

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Isn't it nice to know her given name? Bubba may be her brother. Who is Billy? Another brother or cousin, perhaps? Maybe home from the service, or school? The "no cigarettes" remark is very telling. Quite a shortage, I'm sure, due to the war and most likely due to cigarettes being made very available to the soldiers. Cigarettes were included in ration kits. It was perfectly okay to smoke back then. Ads read things like "9 out of 10 Doctors who smoke buy Chesterfields!"

Why is Anna in California? Visiting school chums?, in-laws? Perhaps Pvt. Burns was on R&R and she was visiting with him. I'll go with that idea.

The Roger Smith Hotel in White Plains NY still exists. This picture is circa 1969 and shows that the hotel was enlarged considerably after the war. The name was changed to The Roger Smith Motor Hotel because with the addition of a new portico guests could motor up right to the lobby door.

This last postcard to Anna shows the Underpass at Port Jervis, N.Y. The underpass leads from NY to Pennsylvania. Port Jervis NY boarders PA and NJ and is on the North bank of the Delaware River. Stephan Crane wrote the Red Badge of Courage at his brother's home in Port Jervis.

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The card was mailed to the Rochester New York address and was postmarked in Port Jervis on June 4, 1945. This was just a month after VE Day when Germany surrendered, and 2 months before Japan surrendered on VJ Day in August 1945.

The card reads:

Arrived here at 3 o'clock

Raining all the way and cold

Will write later.

Love to you and Bobby

Mother

Perhaps Anna's mom visited with her and Bobby Jr. in Rochester for a time. It was summer, and there was hope that the war would end. Perhaps they were canning tomatos from her victory garden.

Pvt. Burns is not mentioned, but these are so brief and so lacking of any information that I do not see this as an ominous sign. Perhaps he was fortunate enough to spend the entire war in Florida working or teaching, or doing any of a thousand jobs and returned home safely. I'm going to make one more trip to the antique store and look through the California cards. Perhaps Anna sent a card from San Rafael! I'll let you know how that goes.

A modern view of the Underpass at Port Jervis. This view is from the Pennsylvania side.


Thank you, Marie at Voila! Vintage Postcards for hosting another Postcard Friendship Friday. See you again next week.