OranToBCPc

February 9, 2011-- February 10, 2011

Recently, I bought this postcard below, on eBay. I bought it because the photograph reminded me of something out of Agatha Christie or some exotic 1920's sort of story. I've been collecting inspiration for my "Osbert Pickle" story. I have an eBay search of "man and dog" in the postcard category saved.

I had no idea what was on the back. I knew it had something because the seller said so in the description.

When the postcard arrived, I found it interesting that it had originally been sent to British Columbia, Canada. The card was being sold from, London, Ontario, which is also in Canada, (obviously). I always wonder how a postcard made it from the original destination to the place where it was sold from. The seller offered, "local pickup," which we could have done. But my husband reminded me that once we paid the bridge toll there and back-- plus gas, the trip to London, would cost us more than the shipping via Canada Post. (For some reason Canada Post has what seem like expensive rates. And things from Canada seem to take a long time to get here, considering we are only half an hour away from there.)

The Postmark on the postcard says it was sent from some place in Oran. Oran is a province in Algeria. Algeria is in North Africa. I can't make out the city in Oran that the postcard was sent from. It looks like KALA____ M?, H?, ILLIL?. The date is August 24, 1911. (Wow! In August, this postcard will be 100 years old.) I found the stamp interesting in that it is French. And now that I look up Algeria in Wikipedia, I see that it was ruled by France for a time until 1962. I figured it was a French colony at one time.

The text on the back of the postcard says that it was sent from a brother, "A Flemming?," to his sister, "Mrs. W S Bodaly". I think the brother is named, Flemming, but can't make out the handwriting well enough. I am not sure if the brother is one of the men on the front of the postcard.

I can make out most of the text, but not all of it. I am not sure if this postcard has a "gay" theme to it. The brother says, "This is my latest". I am not entirely sure what he means by that. The next paragraph is what I can read of the text. The words I cannot make out will be made note of by a ______. My guess to the text will be underlined text with a ? by it. I am adding punctuation in some casses.

"Dear Sister- Your letter to hand. I will ____ later. This is my latest - Phil? The other is a book hilper? (helper?). Here for good health frame?. Your brother, A Flemming?."

The address is, "Mrs. W S Bodaly, Glen Valley, British Columbia, Canada".

It would be interesting to know who the men are in the photograph. I kind of assume that the brother is the older man in the photo. It is not good to assume though. It would be nice to know who Mrs. W S Bodaly is. I also hope to find out what the brother means by the text he wrote. Is the dog a, "book helper"? Is one of the men the "book ____"? What is his, "latest"? Is it the dog or the other man? I'm also assuming that the photo was taken in Paris. Was the photograph taken in Algeria by a Paris photographer? Was the brother in Algeria because he had a health issue that the climate would help? Or was he there because a warm sunny climate is good for general health? So many questions which I doubt will all be answered. But who knows.

Find below scans of the postcard. First off is a detail from the card, showing text of a name and address. I believe this to be either the photographer or the publisher of the postcard. I tried looking this name up via Google and didn't find much. I didn't look at everything that came up though. This detail is full size. Next find detailed excerpts of the address and postmark. Those two will enlarge if you click on them. Below that will be scans of the whole front and back. You can also click on those to see larger versions.