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1950's Era
So social media is fun, fast and usually friendly, but it
has sure wrecked the contents of my mailbox. Occasionally I do get a few pieces
of handwritten mail, but even I no longer buy many pretty hand-designed cards
or personality-revealing stationary to send like I once did. When did you last
get a post card in your mailbox?
Probably friends and family visiting in Paris, France or Yellowstone
Park, or even floating on the raging Colorado River send you selfies instead!
Post cards have been around since about the 1870’s. The
first souvenir post cards were in 1893 for remembrances of the Columbian
Exposition in Chicago. I first bought post cards while traveling because in the
day of developing film you never knew if the pictures with a camera were good
until you were home. It was a way to have a good picture of Mount Rushmore or a
lighthouse for example.
Post cards also save history for us, our own and regional
areas. How I love now to view picture post cards from the past that show my
hometown or a local bridge as it “used to be”.
1916 Era, Warsaw Depot
I have a small bundle of post cards I found in my grandmother’s things.
They were trips they took or the Government Issue penny post cards from family
members that might have lived a whole 30 miles away! I have one with a post
mark from 1898 I think it is. Now they are yellowed and crumbled, but occasionally
I dig them out and hold them dear wondering what stories they could tell.
I rarely get a post card these days, but a few years ago, I
started my own springtime tradition. I dig through my stack of vacation post
cards and sent them to friends at the end of winter. I hope it is a reminder that
snow and cold will soon be gone and vacation months of sun and travel are
ahead. Tomorrow is supposed to be a cold and snowy day. Maybe I should get my
spring mindset on and mail some post cards!
1950s
9 comments:
I like your idea of digging through your stash of postcards and sending them to friends. I like to send letters and cards snail mail and must tell you that I recently got two postcards from gals I know through blogland, one from Australia and one from the Philippines. What fun to receive them and to reply.
What a fantastic idea. I used to buy postcards on vacation. I usually returned home before the postcard arrived.
Seems like every post had a rack of postcards to entice tourists. I do miss them.
What a coincidence! After the latest CALLIOPE issue contained one of her stories, I sent a friend in IA a post card--garnered from Mom's stash-- congratulating her. She answered via a typed page saying that the 'sweet little postcard' arrived just fine. Now to hunt up enough unused stamps to make 34 cents. I might just mail another to a friend in Kentucky. Good reminiscence.
Hi Bookie. I got a post card recently from a sister who was visiting another sister in California. I love postcards.
Hope your Valentine's weekend is super. Susan
I love postcards and just recently started collecting them from the different places I visit as it's cheaper and more fun than any souvenir. I'll have to pass on a site that you can send post cards to people. I did it for a while, but it got to be too much for me to keep up with.
Congratulations on your Poem. Loved it.
Also I read your story on your dad. It is awful the greed that takes place over the lives of others.
We're supposed to get lots of snow tonight... but Spring is right around the corner!
Claudia--When I was younger, I always loved postcards and sent them when we went on vacations.
I think your idea is a marvelous one. Send some of those old postcards, but keep some of them that are especially dear to you, because they are bits of history...
When my father-in-law was alive, and after my mother-in-law passed, he traveled the world. He loved to bring us trinkets from his journeys, but we collected so many things and just no where to put it all. I learned---too late to adopt the practice---that my sister-in-law asked him very early on not to buy souvenirs for her, but to send a postcard from each place he visited. Such a wonderful idea, and I sure wish I had thought of it.
I love post cards. I still buy them and send them to my mom when we travel. She loves to get them, and proudly displays them on her fridge for everyone to see when they visit! I used to buy a lot of them before digital cameras, also, because I was never sure if my pics would come out OK!
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