Deep Roots Family Tree Blog

Bok Tower Gardens, located near Lake Wales, Florida, is a not only a garden, but also a bird sanctuary. It is also a Natural Historic Landmark.

The front of the postcard has flamingos near the reflection pool but if you visited today, you would not spot any. According to the gardens’ website (https://boktowergardens.org/), there were several failed attempts to introduce flamingos between 1926 and 1944 (this postcard is dated 1953), but winters in northern Florida were too cold for them. Instead, you’ll come across some swans and ducks.

The postcard was sent from A. D. Mezilson to Gwen Flatford in Chicago Illinois.

The postcard reads
Dear friend,
Greetings from suny (spelling error?) Florida. I have no apples down here but plenty of sunshine orange and flowers and the water is hot also do come over ect ect.
Yours truly,
A. D. Mezilson

I was able to find an Athanos D. Mezilson in the 1950 Federal Census for Chicago, Illinois. Athanos was originally from Turkey and was a naturalized citizen, which would make the spelling error in the postcard make sense. He was 74 at the time of the 1950 census and working as an ice cream salesman. I cannot find any other documentation of him in the United States other than a couple of obituaries for his family members. I could find nothing that tied him to the recipient of the postcard, Miss Gwen Flatford.

Gwen Flatford was another story. I was able to find quite a few newspaper articles mentioning her

The photo above is very likely the Gwen we are looking for. She was born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma in 1921 where she lived with her parents and 3 siblings.

When I looked up Gwen on Ancestry.com, I was surprised to find that there wasn’t a whole lot of information. I was only able to find her listed in one census report, the same year that I had found for Athanos. According to the census, Gwen was 28 years old in 1950. She was a lodger working as an x-ray technician in a doctors office.

One of my favorite things that I find in older newspapers is what the town residents were up to. Newspapers.com has a lot of clippings that show that Gwen travelled back and forth between Illinois and Oklahoma fairly often to visit family.

I think my favorite part about researching this postcard was finding that Miss Gwen Flatford seemingly wanted to be a surgeon and then later discovering that she did end up in the medical field as an x-ray tech. Maybe that’s where she met Athanos? Or maybe he sold her ice-cream and a friendship formed. Maybe both!