Stephen Bloom

A couple of days ago I posted a funny novelty postcard of a man skinning a giant Texas jackrabbit. I said that such cards have been around for a long time and said that they almost always center on the theme that things are bigger/wilder/crazier here in Texas than elsewhere ---- which we all know is true. I also said that I didn't know exactly when these kinds of cards got started, but speculated that it was in the 1920s. Boy was I wrong about that! Traces of Texas reader Betty Krenik shared this fantastic novelty postcard of giant corn being grown in Texas and, as you can see, it was copyrighted in 1908. I find it interesting because, clearly, the idea that everything is bigger in Texas had already taken hold in the public imagination just 62 years after Texas became a state. On the one hand, it seems like an obvious, ready-made meme: for more than 110 years, Texas was the largest state in the union, so therefore everything is bigger in Texas. But I'm still curious as to who thought of it first, when the first such images were produced etc... I'm going to try to spend some time researching this further. Any input would be most welcome. Also, the photo that Betty shared was a bit scratched and worn. I took it into Photoshop and spent some time cleaning it up, but I simply could not make out the words at the bottom of the card. It looks it says something about the size of corn grown in Texas but it would take me a long time to try to shape new characters and new words and I don't have the time to do it, so I left it alone. If you've got a novelty postcard you'd like to share, send it on in. Thank you, Betty. I really love this!