Judith, I've seen your message where you say that it is said that the person involved did not take alcohol....... and everyone else suggesting that he was speaking of alcohol. Something else besides turpentine springs out from the wording on your postcard that makes me think the reference most likely is to alcohol and a specific type. Poteen. The something else being the use of the word's 'over-ripe', 'dry at present' Poteen is/was a home brew, illegal, made from potatoes - and it could at times be described as over-ripe, when not fully mature, then possibly dry might be a way that it was described. It's either good or it's bad, and a lot depends/depended on the person who made it, their skill and still! - and it has to be allowed mature - like whiskey Turpentine is a word as everyone else has said that can be/was used to describe alcohol - particularly stong alcohol, which is what poteen definitely is. Poteen, for those of you familiar with the word, but unfamiliar with the drink would be like the German Austrian Schnapps - sometimes stronger. Maybe more like a really strong rum pot - alcohol content wise Jane X-Message: #1 Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 09:46:19 +1000 >From: "Judith and Graeme Collins" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Message-ID: <[email protected]> Subject: Re: "Turpentine Early 1900's" Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Recently I was given some postcards from around 1908-1912. One was written down Co. Limerick possibly Kilmallock area and it says. I quote "Plenty of turpentine but very dry at present" also another one from Newbridge Co. Kildare, quoting: "This is our first call for some turpentine" and another one from Killarney " Plenty of Turpintine about here and it is not overripe here yet"