By The Moonlight

And at night er'e we go to slumber so light,

We'll watch the moon rise and the stars shining bright.

It is time again to participate in another postcard carnival hosted by A Canadian Family . The theme this time is "light". I confess I had to look through many of my postcards to find one to fit the theme. I'm rather intrigued by the postcard I picked.

This card is addressed to Mr. Jonnie Boss Talbott of Jeffress, VA, my great grandfather. His given name was Johnny Hodias Talbott, but somewhere along the way he changed his name to Boss Henry or just Bossy. This card is the first time I have ever seen the combination of his old and new names used this this way.

The second thing I noticed about this card is that it was never mailed. There is no stamp or postmark. Perhaps it was delivered by it's writer or a friend. The translation is difficult as the writing is faded and with essentially no punctuation. Below is the best translation I have come up with so far.

Helow ahl Boss. How are you by this time O.K. I hope Received your card and was offal [?awful] to here from you and was so sorry that I was not down there to the dancing. You just aught to move here with us. Coming home that day we got home at 1 o'clock. Mr. J W Hopkin did not go home until new years day. From a friend _____L. Torry gave my love to all.

Lastly, I do not know the identity of the sender. In two places, the name ______ Torry appears. I have no Torry listed in my database. There is also a Mr. Hopkin mentioned in the text. Again, I do not know who this might be.

Hopefully one day the mystery of this card will be solved. In the meantime, enjoy the postcard!