Category: Writing Prompt

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History Postcards writing Writing Prompt

Sold the Farm for Almost Nothing

Miss Annie Booker, 1909

Oct. 09

“Dear Friend Annie,

Received your letter long ago. Hope you and Nellie are well. Brother Tommy (?) lives in Columbus. Have just sold the farm for almost nothing. Do you hear from your sister Selena? Aunt Jane had a letter from her not long ago about her granddaughter’s death. My daughter Eva attends night school studying shorthand. With love to both yours in truth.

Your Friend Mary E. Lightly

Goodnight. God is Love.”

This particular letter is packed full of information and overall has (what I feel) a somber mood. Mary’s cramped writing, short sentences, and earnest tone draw me into this particular postcard. I wonder what the connection between Mary and Annie was, and if marriage separated the two friends.

Mary’s chosen postcard; a solitary boat moored on a windswept beach, further adds to the tone of the letter. It’s a beautiful postcard, textured in a way that photo doesn’t show. The boat and ridges of the waves are raised giving the entire postcard a tactile and satisfying feel.

Front of Postcard

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History Postcards Writing Prompt

Didn’t Get the Job They Promised

Miss Sophia Carlson, 1913

“Dear Sister,

I am back to working and it goes fine and dandy. I am feeling good and I hope you are the same. I didn’t get the job they promised me. Was away too (long?). This is alright for in the summer there is other (work?)

Bro John(?)”

This is one of my more tattered cards, and is frustrating because parts of the text are damaged, so I can only make an educated guess about what the author is saying. Like anything in history, context and audience matters. So although the overall message of the card seems optimistic, I have to wonder how much the sender muted his disappointment about the job he didn’t get. I hope the summer went better for him.

This card also has a post script on the front that, try as I might, I can’t quite make out. It seems to be playing with the “Iron Hub” motto. I think it says “She’s on the bum” or “she’s on the run”? What do you think?

“What’s the Matter with Iron Hub. She’s All Right.”

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History Postcards Writing Prompt

Glad to Get There

Mr. Burr R. Ruth, Date Unclear (I suspect early 1900’s)

“Dear Burr,

On our way home from Lincoln and very glad to get there.

M. K.”

I have to wonder wha happened in Lincoln that made M.K. drop a line to Burr. Was it a vacation gone awry? A work trip? Or perhaps just a longer journey. M.K. needed a vacation from the vacation.

South Omaha High School. Omaha, Nebraska

Personally, I think the front of this card is quite beautiful. I love the colors and the detail on the architecture. However, it’s strange (to the modern eye) to send a postcard of a high school. I suppose it’s no different than sending one of a college now days.

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History Postcards Writing Prompt

Hope You Have a Nice Trip Down

Mrs. Thorn(?) Porter, 1941

Dear Friends,

Re- your card saying you would be here after Thanksgiving. Will be so pleased to see you and hope you have a nice trip down.

Love,

Dr. & Mrs. Kounce

A theme I’ve seen over and over in these postcards are lines dropped letting a person know they are coming for a visit. Phones existed, but considering they were still a bit of an extravagance a postcard seems like a quick and easy method of communication.

Another note is that this was sent in November of 1941. Pearl Harbor was just around the corner. This was the last Thanksgiving before America officially entered World War II.

Front of Postcard. Natural Bridge, Virginia.

Interestingly, I have a few of these Natural Bridge postcards. It must have been a widely accessible or popular set. I’m a story collector, not a postcard collector. So if anyone knows more about this particular postcard, I’d love to hear.

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writing Writing Prompt

Memories

Daily writing prompt
Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?
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Grandmother’s are magic, and my grandmother was a witch.

With her her cupboard full of paper wrapped soaps, handkerchiefs, cards, crayons, and lavender satchels, there was always something for me to look at, to touch, to explore.

Her gardens were wild. Snapdragons turned princesses and roses turned prisoners with butterfly guards and praying mantis wizards that filled my days with whimsy and laughter.

It was not the thing I was attached to the most. It was going to her house, drinking milk and eating cookies, unwrapping rose scented soap, spinning in the gardens, and closing my eyes while she told me about little girls all in a line and a little one called Madeline.

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writing Writing Prompt

103

Daily writing prompt
What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?
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We are, all of us, the keepers of history. Family history, personal history, even world history. Each person reading this is the primary source of their life. When others are gone, you are the one who will remember them.

But age comes with problems that surpass aches and pains. Age comes with loss: of friends, of family, of work, of self-worth.

We should value the stories of elders, but in a hyper-productive capitalist society, stories of complicated lives aren’t condensed into 7 second clips meant to hold our attention.

But I encourage you to listen.

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Writing Prompt

Different

Daily writing prompt
What could you do differently?
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Different is a round word with sharp sounds. To say the word, I have to twist my mouth in ten directions and hope that the “t” at the end comes out soft like a purr instead of crashing in my mouth like a cymbal from a drum set.

Different is hindsight or nostalgia or wishing on cold air for a summer wind. Different implies choice. The choice to leave, the choice to save, the choice to change jobs. Different requires time. The time to work out, the time to read, the time to create.

Different is often a privilege. But it can be a mindset, too.

Different can mean present, mindset, outlook. Different can be noticing the funny way your partner breathes when they are almost asleep, or the goofy smile of a child who’s about to tell a joke.

It’s an incongruous word, at once difficult and done with ease.

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writing Writing Prompt

Billboard

Daily writing prompt
If you had a freeway billboard, what would it say?
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Nothing and everything.

Tendrils of color in sweeping brushstrokes would reach for the sky, communing with the varied moods of sunrise or dusk or stormy weather.

I would hang art that clashed with black snaking roads and gray exhaust. Art that soothed hurried commuters rushing from home to tomb and back to home again.

Art. Paintings. Poems. Photos. The advertisements of the soul.

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Flash Fiction Poems Writing Prompt

Past

Daily writing prompt
Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?
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It’s early summer and I thumb through an old diary peppered with half faded photographs whose memories are expiring like soured milk.

With her hair curled and her dress perfectly pressed, my grandma smiles out from one of pictures. A lopsided farmhouse imposes on the background. They said I looked like her, but I don’t see it. Her neck is long and her lips full, while both those things are scrawny on me.

But her Y’s look like mine, and her heart yearns for something she can never define. It’s like we both lost something along this journey, and have spent lifetimes searching for it.

To a historian, the past informs the present and serves as a prediction for the future. For a grand-daughter, the past is carried with us. It lives in our hair and our skin, in our smiles and our longings. We are the tellers of history and keepers of memories. We prevent the flame from flickering into smoke.

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Writing Prompt

Gift

Daily writing prompt
What is the greatest gift someone could give you?
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Sun kissed cheeks lifted up in a smile and a reluctant chuckle burst from his chest like an evening star whose light outshines a cloud. It was a step, delicate as sea-foam and precious as memories, but it came tinged with childish whimsy and love.