Picture Postcards Woman
finds old card with local postmark
By MAGGIE ROTERMUND
Bulletin Photo by
Maggie Rotermund
Iva Duggins, proprietor of Firehouse Antiques
in Cotter, sells old postcards. A recent arrival was addressed
to a Gassville resident from 1958.
Iva Duggins
COTTER -- In five years of getting postcards to sell in her
antique shop, Iva Duggins has never seen a local postmark.
Until now.
In her last shipment of cards, Duggins found a card sent from
California to Gassville. In 1958.
Firehouse Antiques, Duggins' store in downtown Cotter, has a
postcard addressed to Mary Van Tine, a former resident of Gassville.
The card reads of visits to Marineland, Tijuana and Disneyland. It
is signed: Love, Sis.
Duggins tracked Van Tine from Gassville, to Mountain Home, to
Diamond City. She called Van Tine Friday, and was unable to reach
her. She plans to offer her the card.
"Cotter is such a small town -- everybody knows everybody,"
Duggins said. "My friend is the postmaster, and she tracked down the
number."
Gassville was so small at the time the card was sent, there is no
address on the card, simply the name and Gassville, Ark.
Most of the cards in Duggins' shop have been sent, received and
usually sold at garage sales or auctions. Many of them simply slip
through the cracks with other possessions.
"My dealer in Springfield brings me some whenever he can,"
Duggins said. "But the postmarks in here are so varied -- you can't
possibly pinpoint where all of them came from."
She said her dealer could have purchased the cards at several
estate sales, auctions or swap meets.
Duggins said the reasons for collecting old postcards are as
varied as the kinds of postcards she sees. She said many customers
look for places they've been or once lived, some have a fascination
with a certain subject and some are just collecting ones that appeal
to them.
"I have one customer who has a postcard from every state capitol
in the United States," she said.
Duggins keeps the cards on the counter, ready for the impulse
buyer. Some of the categories Duggins separates the postcards into
include holidays, states, patriotic, animals and night scenes.
The cards also prove to be an intriguing way to spend quiet hours
in the shop. Duggins said she reads the notes when things slow down.
A card between friends in 1910, sent to Green City, Mo. talks of
a birthday party. The writer tells of the gifts she received,
including a music roll for her player piano, a jewelry box, two hat
pins, a belt pin, three handkerchiefs and a bottle of perfume. The
picture on the card? The maximum security U.S penitentiary at
Leavenworth, Kan.
If anyone has information on Van Tine, they can contact Duggins
at Firehouse Antiques in Cotter, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Wednesday-Saturday.
