Greetings from Miami Beach, Mrs. Muddiman.
A post card sent from the Florida resort town to “Mrs. E. Muddiman” of Steeplebush Road in Levittown has arrived 64 years later.
The card, from the Ocean Surf Motel in Miami Beach, advertised summer rates of $1.50 a day per person, double occupancy, with “Oceanfront and Aircond. rooms slightly higher.”
“New – Modern – Superb” it boasted. “Write for Brochure … Free Parking — Pool Privileges.”
What more could you want.
“It’s really a neat little story,” said Dave Marable, a retired Pennsbury art teacher who collects Levittown memorabilia and will add the card to his massive collection in a private exhibit.
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“The postman says to me one day, ‘Hey, I just delivered an unusual piece of mail on Steeplebush — a post card sent in 1960.’ He knows I do the Levittown stuff and thought I should know about it,” said Marable, of Snowball Gate, whose parents were original buyers in the Willowood section.
The mailman gave him the Steeplebush address and, it turns out, his son lives across the street from the house, and is friendly with the couple who live there.
“They talk all the time and they know I have the exhibit,” Marable said. “So they said, ‘Here, you should have this for your collection.’
“You know, we’re looking back on 72 years of Levittown history this year and I just think it’s really neat, so it’s going in the collection.”
He sleuthed a bit, trying to find more to the post card story. Who was Mrs. Muddiman and why did it take so long for the card to get to Levittown?
“I have cross directories of the original Levittown (generation) and I can tell you she’s since passed away,” Marable said. “The family is no longer in Levittown.”
As for the card’s long journey by way of the United States Postal Service, it’s a mystery.
"Although rare, letters re-entered into the mailstream occasionally happens. In most cases, these incidents do not involve mail that had been lost in our network and later found," said Paul Smith, spokesman for the United States Postal Service. "What we typically find is that old letters and postcards — sometimes purchased at flea markets, antique shops and even online — are re-entered into our system. Some of these letters, originally kept by family members as keepsakes, are even found in an attic, basement or garage of a new homeowner who wants to return the letters to the rightful owner. When done so, the Postal Service will make every reasonable attempt to once again deliver the letter/postcard to the original recipient’s address, or that of the sender."
Said Marable: “We probably won’t know. From what I know, it was lost — stuck on a shelf or under a machine and they found it while moving things or cleaning, and they just stamped it and sent it out.”
There are two postmarks — the original of Aug. 15, 1960, when it was sent, which also contains a government pitch “25 Years of Social Security in America.” The second is “Philadelphia,” on Feb. 14, 2024. Even so, the card didn’t arrive on Steeplebush Road until last month.
“Who knows,” Marable said.
One more thing.
“The Ocean Surf Hotel is still in business, and since 1960 they’ve expanded to two other hotels,” he said.
He wrote to the hotel management, informing them of the post card story, closing his handwritten note with, “Can you still use the summer rates that appear on you post card?”
We definitely know the answer to that one.
JD Mullane can be reached at 215-949-5745 or at jmullance@couriertimes.com.
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