For Betty Newman Nakamura who from her tiny shop on the wooded banks of the Esopus in Phoenicia, Ulster County, NY, sold me these cards from the 1910s and 1920s.
She sold us many other vintage things, useful and beautiful.
Bird-like. Modest, knowledgeable, interested and interesting, generous, and, above all, kind. She died in her late 70s in December 2014 and we miss her.
Her husband, Ken Nakamura, a Japanese American from Hawaii, survived her.
Photos of Betty’s shop taken from outside it in 2013 when it had already been closed for 3 years because of her illness.
They met when she was in New York city at the end of WW2 on a welcoming committee for returning soliders.
He was returning.
Decades after she married him against the wishes of her family, her quiet voice rose in anger like a plume of smoke suddenly one day at her memory of the vociferous attempt by her family to thwart their love.
Which lasted until her death.
As amused as these cards leave my hardened soul, I can say that Betty was as sweet; and also without guile.
I am glad you saw this post and knew you would appreciate these old notecards.
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The notecards are sweet, and I was really touched by your story of Betty and Ken. Their store is like a time capsule from another era, a memorial to their life and love. The memorial can’t last, but the memory can.
Wonderful post, Sarah!
I am glad you saw this post and knew you would appreciate these old notecards.
The notecards are sweet, and I was really touched by your story of Betty and Ken. Their store is like a time capsule from another era, a memorial to their life and love. The memorial can’t last, but the memory can.