Send Me a Postcard From ...

For all those readers curious about the postcard feature at the bottom of the blog, I wanted to do a post on our love for postcards (of any kind, but especially vintage).

(A Magic Curious Kitten Sponsored Post)

Flea markets, antique stores, estate sales, and forgotten drawers in old writing desks are full of these miniature letters accompanied with colored pictures. My first postcard was wooden, from a primitive arts and crafts center. Hummingbirds were delicately cut and blackened in the wood grain, along with curving trumpet flowers.

The ones you see above are a mixture of gifts from friends on various trips (the zany one is from a Norman Rockwell art exhibit), which have spent years pinned to message boards or sticky-taped to dorm room walls...

Included above, Stork Island and the Shores of Galveston

Several of those we feature on the blog are from a vintage lot purchased at a flea market. The lot dates from the '40's and '50's era, with technicolor-ish scenes of U.S. landmarks (like "oranges and snow in the California mountains"). Three seperate stories unfold on the back of these vintage cards, with notes scribbled on the back and old-fashioned pink and green stamps (and equally old-fashioned postmarks across them).

One set of colorful U.S. attractions features the cross-country road trip made by a family en route to visit their uncle. Another set of cards chronicles a married couple's tour of medical clinics in search of treatment for a debilitating disease. A few others are simple notes mailed from home, remarking on the weather, the birds in the backyard, or a recent conversation.

(Above, Penguins and the Manhattan Skyline, circa 1987)

Whether kept in boxes or tucked in books as markers, a good postcard is always worth keeping ...