Southern Methodist Church 01

This is an interesting card for several reasons. First of all, it is an uncharacteristically un-flattering picture of the church. The left side is over-exposed and the right side is under-exposed. A telephone pole looks like it's ready to fall over. And the yard in front of the church looks like it needs mowing and is filled with mud. Are those tire ruts in the lower-middle of the picture?

That may be common real picture postcards (RPPCs), which are often taken by amateurs. But this is a decided "continental" card. Notice the Austrian credits at the bottom of the front. On the address side, there is a script "A", meaning "To:". Such lack of quality is very unusual for an imported card of this era.

Notice that the telephone pole has five crossbeams on it. Even though Macon was just beginning to be "wired" in the first decade, the technology to multiplex several signals on one wire didn't exist. That's why there were so many "party lines". Even with that, it took dozens of cables to provide telephone service to a single neighborhood.

The church itself is nice. It's small; the sanctuary probably takes up most of the building. And the octagonal shape on the left side adds architectural interest. Notice that virtually every church in Macon has a large square steeple on one of the front corners.

The message is interesting, too. It indicates that it was written on "Saturday", and "Mother" attended church "last night" and visited old friends. That means there was a church meeting on Friday night. It was probably an old fashion "revival" meeting which were common enough back then that they didn't even have to refer to them as "revivals". They were just casually going to "church". On a Friday night.

Of course, the next day would be Sunday and that's when "Mother" is going to catch up on her obligations and sit down and write a letter. Sundays were truly a day of rest back then. After all, if they could go to a revival meeting on Friday night, what else would there be to do on a Sunday afternoon?

Subject:	Southern Methodist Church
Caption:	Macon Mo. Southern Methodist Church. Nr. 8757, T Schwidernoch, Vienna-Hacking (Austria) Europa.
Date:	March 27 -- 2 PM There is no year on the postmark or in the message, but since it has an undivided back and is very similar to another postcard that is dated 1901, it is probably from around then, at least before 1907.
From:	Your Mother
To:	Mr. W. J. Ammen 248 - W - 61 - Place Chicago Ill
Message:	Dear Will, Saturday another beautiful day. Will write letter tomorrow. Attended church last night. Met so many old friends. Enjoying every minute. – Your Mother
Notes:	This is an interesting card for several reasons. First of all, it is an uncharacteristically un-flattering picture of the church. The left side is over-exposed and the right side is under-exposed. A telephone pole looks like it's ready to fall over. And the yard in front of the church looks like it needs mowing and is filled with mud. Are those tire ruts in the lower-middle of the picture? That may be common real picture postcards (RPPCs), which are often taken by amateurs. But this is a decided "continental" card. Notice the Austrian credits at the bottom of the front. On the address side, there is a script "A", meaning "To:". Such lack of quality is very unusual for an imported card of this era. Notice that the telephone pole has five crossbeams on it. Even though Macon was just beginning to be "wired" in the first decade, the technology to multiplex several signals on one wire didn't exist. That's why there were so many "party lines". Even with that, it took dozens of cables to provide telephone service to a single neighborhood. The church itself is nice. It's small; the sanctuary probably takes up most of the building. And the octagonal shape on the left side adds architectural interest. Notice that virtually every church in Macon has a large square steeple on one of the front corners. The message is interesting, too. It indicates that it was written on "Saturday", and "Mother" attended church "last night" and visited old friends. That means there was a church meeting on Friday night. It was probably an old fashion "revival" meeting which were common enough back then that they didn't even have to refer to them as "revivals". They were just casually going to "church". On a Friday night. Of course, the next day would be Sunday and that's when "Mother" is going to catch up on her obligations and sit down and write a letter. Sundays were truly a day of rest back then. After all, if they could go to a revival meeting on Friday night, what else would there be to do on a Sunday afternoon?