The "Love Is In The Air!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading new entries on "The Lancasterian" Facebook page when I came upon a really neat picture postcard that showed a panoramic view of Lake Luzerne, NY.  

The front of the picture postcard

As I searched a bit more I found that the picture was on the front side of a post card which carried a very interesting note from a girl named Beth.  She sent the post card to a Miss Marie Strantz who lived at 561 Love Lane Street in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Her note was dated Sunday Eve., 3-13-'10.  She wrote: I rec'd your card return many thanks glad to hear from you.  I am still corresponding with H.M.  Can't say what the results will be.  Had you said something to him because he started to send cards to me.  I believe you did or he never would have come out some time.  Ans. sooner.  Send my love.  Beth.  

The opposite side of the picture postcard

So, who are the characters in this love affair?  First, I did a bit more snooping and found that Love Lane was in the Cabbage Hill area of the city of Lancaster.  Love Land was located to the south west of the center of the city, but had it's name changed to Fairview Avenue sometime around 1915.  The first houses along Love Lane appeared in the mid-1800s.  A fellow by the name of Jim did some searching in the 1875 atlas and found two properties owned by a Strant family along the middle part of Love Lane.  Could they have been the same as the Strantz family?  I found no one who had any idea why the street, or lane, was named as it was.  And no reason was given for it's change to Fairview Ave.  A former neighbor of mine, Gretchen, who lived in the Grandview Heights area of Lancaster when I lived there, did some searching on Ancestry and found that a Marie Strantz lived at 560 Love Lane with her parents and six siblings.  Her father was a soap maker and she was 17 years old in 1910 when she received the post card from her friend Beth.   Marie worked as a carder at the local cotton mill as did many others who lived in the Cabbage Hill area of Lancaster.  Gretchen also wrote that if she has the correct woman, Marie, she married a Mr. Edward Greenawalt and they had a son Wilmer who was born in 1924 and was killed August of 1944 in France.  Marie died at the age of 59 of a stroke and breast cancer.  Now, getting back to the post card...Beth, the writer of the post card, more than likely lived in Manheim, PA, since the card was postmarked Manheim.  Beth wanted to share the news about her correspondence with H.M. who had begun sending cards to her.  Beth wondered if Marie had said something to him that prompted the correspondence.  Was Beth a secret admirer of H.M?  Did Marie tell him of Beth's interest?  If only someone could have found just one more post card so we would have been able to answer a few of these questions.  Isn't history interesting and fun.?  Could this have been the story line of a TV soap opera?  Must have been, since one of the characters in the soap opera lived on Love Lane Street.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.