Rockland

My mother gave me this postcard. Peggy, a friend of hers, sent it on 13 November 1973, when she was working there as a waitress. I searched online and Trade Winds Motor Inn is still working, but it is totally renewed and beyond recognition [compared with the photos of the postcard]!!!

The City of Rockland has always benefited from a unique combination of geography and economics that has made it one of the most beautiful and practical destinations on the coast of Maine. Its nearly 8,000 residents live at the heart of Midcoast Maine, an area world famous for its mountainous and rocky shore with hundreds of harbors and inlets, and for some of the best cruising waters anywhere for sailing and boating for pleasure or sport. A nearly mile-long granite breakwater protects Rockland Harbor and lighthouse making it one of the finest shipping and recreational boating harbors on the East Coast of the United States.

Shipbuilding, lime processing, granite quarrying, and commercial fishing and lobstering have all figured in Rockland’s industrial past. Since the 1850’s, the City has served as the commercial center of Knox County and is the County Seat. An historic Main Street forms the core of retail shopping, while large modern outlying shopping centers provide the diversity required by today’s modern mobile customers. Both areas are active and diverse adding to the convenience of shopping in Rockland. The community’s proud past survives in many ways, including a newly restored and enlarged Carnegie library, traditional but modernized health care facilities, new and renovated schools and an incredible mix of traditional residential styles of architecture that rivals the historic homes of many larger cities.

All of these factors combine to make Rockland, Maine a nearly perfect headquarters or temporary home base for visiting and exploring the natural and built environment of Midcoast Maine. Lodging is plentiful, dining opportunities abound and day trips in any direction provide ample rewards. There are museums for rainy days, Penobscot Bay to sail when the weather is fair on one of our many windjammers, islands to discover, mountains to climb in the spring and fall, and winter activities as well. Here you can return to the more simple life you may have never lived. Rockland people have always worked hard to provide for themselves and their families, but have always welcomed visitors and treated them with friendliness and respect. So whether you are coming to explore or hoping to settle and become a part of Rockland’s diverse resident population, here you will find a quality of life that will make you want to stay forever! [Rockland official site]

And, also, in the back there are two USA stamps showing Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969), who was a five-star general in the United States Army and the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961, and the last to be born in the 19th century. During World War II, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45, from the Western Front. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO.

A Republican, Eisenhower entered the 1952 presidential race to counter the non-interventionism of Sen. Robert A. Taft, and to crusade against "Communism, Korea and corruption". He won by a landslide, defeating Democrat Adlai Stevenson and ending two decades of the New Deal Coalition holding the White House. As President, Eisenhower concluded negotiations with China to end the Korean War. He maintained pressure on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, gave priority to inexpensive nuclear weapons and reduced the other forces to save money. He had to play catch-up in the Space Race after the Soviets launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957. On the domestic front, he helped remove Joseph McCarthy from power but otherwise left most political actions to his Vice President, Richard Nixon. Eisenhower did not end New Deal policies, and in fact enlarged the scope of Social Security, and signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. He was the first term-limited president in accordance with the 22nd Amendment. His two terms were peaceful, and generally prosperous except for a sharp economic recession in 1958–59. Historians typically rank Eisenhower among the ten greatest U.S. presidents. [wikipedia]