bobbi355
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posted on August 29, 2000 09:01:23 AM
I have an old postcard from Italy that has a very unusual picture on the front. It is a baby or toddler wrapped in some type of cloth from the chest down (the arms are free) and it is lying on something round, like the shape of a satellite dish. I have scanned the card and can sent it if there is anyone who might be able to give me some insight on this. Thanks so much......
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twelvepole
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posted on August 29, 2000 11:16:21 AM
without seeing the picture, I would guess the round thing could be shield depending in how old it is.
Ain't Life Grand... 
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corrdogg
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posted on August 29, 2000 11:36:14 AM
bobbi355:
How about posting the photo here? Can you do that?
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bobbi355
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posted on August 29, 2000 11:39:55 AM
Thanks for replying twelvepole. The postmark is hard to make out, but it looks like 1902. Corrdogg - I wish I could post a pic of it on here........wonder if anybody knows how to do it? Thanks so much you guys..
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Muriel
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posted on August 29, 2000 03:51:54 PM
While we're at it, do old postcard collectors mind if there is writing on them?
Muriel aka Doofus Gerbiltushie 
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Glenda
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posted on August 29, 2000 11:42:25 PM
[b[Muriel[/b]: If one is collecting "memories" - postcards of the hometown or such - the writing doesn't matter, though of course it's terrific to find one in unused condition.
Sometimes the writing makes the postcard even more interesting. One of the postcards in my two albums is of a boating scene - two people in one rowboat and 2 children and an adult in the other. The message says: "This is me sitting in the boat with two of my grand children. That is my brother Lt. L. Bair that died in Pocatello Idaho standing in the boat."
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pareau
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posted on August 30, 2000 08:36:53 AM
Without seeing it, it's hard to be sure, but this sounds like one of the few documents of a little-known event to survive WWII, which was especially hard on Italian postcards.
If I'm right, you're holding a picture of Italy's one-time festival of biblical lore--their ill-fated challenge to Germany's Oberammergau. It involved extensive reenactment of famous scenes from the Bible, and your picture is known as "Panning for Moses in Palermo." It was a (thankfully) successful event in which the townspeople swaddled their baby boys and floated them in a nearby pond that had a thick stand of cat-o-nine tails (near as they could get to bullrushes). Festival participants paid for a shot at scooping out the kids with oversized paella pans. Unfortunately, a few of the other events didn't work out so well, and the principal in "Making Lot's Wife" met an untimely and salty demise, and the festival was never repeated. This is why very few people know about this unique moment in Italy's history, and its mementos are truly rare. Congratulations on your find!
- Pareau
edited for sense 
[ edited by pareau on Aug 30, 2000 08:38 AM ]
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corrdogg
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posted on August 30, 2000 08:41:45 AM
As usual, pareau appears to be "dead on".
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bobbi355
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posted on August 30, 2000 09:05:12 AM
Pareau - Thanks so much for the info - What you described pretty well fits what I'm seeing on this card. It has writing on it and for sure I can read "babies" in the message that was hand written and the card was mailed to Chicago, IL. I wish I new how I could put the pic on here.
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jamesoblivion
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posted on August 30, 2000 09:08:15 AM
bobbi: Click on my name, and email it to the address shown there and I'll put it up here for you, if you want.
James.
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pareau
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posted on August 30, 2000 09:10:13 AM
Oh no. Somebody better tell bobbi about pareau. I have to crawl under my rock now.
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jamesoblivion
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posted on August 30, 2000 09:16:29 AM
But the important thing is that you were right anyway.
James.
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corrdogg
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posted on August 30, 2000 09:23:51 AM
bobbi355:
To post the image here, just enclose the location (on your webspace) with [img*](your image location here)[*/img] - (leave out the *'s)
Hopefully (kind) james will take care of this so we can see this card.
(edited for UBB Boo-Boo)
[ edited by corrdogg on Aug 30, 2000 10:01 AM ]
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bobbi355
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posted on August 30, 2000 09:27:06 AM
Hey, thanks James. The pics are on the way. Now I need to find a msg. board that can help me with the problem I have with the pics I had stored on my puter. A couple weeks ago somebody sent me a couple of pics and when I went to open them, I had to choose what format to open them in - I didn't really know what I was doing so I chose "picture viewer" and then it asks if I wanted to convert all of my pics over to that and like an idiot I chose "yes" ...... so now all my pics that I had stored are in this weird format now and I don't know how to get them back the way they were, just a regular jpg. image.
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jamesoblivion
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posted on August 30, 2000 09:33:05 AM
Here ya go!
James.
BTW, those pics are .bmps and not .jpgs. I changed them into .jpgs, because .bmps aren't viewable in Netscape. Most image editing programs, like Paint Shop Pro can convert them. All you have to do is open the file and save it as a .jpg.
[ edited by jamesoblivion on Aug 30, 2000 09:35 AM ]
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bobbi355
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posted on August 30, 2000 09:38:34 AM
Hey......there's my card! Thanks James. And thanks to you too corrdogg - I don't know a whole lot about this stuff (obviously).
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corrdogg
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posted on August 30, 2000 10:04:48 AM
Well, a nice early card. The description appears to be under the picture - any chance we can see just what that says so that it can be translated?
(Hopefully it doesn't say "... and with these cement boots you will be able to swim with the fishes".)
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pareau
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posted on August 30, 2000 10:14:32 AM
Oh dear, pareau was wrong! It's not a postcard from the festival, it's a closeup of the terracotta relief on Ospedale degli Innocenti (Hospital of the Innocents), in Florence. It was more an orphanage (foundling hospital) than a medical center, and it dates back to 1419. It's one of Brunelleschi's architectural triumphs. This is a view of the interior courtyard.
And this is a view of the child, in color.
Hope that helps. Now I have to sacrifice something to the gods.
- Pareau
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bobbi355
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posted on August 30, 2000 10:15:27 AM
Here's what I can decipher from the caption:
"Firense. Loggia Fegli Innocenti - Un Bambino.
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bobbi355
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posted on August 30, 2000 10:19:09 AM
Hey thanks pareau! Hmmm.....I wonder if it would be worth anything to a collector??
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