Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: dreams

The last line on this amusing acquaintance card refers to a song, "Any Old Place I Can Hang My Hat Is Home Sweet Home to Me," which was published as sheet music in 1901 and recorded on phonograph cylinder in 1902, making it likely that the card dates from sometime in the early 1900s. For more cards, see my album of Acquaintance Cards . For information about my book of detachable acquaintance cards, head over to my Flickr About page L. M. Arnold, Sand Patch, Pa., R.F.D. No. 1 Let's get acquainted. Capital 50 millions in my dreams. Not married. Stick to me and you will wear diamonds, Kind regards to friends and knockers. Out for a good time. Any old place I hang my hat is my home sweet home.

A unique combination of a business card on one side and an acquaintance card on the other. For another two-sided example, see Acquaintance Compliments with Confidence and Respect , which has a name—like a calling card—on one side and the text of an acquaintance card on the other. For more cards, see my album of Acquaintance Cards . For information regarding my book of detachable acquaintance cards, which was published recently by Clarkson Potter, see my Flickr profile page . O. M. Dolley Livery Both 'phones. Horses and carriages furnished for business or pleasure at reasonable rates. 21 Water Street, Auburn, N.Y. Typographical Union Label, Auburn. Let's Get Acquainted Capital, 10 millions in my dreams. Not married, 1906. Kind regards to friends and knockers. Out for a good time.

"Merry Christmas. The Hughes. 1963." For another photographic Christmas card from the Hughes, see A Chorus of Christmas Greetings for 1962 :

This is the season the maidens dream Things of future unforeseen. Dream sweet dreams, oh! ladies fair; But of the future have a care! A postcard addressed on the other side to my grandmother, "Miss Annie Sturtz, Fairhope Boswell, Pa." (I'm not exactly certain where my grandmother lived at the time and why Fairhope was crossed out and Boswell written in). There are two postmarks--one from Somerset, Pa., and another from Fairhope, Pa.--both dated Oct. 29, 1908. The handwritten message on the back of the card is "Annie taking warning. B." My grandmother evidently didn't heed the warning from the unnamed "B." and married my grandfather a year later.

A Prohibition-era comic postcard that depicts a man dreaming about a change to the Volstead Act that would allow the sale of beer and create work—and prosperity—for brewers, farmers, and other laborers. As Wikipedia explains, the Volstead Act "was enacted to carry out the intent of the Eighteenth Amendment , which established prohibition in the United States " and banned the production and sale of alcoholic beverages beginning in 1920. Prohibition lasted until 1933, when the Twenty-first Amendment was ratified in order to repeal the Eighteenth Amendment. Franklin Delano Roosevelt used " Happy Days Are Here Again " as his presidential campaign song in 1932, and the repeal of Prohibition took place soon after Roosevelt took office. Signs and captions: "Free lunch today. Good old time lager beer. Free beer tomorrow. Happy days are here again." Dream of Prosperity Last night I dreamed that the Volstead law had been amended permitting the sale of beer (Oh! what a grand and glorious feeling!). Immediately 100,000 carpenters, bricklayers, and laborers went to work building and refitting breweries; 50,000 brewery truck drivers, helpers, vatmen, and coppersmiths were hired; and 100,000 printers were put to work printing beer labels. Bottle works and barrel makers engaged thousands more. Bookkeepers, stenographers, clerks, and salesmen found ready employment by the hundreds of thousands. Thousands of farmers left the city and returned to farms to raise hops and barley. 150,000 musicians went to work in the beer gardens. There was no unemployment. The country hummed with industry. The tax secured from the sale of beer was placed in a fund that was used for an old age pension. Then the scene changed–I saw 1,000,000 bootleggers holding a protest meeting. Disgusted, I then awoke.

"May your Thanksgiving never end in dreams like these!" Postcard postmarked Milwaukee, Wis., Nov. 22, 1910. The foods of Thanksgiving haunt a boy's sleep in this nightmarish scene by illustrator H. B. Griggs (HBG). For two other Thanksgiving postcards by Griggs, see 'Rah, 'Rah, 'Rah, Thanksgiving!!! and Were It Not for Friday's Pain (below).

"All my dreams came true." Info on the back of this postcard: "Genuine Frees Animal Series. Photographs of real live pets. No. 765. Christmas Comics. 6 designs....Publ'd by the Nyce Manufacturing Co., Vernfield, Pa." This printed postcard reproduces a photo by Harry Whittier Frees (1879-1953), who posed cats, dogs, and other animals in amusing scenes like this for magazines, books, and other publications. Mary L. Weigley's fascinating article, " Introducing Harry Whittier Frees, World-Famous Animal Photographer ," which originally appeared in Pennsylvania Heritage , Spring 2014, describes how Frees captured these images: "Frees's photographs were uncommon because he used live animals and no tricks were involved... He attired them in dresses, work uniforms, smocks, shawls, robes, and aprons made by his mother or his housekeeper Annie Edelman. The clothes were held in place by pins so the animals could be quickly dressed and undressed. They were then posed in human situations--ironing clothes, cooking on an old-fashioned cast-iron stove, hanging laundry, playing a piano, pumping water, even casting votes in a wooden ballot box! The work was challenging, time-consuming, and nerve-wracking. It caused Frees so much anxiety that he photographed his furry subjects for only three months a year." Weigley's article goes on to tell about the popularity of Frees's photos and his success in publishing books (such as Animal Mother Goose, with Characters Photographed from Life , which came out in 1921) and providing illustrations for magazines, advertisements, and picture postcards. Sadly, though, Frees died alone and ended up in an unmarked grave (check out the article for the full story). His imaginative photos, however, continue to delight us today. Here's another postcard from the "Christmas Comics" series:

A downright macabre postcard for the Weird Vintage Postcards group. -------- I dreamt I was in a trance, my folks thought me dead. They put me in a coffin; they cried and said nice things about me. All night long the old cat, whose kittens I had drowned that morning, sat on my coffin and gloated over my sufferings; she knew I was alive. I was placed in a hearse and in due time arrived at the grave yard. I could hear the mud hit the lid of the coffin and began to choke when I woke up. Gates ajar. He has went? His chair is vacant. -------- Printed on the back: "Bad Dream Series No. 1." Postmarked twice on Oct. 17, 1910: Once at Middletown, Pa., 7 a.m., and a second time at Manchester, Pa., 9 a.m. Addressed to: "Mrs. Katie May. Manchester, York Co., Pa." Handwritten message: "Dear Sister, I wanted to write this [for a] long time but I had no time. We are having two weeks off at the shoe factory. Why didn't you come over? I was at the river. Answer. From Elva, your sis. R.F.D. No. 1."

A tall-tale postcard by Wisconsin photographer Alfred Stanley Johnson, Jr. The large fish on this card (at bottom center) appears to be the same one he used on another card (see below for the other postcard and a comparison of the fish ).

"The sea may rise and mountains fall, but my love for thee will live through it all. Sweet dreams and glad awakernings be thine."

Postmarked: Hagerstown, Md., Oct. 30, 1908. Sent to: Mr. J. D. Payne, Box 816, Martinsburg, W.Va. Handwritten message: "Compliment of the season. You have a fine appetite, so [ac]cept a slice of cake at 12 p.m. on Halloween eve and have pleasant dreams."