- Date: A Christmas after Jay was born and before Laurel arrived; the year isn’t known yet (see the notes)
- From: Ruby and Joe Sharmer, with Joe III and Jay
- Where: Planada, California
- What: Printed Christmas card, with a printed “The Joe Sharmer Family” card
Each part of the card is shown beside its text. Click a picture to enlarge it.
FRONT
Christmas Greetings
Two small green trees, made of real flocked felt and topped with red stars, stand beside two little red houses with snowy roofs. A red edge runs down the side of the card.
INSIDE
From our house to your house
WITH BEST WISHES
TO YOU FOR HAPPINESS
ALL THROUGH THE YEAR
★
★
★
RUBY AND JOE
JOE III AND JAY
PRINTED CARD
THE JOE SHARMER FAMILY
Notes & context
When it was sent. The card is signed “Ruby and Joe, Joe III and Jay.” Laurel isn’t on it yet, so it went out in a Christmas after Jay was born and before his little sister arrived. Joe III, the boys’ elder brother and the father of the Joseph Sharmer who keeps this site, was born in April 1941.
“From our house to your house.” Joe and Ruby’s home in these years was in Planada, where Ruby had been postmaster (The Postmaster of Planada). The children can be seen there in the family’s home movies (The Sharmer Children in Planada) and in Laurel’s memory of Halloween (“We Treat, No Tricks!”).
Joe III. Joe’s eldest son was already “Joe III” on the family’s Christmas card. The numbering counts from Joseph Sharmer I, the boy from Elmshorn (his story); none of the Josephs had a middle name.
Christmas, before and after. In 1937, on the road and 3,000 miles from Planada, Joe ended a Christmas Eve letter to Ruby with “Merry Xmas to all” (To See the Pres Light the Xmas Tree). On this card the two of them send their greetings together, with their boys.
