Please Send Postcards

Please Send Postcards

I love postcards and am saddened that people no longer send them while on vacation. I was at Disneyland last week and was unpleasantly surprised when it became near impossible to find postcards for sale. Eventually I found a couple of booklets of ten cards but these seemed more meant for at-home viewing rather than sending to friends and family.

When I bring up the lack of postcard sending people always say something along the lines of well these days you can just send a pic so easily who needs postcards? I love pics too but a postcard is a small gift. You get the picture, a message, a post-mark and a stamp. A person has taken a moment out of their day to remember you and share a little token of their vacation. In an old episode of The Andy Griffith Show the Taylors are in Hollywood, California on vacation and Aunt Bee runs out of postcards and asks Andy to pick up some more while he's out.

I buy old postcards sometimes and I'll buy one with a message over a blank card. These messages are strikingly similar. They usually mention how hot/cold it is, oftentimes noting the exact temperature, whether they went swimming or not and what Aunt/Uncle was visited. It's always Aunts and Uncles for some reason. It's also surprising to me how many people had their mail forwarded to them during their two weeks in Florida or what not and many times the cards will note a departure date and ask the recipient to please stop forwarding their mail.

Fortunately I have a couple of sweet girlfriends that will indulge my desire to rejuvenate the sending of postcards and I am grateful to them for that. In the middle of a handful of catalogs, bills, ads and flyers it's uplifting to find a pretty card with a short message and know your friend is having a good time on vacation and wants to share a moment of that with you.