Lives in Letters: Postcard from Brooklyn

Just dropping this in quickly tonight. I picked up this postcard because I was amused by the note. The writer seems a little cheeky if you ask me.

Postcard
Union League Club and Grant Statue,
Bergen St. and Bedford Ave.
Brooklyn, NY
April 10, 1911

Addressed to Mr. G. S-
Haledon, N.J.

How about taking
a bunch of flowers
out to Arcola on
Thursday. Put it
up to the fellows.
Tell Pat to bring
ribbons for me for
two. Jan T-

Notes:

First off, this makes me think of Little Women, when Amy was selling flowers and had such a hard time with the other girls. If I remember correctly, Jo got Laurie to rustle up a bunch of beautiful flowers for Amy to sell on day 2, and then he sent all his friends to buy from her. Did I get that right? Anyway, Jan sounds like a cross between Jo and Amy.


So I tried to find out what Arcola was. I googled Brooklyn and Arcola and found out that Scott Baio, who played Charles (Chachi) Arcola, was born in Brooklyn in 1961. I don't think it's relevant though.




There is an Arcola, NJ, and there's a country club and big golf course there. You can read about the history of the area here. The passage I thought was interesting was this, from the 1908 planning discussions for the Arcola Golf Course:

The course will be easy of access by trolley and it is believed that it will not be hard to get four or five hundred members as soon as it is decided to go ahead with the project....There is a perfect spot for the location of a club house on the proposed Arcola course. From a point almost 1,000 feet east of Paramus Road is possible to see Paterson, Passaic, Englewood and the Palisade ridge as far as Jersey City. No finer view exists anywhere in these parts.

Okay, it's not as interesting as Scott Baio, but I gotta go where the exploring leads.


And I'll just close quickly by saying, thank goodness for Pat and the ribbons, huh? I can't even make up a story to fit that line.