Ramblings of a Deltiologist

Last Saturday I picked up this handy booklet produced by the Health and Cleanliness Council in 1929. The Council was created with the aim to propagate health and cleanliness (Journal of Nursing 1929) and this pamphlet was one of many the Council produced. Contained are useful tips on how to wash lace curtains, make soap jelly, and how to teach kids to blow their noses thoroughly so they won't suffer later on in life! Some advice I think I will not follow in 2012 include the following... Carpets should be brushed each day with a soft brush, and once a week with a hard brush, first sprinkling with tea-leaves which have been well washed and are slightly damp, to prevent the dust from rising. A good tooth-paste is, of course, of great benefit, but if you have no toothpaste, just rub your brush on the soap tablet. Soap will cleanse and brighten the teeth excellently and benefit the gums too. The best thing about this pamphlet is the logo and quite scary slogan... Whe...

A few years ago, I was sent a lovely old postcard from Winnipeg, Canada, to add to my small collection of old Winnipeg postcards. The postcard was found on a dusty bookshelf in a junk store in Winnipeg and my friends, knowing I liked old cards, translated it from French into English and popped it in the post for me to enjoy and research. The research has grown and grown thanks to Marcel Victor Prefontaine, the great-great-grandson of one of the people mentioned in the postcard, who has given me so much information I felt that it should get a new post! One of my big questions was when was it sent? Here is the original postcard: And here is what it says: 5th September - My Big Girl (as in a daughter who is no longer a child by looked at tenderly - contrary to an English father who might refer to even their grown daughter as his "little girl", a French-Canadian father would refer to such a child as his "big girl" since a petite-fille is actually the ...