Welcome to Retell Seller, an ephemera podcast where I uncover forgotten stories and the ephemera people leave behind. I’m Angie, a reseller of 10 years, and I’ll share one of those snippets with you. Let’s see what today’s find has to say.
Please know some links in this post are affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. Thank you. Click here for my full disclosure.
The front of this linen postcard is portrait in orientation and the image is of the quote, “largest geyser in Yellowstone National Park.” The top right of the card along the edge says, “935 Giant Geyser.” The artwork is of a white cloud of water and steam filling up pretty much the majority of the space.
The lower third of the image shows trees off in the distance and dry ground in the forefront. There are various stains, some of which look like maybe ink splotches that settled within the texture of the card.
It’s postmarked what I think says November 20th, 1948 out of Great Falls, Montana.
Hopefully it isn’t like the podcast I did on the Grauman Theatre, where I went into it thinking the date was June 10th, only to realize when I was done with getting it all ready that it may have actually said June 30th. I’ll be sure to update any time I find or am told of a possible correction though.
There’s also a colorful Thanksgiving sticker of pilgrims, a woman and man. The woman is wearing a blue dress with a white bonnet, carrying a basket with white linens. The man is wearing a black capotain hat, carrying a pumpkin.
The other side of the card has a description saying,
“Giant Geyser is the biggest active geyser in the world, throwing its waters two hundred to two hundred and fifty feet in the air and erupting for sixty minutes. Its action is irregular and its water has a heat of two hundred and two degrees.”
The sender’s message reads:
“Dear Mildred a Happy Thanksgiving.
I hope you are all well. I was wondering if the ck I sent you covered the silver I ordered. Thanks for your kindness. So nice of you. Raining tonight. We need moisture. 39°. Hear it’s quite bad weather back east. Minnie.”
As for the Giant Geyser, Wyoming News Now posted in 2024, in part, “Yellowstone National Park’s second-largest geyser spewed water and steam into the air for nearly an hour in its first eruption since 2010.”
I was curious about the silver, and according to a site I found that had historic price records for silver and other bullion, it was $.75 cents per ounce. Compared to early in 2026, silver was upwards of $120, and as of September, the latest date they have, it was sitting at around $65.
Then I looked up on newspapers.com, of which I am an affiliate for, because it allows me to look up things like silver prices in 1948. I found an AP article dated August 14th of 48 titled “Silver Price Down. The New York price for silver dropped 1 7/8 cents an ounce today. Handy & Harman, leading bullion dealers, quoted the metal at 72 3/4 cents.”
So maybe when Minnie was writing this postcard, talking about silver, I wonder if she had the thought, I’m gonna buy the dip.
Thank you for joining me as I shared a snippet of the past. I’d love to know if it connected with you in some way. Did it spark a memory or make you see something differently? If so, consider sharing it. Be sure to check out the show notes for additional info, links, and ways to connect. It’s not nostalgia, it’s human. Until next time, may you find something worth holding on to.
Thank you for coming along with me & if interested, consider signing up for the Newsletter.
DISCLAIMER: The content on this site is for storytelling purposes only.
pinny please
