The Post War European Trip Collection-Gloria Lee In Venice

Unlike in the previous post, this card was mailed.  The Message, "July 10, 1948.  Dear Mom & Dad,  Venice is simply heavenly.  There's no other place like it in the world!  It's exactly  like all the pictures you've seen painted-gondolas on the canals-all the beautiful, colorful surroundings and the people so well dressed here & go about with a prosperous air.  Took a trip over to the beach resort LIDO yesterday afternoon and this afternoon and laid in the sand & was just plain lazy-ahhh! It was wonderful-made me feel so darn healthy! and just eager to start out on another 60 mile hike-YEAH!!!  Some day I intend to return to this abode as it's just everything you could want in a city-Love, Gloria Lee."  Needless to say, Gloria Lee had very, very small hand writing.

The card was mailed to "Mr. & Mrs. Frank H. Bigewet, 5118 Vernon Ave., St. Louis 13, Mo. U.S.A." Now, I thought that I was misreading the last name, so I did a quick Google search for Frank Bigewet and was surprised to find his 1940 census information.  Frank was 37 years old in 1940.  Not too old to miss war service, but old enough that he wouldn't have been subject to the draft.  His daughter Gloria Lee was all of 10, born in 1930.  So, depending on which month she was born,  Gloria Lee was either 18 or 19 years old when she sent this card.   Too young to have a boyfriend or husband in the military, at least during World War 2.

As usual, click on The Post War European Trip Collection in labels, etc., etc.

The Here, There, and Everywhere Collection-In Venice

No, not Venice, California.  Literature is full of stories of rich Americans headed off for a life along the canals.  In my last post, I wondered if this collection was the maid's or her employer's.  My mother and her brother were servants.  When her bosses traveled, she stayed at home, but her brother went with the family.  In the last post I promised a clue, and that clue comes from my mother's experience My mother was a parlor maid and wore a uniform like the one in the last post.  Ladies maids and valets, like my uncle, traveled, parlor maids stayed behind.

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