Sending postcards from holidays has always been a mainstay of my travels, don’t forget your address book and a stock of stamps or be prepared to find a local post office. I think this is a British thing, postcards don’t seem to be a big thing here in the USA. I always spent an hour or so at the beginning of any travels writing postcards then searching for a post office to post them!  Of course they always arrived home after I did, but it is the thought that counts isn’t it?

I suppose anything in the mail is no longer a big deal, until you get something like a surprise postcard or letter.  I love to get a card from a friend, for no reason, just because.  Handwritten and chosen for me!

I try and send out cards regularly too, I will grab a few postcards from Ikea or some vintage cards and send them off into the world.

I have collected a few old cards over the past few years and I really enjoy the ones which have been written on.  Anything from holiday trips to a highway intersection features on these cards which date back to the early 1900’s. A running theme seems to be when the sender is due home!  ‘We are having a nice time, back on Sunday’ type thing.

One of my favorites is the postcard of the highway in New York from 1969 and the message reads ‘Rolling along to school. See you soon, Love Marguerite’.  It is the perfect card for the message but still, I have to ask who on earth in the postcard printing department decided that a shot of the highway would be a winning postcard! I would love to have been a fly on the wall when that meeting was held. I am sure it was a breakthrough move in road building circa 1969 and merited a lovely postcard. Mind you, no worse than the postcards we used to send of the hotel we were staying in with a biro cross on the room we were in!! Did you send those? I did and I spent ages working out where our room was on the card!

Looking through these cards I have found at estate sales and thrift shops makes me want to pull out my old postcards which I keep in an album and have a browse through some 1980’s and 1990’s cards.  I suspect there are lots of Athena type pictures in there.

Well, whaddaya know, I found my postcards!  Most of the ones I kept are advertising or were free from stores or cafes.  I am pleased that I didn’t let you down with the ‘Athena’ card promise!  The dolphin is part of a whole series of cards featuring kids in cute costumes and of course my 1980’s self bought them all.  Fifty five pence per card!

The one of the girls chatting on the fence is from my friend Helen and is typical of the cards I would send and receive from friends.

I used to work in a jeans shop so I am sure that is where I got the Levi’s card which is also part of a set.  The others I think were free cards I picked up while out and about.

Do shops and cafes in the UK still have free cards?  I thought they were the best thing!

Are you a postcard fan?  Still send them?  I hope so, everyone needs some happy in their mailbox from time to time. A nice picture and a little note to make someone’s day!

Happy Wednesday x