04-08-2025, 02:15 PM
I love Roy's fifty-cent cover boxes at club meetings. This is a postcard from one of them. Hours of fun.
The sender is Mrs. Peter Herniak of 84 Semley St. in Welland. The house is still there.
There is a 8c definitive (UNITRADE 544) tied to a slogan cancel dated December 6th. The year is not visible. But since the stamp was issued on December 30, 1971, the earliest date it could be in 1972. The slogan PRE-STAMPED ENVELOPES / THIRTY . CONVENIENT [ENVELOPPES TIMBRÉES / ÉCONOMIQUES . PRACTIQUES] is in the Coutts database (P-620) with an EKU for the city of Welland of September 2, 1971. There is no definite LKU given but the last recorded date is 1974. Which suggests (but does not prove) that the card was mailed in 1972, 1973 or 1974.
But ...
The address of the recipient ... is Pin-Pal [Mrs. Herniak seems to have made a typo. She wrote Pen Pal] WGR TV, Box 5000, Niagara Square Station, Buffalo, NY. WGR TV. It became WGRZ in 1982 (which is well outside the range we've already established) so that doesn't help. They moved into new facilitieis in 1972. However, since the postcard went to a box number, that doesn't help either. What may help is the Pin-Pal program.
The Buffalo version of the US nation-wide 'Bowling for Dollars' franchise (as in other cities) included a segment called 'Pin Pals' where each contestant, just before they approached the bowling lane, was asked to pick a postcard at random. This allowed home viewers to 'participate' in the game on TV. Whatever the contestant won, the name on the postcard won too. I've found Pin Pal cards sent to Buffalo that have dates ranging from 1973 to 1979 (See below).
[There was a nice study of Pin-Pal cards by Cameron Shelley. [See ... “Bowling for dollars!” Guelph in Postcards (blog), 9 June 2013; updated 13 July 2013.]
The card has a five digit US zip code. That doesn't help since they were introduced in 1963 and didn't move to longer codes until 1983. Well outside the range.
As for the postcard, it was produced by the Peterborough Post Card Company. The publisher (and photographer) was H.R. Oakman. He was a bush pilot turned aerial photographer and mass produced colour 'chrome' postcards [200 million cards!]. He used 3-digit numbers for his cards in the 1960's (Mostly aerial views of Ontario) and moved to 5 digit numbers by 1967. However, all that does is suggest that the date this photo was taken was in the early 60's. It doesn't narrow the range. As an aside though, this is card number 655. The 600 series were cards in the Niagara Falls area including this one - Old Fort Erie. I grew up about ten kilometers from the fort
Anyway, putting this all together, a good guess is that the card was mailed (and, therefore, cancelled) on February 6th in 1973 or 1974.
Since the first Pin Pal cards appeared in 1973. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that, in my view, the most probable date was that it was sent when the program was still new [The program started in January 1973] ... so, February 6, 1973. [The Toronto Star ran a half-page promo on December 26, 1972 introducing Ed Kilgore as the host and telling viewers to 'send your postcards to Pin-Pal at WGR in Buffalo]
What do you think? And, perhaps more important ... do you remember this show from when you were young? (smile)
The sender is Mrs. Peter Herniak of 84 Semley St. in Welland. The house is still there.
There is a 8c definitive (UNITRADE 544) tied to a slogan cancel dated December 6th. The year is not visible. But since the stamp was issued on December 30, 1971, the earliest date it could be in 1972. The slogan PRE-STAMPED ENVELOPES / THIRTY . CONVENIENT [ENVELOPPES TIMBRÉES / ÉCONOMIQUES . PRACTIQUES] is in the Coutts database (P-620) with an EKU for the city of Welland of September 2, 1971. There is no definite LKU given but the last recorded date is 1974. Which suggests (but does not prove) that the card was mailed in 1972, 1973 or 1974.
But ...
The address of the recipient ... is Pin-Pal [Mrs. Herniak seems to have made a typo. She wrote Pen Pal] WGR TV, Box 5000, Niagara Square Station, Buffalo, NY. WGR TV. It became WGRZ in 1982 (which is well outside the range we've already established) so that doesn't help. They moved into new facilitieis in 1972. However, since the postcard went to a box number, that doesn't help either. What may help is the Pin-Pal program.
The Buffalo version of the US nation-wide 'Bowling for Dollars' franchise (as in other cities) included a segment called 'Pin Pals' where each contestant, just before they approached the bowling lane, was asked to pick a postcard at random. This allowed home viewers to 'participate' in the game on TV. Whatever the contestant won, the name on the postcard won too. I've found Pin Pal cards sent to Buffalo that have dates ranging from 1973 to 1979 (See below).
[There was a nice study of Pin-Pal cards by Cameron Shelley. [See ... “Bowling for dollars!” Guelph in Postcards (blog), 9 June 2013; updated 13 July 2013.]
The card has a five digit US zip code. That doesn't help since they were introduced in 1963 and didn't move to longer codes until 1983. Well outside the range.
As for the postcard, it was produced by the Peterborough Post Card Company. The publisher (and photographer) was H.R. Oakman. He was a bush pilot turned aerial photographer and mass produced colour 'chrome' postcards [200 million cards!]. He used 3-digit numbers for his cards in the 1960's (Mostly aerial views of Ontario) and moved to 5 digit numbers by 1967. However, all that does is suggest that the date this photo was taken was in the early 60's. It doesn't narrow the range. As an aside though, this is card number 655. The 600 series were cards in the Niagara Falls area including this one - Old Fort Erie. I grew up about ten kilometers from the fort
Anyway, putting this all together, a good guess is that the card was mailed (and, therefore, cancelled) on February 6th in 1973 or 1974.
Since the first Pin Pal cards appeared in 1973. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that, in my view, the most probable date was that it was sent when the program was still new [The program started in January 1973] ... so, February 6, 1973. [The Toronto Star ran a half-page promo on December 26, 1972 introducing Ed Kilgore as the host and telling viewers to 'send your postcards to Pin-Pal at WGR in Buffalo]
What do you think? And, perhaps more important ... do you remember this show from when you were young? (smile)
Hugh MacDonald, Wolfe Island
Member: BNAPS. PHSC, Auxiliary Markings Club, Postal Stationary Society, British Postmark Society,
AMG Collectors Club, China Stamp Society, France and Colonies Philatelic Socoety
ArGe Deutsche Feldpost: 1914-1918 e.V.