I have a renewed interest in postcards.
A few years ago a colleague started sending me postcards from her destinations on business trips, now she will occasional send one from a fun trip destination. I soon started reciprocating and sent her postcards from places I’d visited.
Postcards do seem like something from the past…something people do not send anymore. They tend to send their own snapshots from their cell phone in an email or text message…and what can be better than that? Immediate messages and up-to-date photos. But postcards can be fun too.
I found the ZITS comic strip below amusing.
I began looking at postcards again while traveling, and I buy one or two to get a different perspective than I get on my iPhone camera but in some places it’s hard to find postcards.
For instance, last week my friend and I went into a variety store in a tourist town and asked “Do you have any postcards?” No was the reply, and it happened a second time at the next store. As we continued down the street we saw a carousal of postcards and stepped into the shop to take a look. There were winter scenes and fall scenes but it was springtime and we were seeing such vibrant spring colors, but then we found a collage print and that would do.
However, the postcards seemed a bit different…a little smaller than normal and the back was blank…no “postage here” or a line separating the message from the address…so we asked the clerk and he said he made the postcards himself (and he worked for the Post Office so he knew the size was OK.) How fun is that? I bought the postcard and sent it off. The personal connection with the photographer made it so much more fun and interesting.
I will continue to buy postcards, and send some occasionally…keeping a few postcard stamps available in my purse.
by Gustav Klimp
