Past Post: Lake Union 1910
July 29th, 2008 @ 12:56 am by Cliffe | Sorted Past Post
Guess some things never change. H.R. Kuhlman writes in April 1910 that they’ll be leaving Mount Vernon because it’s too cold, too wet, and the doctor bills are too high. Michigan might not have been the best refuge from the cold but who am I to judge? If you’re new to Vintage Seattle, this is where we peak into someone’s life via old postcards. Who were they? What stories did they have to tell? Did the doctors rip them off in Michigan too? Click on the postcard to see for yourself.
Dear Friends, I suppose you folks think we have forgotten all about you by this time. Guess we will go back to Michigan before next fall it is too cold and wet here for Mrs. Kuhlman and the baby. It cost to much for doctor bills. H.R. Kuhlman Mt. Vernon
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| Lake Union, Seattle, Wash. |
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| Postcard sent April 20, 1910. No 5228. Publ. by Portland Post Card Co., Portland, Ore. and Seattle, Wash. (Made in Germany.) |
July 29th, 2008 @ 7:57 am
What a SAD postcard. His friends have forgotten about him, his wife and kid have pneumonia and he’s resigned himself to the fact that his great adventure west failed. He feels miserable for what he’s done to himself and his family and he’s written all that out in about 50 words to someone back home who might not even care anymore. Depressing, Cliffe. Depressing.
July 29th, 2008 @ 1:48 pm
I don’t see this as depressing - I see this as resolve to a situation that required changing options. This does NOT take away from any mark this family might have left in the region. Who knows what piece of positive fulfillment this family might have given us.
I am a resident and home owner in East Lake - and we continue to see our little community change monthly, sometimes in a large obvious way - sometimes in smaller amounts. All of it is a piece of what we have become and what we will continue to be. Everyone counts for something!
July 31st, 2008 @ 3:11 pm
1910 must have been a long wet winter (kinda like this year), if a Michigan winter was looking good to the unfortunate Kuhlmans.
Lewis and Clark overwintered on an extremely wet and cold winter (for this region), as did the Denny landing party on Alki.
It’s too bad, because if a newcomer hits a dry, warmish winter and one of our frequent (shhh! it’s a secret) temperate and glorious summers, our neck of the woods is weather paradise.
And the baby doesn’t end up with nearly as much colic from the drafts.
August 1st, 2008 @ 2:06 am
Who were they? What stories did they tell? Why can’t they be more interesting?