Having a X time.

This one's kicked around the Internet for a while, and I went looking for its source.

It's a clever take of the early-to-mid twentieth century type -- using the forms of the new era (in both senses of the word) to poke fun at the stuffiness of the formal letter-writing era and the current mania for speed and efficiency, while at the same time affecting the gladhanding merriment of the man on the go. But is it real?

I wondered, because while most of the slangese seemed American (all wet, dough-re-mi), needing "a pint" seemed more British. However, a man in American desiring a pint would normally be looking for a 16-ounce bottle of booze to carry him along rather than a pint of beer in the pub, so that might fit.

And I was right, in the end. Thanks to eBay, I found other cards of this type. What we see here is just half of the front of the card; here's a whole card.

The seller included a photo of the card's back, which told me the thing was made by Dexter Press of West Nyack, New York, a half hour drive from where I'm sitting as I type this.

The Postcard History site has helpful information on Dexter, founded by Thomas Dexter as a one-man press in 1920. It's well known among postcard buffs for the "natural color" postcards like the one above, which were printed after 1952. Another postcard-interest site tells us that Dexter closed its operations in New York in 1984, and moved to Aurora, Missouri: "As a subsidiary, they now print religious material under the MWM Dexter name." But that entry was from 2017; an attempt to follow the link to the MWM Dexter site came up blank. At some point they became (in whole or part) Dexter Hospitality, but now it looks like that's gone too. I fear for the current state of Mr. Dexter's company.

As for the Indian-themed card above, the Postcard History site dates it to 1962. That makes sense. The language in the oh-so-snappy checklist is just a little dated. It doesn't sound like the way the kids talked in 1962 ("pep" and "helluva" sound more forties to me), but probably the way a breezy guy who'd been a kid ten or twenty years earlier would talk.

So that's what I found out about a little slice of Americana. If anyone knows more about the fate of Mr. Dexter's company, drop me a line. I'm always curious about publishing.