Wild Postcards

Nothing like being in the great outdoors. Of course, this place looks a lot better upholstered than, say, an outback dunny in Australia.

This vintage postcard was published, probably in the late 1940s, by the Asheville Post Card Company. It comes courtesy of Melissa at We Love Snail Mail, who decided on a vintage postcard after struggling with the definition of “wild” postcards. Truth to tell, I don’t even know that definition myself; I just thought the phrase “wild postcards” was catchy.

Nothing like being in the great outdoors. Of course, this place looks a lot better upholstered than, say, an outback dunny in Australia. This vintage postcard was published, probably in the late 1940s, by the Asheville Post Card Company. It comes courtesy of Melissa at We Love Snail Mail, who decided on a vintage postcard [...]

Sure, it’s probably Wednesday where you are as I write this, but I’ve been working some long and odd hours of late, so it’s still my Tuesday.  Regardless, it gives me an excuse to post two fantastically preserved linen postcards produced by Tichenor Bros. featuring the waters of Florida.  It’s also a great way to celebrate this month’s Festival of Postcards at Evelyn’s A Canadian Family genealogy / postcard blog.

The colors on these cards are just as they are presented here, and were probably produced in the early 1950s.

“Bayfront Park in all its tropical splendor adds to the Miami visitors (sic) comfort and relaxation. Here among the beautiful flowers, shrubs, and palms, concerts entertain visiting guests and inhabitants.”  I got this card oh, probably about ten years ago, in an antique shop in Florida.

This second card came to me from the collection of Kay Anthony:

“Lakeland, Florida is the metropolis of Polk County. Being 227 above sea level, it is tempered by breezes from the Ocean and the Gulf whch are within easy riding distance. Fishing, bathing and boating can be enjoyed on the 15 fresh water lakes which lie within the city limits. Two eighteen hole golf courses, a public library, air-conditioned first run moving picture houses and a municipal-owned water and electric plant are some of its many advantages.” Moving picture houses, indeed.

Sure, it’s probably Wednesday where you are as I write this, but I’ve been working some long and odd hours of late, so it’s still my Tuesday.  Regardless, it gives me an excuse to post two fantastically preserved linen postcards produced by Tichenor Bros. featuring the waters of Florida.  It’s also a great way to [...]

Here’s a little something to cool you off on this hot summer’s Postcard Friendship Friday: “Iceberg Lake, Altitude 11,500 Ft., Trail Ridge Road between Estes Park and Grand Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.”  It was in fact posted from Estes Park, CO on 3 August 1940; I guess somebody else was trying to cool off, too.  But we’ll never know who.

This is a Curt Teich “C. T. Art-Colortone” linen postcard, number 6A-H288, published in 1936.  Odd that there’s no message, but it does happen from time to time.  I received a postcard myself just last week (Update: correction — two weeks ago — Ed.) with no message; I was very put out about it.

Be sure to check out the other blogs celebrating Postcard Friendship Friday.

Here’s a little something to cool you off on this hot summer’s Postcard Friendship Friday: “Iceberg Lake, Altitude 11,500 Ft., Trail Ridge Road between Estes Park and Grand Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.”  It was in fact posted from Estes Park, CO on 3 August 1940; I guess somebody else was trying to cool [...]

This is the first time I’ve posted a view of my own town; I can’t imagine why that’s so except that I have so many cards from everywhere from which to choose!  Then I realize that a card showing a view that I see almost every day will seem as exotic to one of my postcard friends as their postcards seem to me.

This is a linen postcard, probably from the early to mid-1940s, of what was then the United States Post Office and Federal Building in beautiful downtown Gainesville, Georgia.  It’s still the Federal Building today and is also the Federal Courthouse, but the Postal Service moved out some time ago.  Today, there are four post offices in Gainesville; the main post office was built in the 1970s, and there are two more (and newer) branch offices along with a very new and very large carrier annex.

You’ll note that there’s a sign showing that street in front of the building was US Highway 23; today, it’s a narrow, poorly maintained one-way local street that leads to the downtown square, but back then it was one of the main highways to Atlanta.  Oddly enough, just the other day as I was standing near this spot, a very elderly gentleman asked me for directions to 23 and I had to think for a minute — US 23 in this part of Georgia is usually referred to by its other name of Interstate 985.  It turns out that he didn’t want directions to 23 at all, but to US 129, which is one of the main roads through town — but apparently he first came to know it as US 23, and that’s how he remembered it.  (If you don’t live in the US, you should understand that our numbered highway systems are generally superb, but that the numbers shift from time to time depending on when newer, better roads are built, what roads the federal government has the facilities to maintain, and which politicians can funnel those federal maintenance dollars to their own districts.)

Here’s a modern view I took recently from the same vantage point.  Kind of makes you wish for the good old days, doesn’t it?  Maybe you can find some at the other blogs celebrating Postcard Friendship Friday.

This is the first time I’ve posted a view of my own town; I can’t imagine why that’s so except that I have so many cards from everywhere from which to choose!  Then I realize that a card showing a view that I see almost every day will seem as exotic to one of my [...]