I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Tag: life in the early 1900s

  • Post Cards From The Heart – Mr. Roosevelt Wasn’t Home


           Friday, Sep.27 – 1907   Viewed city from Monument

    Bessie and Luke left the Jamestown Exposition and continued their honeymoon with a visit to Washinton, D.C.   The Washington Monument was a must stop for them as they got their bearings inside the city and planned their stay.   Where to go first?   So much to see and do in the nation’s capitol and only three days for sightseeing!   The answer is the same as it is for many of us who travel to D.C. a century later, whether honeymooning or not.   The White House.   The iconic symbol of America’s pride in itself.

    Visited Fri Sep 27 – 1907.  The home of Teddie – he was not there.

    Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States and held that office from 1901 – 1909.   He was famous for his Rough Riders in the Spanish American War of 1898 but in 1906 received the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to negotiaite the Russo-Japanese Treaty.   War and Peace.  Two of the thorniest obsessions of American Presidents, and Teddy Roosevelt was no exception.   So in 1907 when our friends Luke and Bessie came to call,  he would have been the inhabitant of The White House as they stood in line to get their tickets for a tour of his home.  Alas, as she wrote jokingly on her post card, Teddy was not there. Bessie was so excited to go through the historical residence she bought a post card for each change of rooms and wrote the time for every half hour of the tour.

    Blue Room, White House, Washington, D. C.

    Ten a.m. Sept 27th  1907. L and B

    State Dining Room

    10:30 a.m. Sept 27th 1907

    Luke, Bessie

    Red Room

    Eleven a.m. Sept 27th 1907

    Executive Mansion, East Room

    Eleven thirty a.m., Sept 27th 1907

    East Room

    12 p.m. Sept 27th 1907

    The tour lasted two hours and was unforgettable for the young couple who were completely taken in by the guide’s descriptions and stories that came with the house.   If these walls could talk.

    The day was half over and Luke suggested they walk past a couple of other buildings he wanted to see on the way back to their hotel for a late lunch and afternoon delight.   It was a honeymoon, after all.

    State War and Navy Departments, Washington, D.C. 

    Fri Sept. 27, 1907

    Agricultural Building 

    Fri Sept 27 1907

    Naturally he wanted to see the military and agriculture  buildings on the very first day of their visit, and Bessie went along with him.  She purchased the post cards for their memory book which she faithfully kept as a reminder of each day’s adventures.   It was a world without digital cameras, a world without cameras unless you were a professional photographer, so the post cards were Bessie’s attempt to preserve their reminiscences.

    Let’s leave our Alabama couple to themselves on this Friday night in the Big City and wish them well until we meet them in the morning.

  • Post Cards From The Heart – Greetings From Jamestown


    The leather post card on the front of the tattered photo album should have been a clue indicating the significance of the Jamestown Exposition in the life of Bessie and Luke, but it took me several days of pouring through the photos to figure it out.   Duh.

    The Jamestown Exposition was held from April 26 to December 1, 1907 at Sewell’s Point in Norfolk, Virginia.   It was one of many expositions popular at the turn of the twentieth century and was a celebration of the 300-year anniversary of the initial landing in Virginia by the English colonists.   Unfortunately, it was a financial disaster for its supporters and a cultural disappointment tainted with racial conflicts.   Attendance eventually reached 3 million visitors and included President Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain who came as a replacement for former President Grover Cleveland as a guest of honor on Robert Fulton Day.   President Roosevelt spoke on Georgia Day, June 10, 1907, on the steps of the Georgia Building.   Although Bessie purchased a post card marking that historic event at the Exposition, she didn’t arrive until three months later.

    In spite of the negative press and rumors surrounding the Jamestown Exposition, Luke and Bessie chose it for the first stop of their honeymoon trip.   The wedding date remains a mystery, but this trip is certainly the honeymoon.  More than 100 post cards in her album describe the trip of her lifetime.   Luke and Bessie, she wrote on almost every one of the cards that she used to carefully preserve her memories of the adventure.   September 26, 1907…the first day.

    The displays of two squadrons of ships remained one of the most popular sites throughout the Exposition and Bessie bought several post cards of the remarkable water exhibits to remind her of the sight.  The displays influenced a number of important visitors from Washington, D.C., too, and probably led to the formation of a naval base in Norfolk ten years after the close of the Exposition.

    The Main Auditorium was a must-see, of course.   Sept. 26 – eve – 1907     Luke, Bess

    A choice which surely was Luke’s was the Mines and Metallurgy Building.   Since he worked for Atlanta Steel,  he would want to visit this exhibit and Bessie bought a card for him.

    Sept 26. P.M. – 1907   Luke, Bessie

    A totally unexpected surprise of the trip was the chance meeting of a young man from Canton, New York.   No mention is made of how the meeting took place.  Perhaps they met at a concession stand having lunch?  Regardless, we learn much about him from his post cards.   His name was Wm. J. Heckles and he would maintain a friendship through their post card correspondence for many years with the newlyweds from the South.   His first post card was sent a month after their encounter at the Exposition.

    My dear Mr & Mrs Moore, I have at last reached home tired out but well pleased with my trip…Hope you had a fine trip home and reached there all right.  I only stayed one day at Jamestown and stayed the rest of the time in Philadelphia and New York.  Hoping to hear from you I remain in F.L. & T.      Wm. J. Heckles, Canton, N.Y.    What’s this?  Texting on post cards a hundred years ago?  Every one of his post cards through the years closed with F.L. & T.     LOL.  I have no idea what he meant.

    Another post card was sent while the Moores honeymooned.  Bessie wouldn’t receive it until she got home, but it came from China, Texas.

    I think you should write me, F    Clearly, Florence from our last post was feeling left out.

    The Jamestown leg of the trip lasted two days and Bessie saved this post card to mark her last day there.

    1907 on night of 27. Leaving Jamestown for Washington

    Bessie and Luke continue their journey to Washington, and we’ll meet them there next time.