This is the first post card I've ever bought over standard retail price (two dollars) with the intention of adding it to my collection. I found this gem the day after Thanksgiving in an antique store in my neighborhood. I bought it because the reverse side had a connection to Thanksgiving and was a vivid image of a well known love story between former president Reagan and wife, Nancy. It is an endearing image.I have a hunch it was circulated as evidence of the a robust president, who survived an assassination attempt eight months earlier. The Reagan's and the nation had a lot to be thankful for Thanksgiving Day 1981, as do we today after electing the nation's first black president.
This is a quote from the reverse side: "Here we see the gallant President assisting wife Nancy in dismounting from "No Strings" after their Thanksgiving Day ride. November 26, 1981."
Today, you would be hard pressed to find a narrative on the back of an American post card using the term "gallant." We seem to have done away with such terms of chivalry in favor of a tyranny of equality in speech and manners. This is unfortunate. Any time one person gets a lift from another they should be seen as gallant or, at the very least, polite.
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