Sally Whitney (left) and Terri Basinger Powers display a postcard sent in 1957 from Dr. Peter Whitney to Sally’s aunt and uncle in New York. Photo by Cami Schlappy

Truth stranger than fiction?

In the case of a 66-year-old postcard, yes.

It all came about from a conversation Terri Basinger Powers had with a local history buff. That’s how she learned that a 1957 postcard showing the old Elgin Store was for sale on eBay. The seller was Tony Meager of Prescott, who owns MatchSetsPostcards, a website that specializes in Arizona memorabilia. The asking price: 20 dollars.

Forking over the money, Powers received a mint condition card. Delighted with her purchase, she perused the black-and-white image showing a ranch store framed by two groups of locals—one group on horseback and the other relaxing on a storefront bench. The phrase “Where the Sun Shines and the Wind Blows” is readily discernible on the building, as is the name of its owners, the Van Gorders. 

Flipping over the card, she got an even greater delight. The card had originally been sent to a “Mr. & Mrs. R.L. Wheeler Jr. of Pittsford, N.Y.”

Dear Kitty & Zip,

Warm and rain here. Went to bullfight. Been gadding around, but hope to slow up. Went on forest fire.

Sally & Pete

A long-time resident, Powers knew of only one Sally and Pete: Sally Whitney and the late Dr. Peter Whitney. So, she did what any inquiring mind would—she rang Sally up.

“She (Sally) answered the phone, and I said, ‘This is weird, but do you know a Mr. and Mrs. R.L. Wheeler? Because I just bought a (historical) postcard that was sent to them.’”

Sure enough, ‘Zip’ was Sally’s uncle, and Kitty was his wife. The postcard had been written by Sally’s husband.

“My husband was in medical school, and he had his summers free,” Whitney said. They would spend those warm months in the West, at her father-in-law’s property that continues to be known as the Whitney Ranch. 

Eventually, Sally and Pete relocated to Tucson, and then Elgin. That this postcard brought back many happy memories of those early days here is heard in her reflections. 

“I was at the store quite often,” Sally said, recalling its library, post office and shelves stocked with food. “You could get your groceries delivered, even ice cream.” The latter, she recalled, would be wrapped in newspaper and deposited in mailboxes to keep it cold. 

But the question remains, how did the card fall into Meager’s hands in the first place?

“I bought a large collection of postcards from a guy in 2019, I don’t remember his name,” Meager said, in a phone interview. The 1,000-card collection consisted of postcards from Bisbee to Page, including ‘Ye Olde Ranch Shoppe.’

And while the Elgin store would close in the 1970s after having served area residents faithfully for decades, its presence lives on, if only on a black-and-white postcard and in memories.