Just for fun, I will frequently post a tweet or status update listing the destinations of my outgoing mail for any particular day. Today, however, in addition to some of the normal swaps and correspondence, I’m sending out the latest issue of Permit Patter, the newsletter of the Mailer’s Postmark Permit Club. Thankfully, the Club sends the materials and pays the postage.

Turns out that too much of anything can be a good thing: while I enjoy cancelling my own mail, I would not want soon to repeat having to do it nearly 200 times in one sitting. But the membership will know the joy of receiving mail cancelled with Gainesville, Georgia, Mailer’s Postmark Permit #1.

Today’s mail goes to:

Alabama: Theodore

Arizona: Sun City West, Tucson (x3)

Arkansas: Bryant, Rogers, Sherwood

California: Albany, Alpine, Chatsworth, Denair, Fort Bragg, Half Moon Bay, Lodi, Modesto, Northridge, Sacramento, San Diego, Stockton, Sunnyvale, Thousand Oaks, Torrance, Yucca Valley

Colorado: Broomfield (x2), Crook, Olathe

Connecticut: Berlin, Bristol, Enfield, Tariffville

Florida: Cape Coral, Ft. Myers (x2), Milton, Ormond Beach, Seminole, St. Petersburg (x3), Tampa

Georgia: Gainesville (that’s me!), Harlem, Powder Springs, Stone Mountain

Hawaii: Wahiawa (x4)

Illinois: Addison, Champaign, Chicago, Galesburg, Peoria, Rockford, Schaumburg

Indiana: Buck Creek, Muncie

Iowa: Iowa City

Kansas: Caldwell, Caney

Louisiana: Talisheek

Maine: Bangor, Greenville

Maryland: Annapolis

Massachusetts: Easthampton, Oxford, Weston

Michigan: Bay City, Cheboygan, Delton, Hazel Park, Munising

Minnesota: Bemidji, Rochester, St. Louis Park, St. Paul

Missouri: Birch Tree, Joplin, St. Louis

Montana: East Helena

Nebraska: Omaha (x2), Sidney, Virginia

Nevada: Henderson

New Hampshire: Contoocook, Epping

New Jersey: Englewood, Marlboro, Union

New Mexico: Albuquerque, Santa Fe

New York: Bronx, Farmingdale, Lake Clear, Liberty, Newark, Potsdam, Rochester (x2), Syosset, Owego

North Carolina: Cary, Sanford

North Dakota: Pembina, Warwick

Ohio: Akron, Canton, Chardon, Lakewood, Marion, Oberlin, Sidney, Solon, Stow, Warren

Oregon: Ashland, Newport, Portland

Pennsylvania: Bellefonte, Hughesville, Lemont, Mount Joy, Murrysville, Pittsburgh, Royersford, Spring Mills, Temple, Upper Darby, Valley Forge

Rhode Island: Newport

South Carolina: Columbia

South Dakota: Deadwood

Tennessee: Lawrenceburg, Portland

Texas: Atascocita, Austin, College Station, Garrison, Kilgore, Luling, Nome, Port Neches, San Antonio (x2), Silsbee, Sugar Land, Texarkana, Longview

Utah: Highland

Virginia: Alexandria, Colonial Heights, Falls Church, Herndon, Norfolk

Washington: Duvall, Kent, Seattle, Snohomish, Spokane, Tacoma

West Virginia: Moundsville

Wisconsin: Madison, Oshkosh

Today’s International Destinations: Don Mills, Ontario, Canada; Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico; Skopje, Macedonia; Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles; San Salvador, El Salvador; Madrid, Spain; Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK; North Walsham, Norfolk, UK; Tripoli, Libya; Vaivadai, Panevėžio, Lithuania; Minsk, Belarus; Moscow, Russia; Saint Petersburg, Russia; Brookfield, Queensland, Australia; West Hindmarsh, South Australia, Australia; Dordrecht, Netherlands; Guangdong, China; Brunnen, Switzerland; Kouvola, Finland.

After 10 weeks of wrangling with the United States Postal Service, I have managed to convince them that it is perfectly legal (and, in fact, covered in the Domestic Mail Manual) for them to issue me a permit that allows me to cancel my own stamps before mailing, instead of having them do it.

Why? Besides the fun of taking on a government which is ignorant of its own rules, I hate the new ink-jetted text that passes for a postmark nowadays. I’ve also noticed that I get one or two mailpieces a month from mailers that have their own permits, and one can actually tell when and from where it was mailed.

My cancellation device (an “indicia”, really just a rubber stamp ordered from a private manufacturer) arrived a couple of days ago, and I presented it at the Post Office for approval and received my permit. I am sure they were happy to see the back of me.

I am holding off on using it for now; I ordered some special postcards to commemorate the first day of use and am awaiting their arrival. If you’d like a snazzy piece of “First Day of Use” mail with my new postmark, leave a comment.

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.

I had sent Jenna, my favorite Finnish Postcrosser, a postcard showing the observation tower atop Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia, and received this in return, in yesterday’s mail.  After seeing the mountaintop tower (which needs no pillar to stand on in order to be above everything else), Jenna observed, “Your observation tower is a little bit different (from ours).”  Actually, even at first glance, I would say that it bears a striking resemblance to another American tower.  Here’s what Wikipedia has to say:

Näsinneula is an observation tower in Tampere, Finland, overseeing Lake Näsijärvi. It was built in 1970–1971 and was designed by Pekka Ilveskoski. It is the tallest free-standing structure in Finland and the tallest observation tower in the Nordic countries at a height of 168 metres. The tower opened in 1971 and is located in the Särkänniemi leisure centre. There is a revolving restaurant in the tower 124 metres above the ground. One revolution takes 45 minutes. The design of Näsinneula was inspired by the Space Needle in Seattle (emphasis added). The idea of a rotating restaurant was taken from the Puijo tower in Kuopio.

So Näsinneula was ours first.  Sorry, Jenna!

Also in yesterday’s mail was an actual greeting card, apparently sent in lieu of a postcard, from 12-year-old Arttu in Hämeenlinna:

Since I still haven’t reimbursed myself for my sleep deficit that’s been going on since the 4th of July, and I have nothing especially brilliant on tap for Two for Tuesday, I’m going to cheat and just post yesterday’s mail: two “official” Postcrossing postcards.  The first postcard came from a sender right here in the USA, postmarked 1 July:

It’s a reproduction of Marc Chagall’s “Over the Town” which he apparently worked on for four years, from 1914-1918, and currently hangs in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.  This card contained no message except for a return address label (a label!).  In fairness, there is a smiley face drawn next to the Postcrossing postcard ID — but would it kill you to say hi?

By contrast, the second card is from a ten-year-old girl named Sanna, in Finland, postmarked 30 June:

Unfortunately, the card yields no useful information about the scene or its location.  Sanna, however, seems especially chatty.  The message, as well as my address, were apparently (and laboriously) hand-written first in pencil, then traced over in ink: “Hi! My name is Sanna. I’m 10 y.o. I’m from Finland. I like dogs. I have got two dogs. I play the piano. I like bakeing. Bye-bye.”  Not too shabby, considering that she’s ten and English is not her native language — but my point is that she’s only ten, and she gets the point of sharing postcards with others.

Natalia in Saint Petersburg, Russia was kind enough to send (along with several postcards featuring night views of her city) a couple of replicas of Soviet propaganda posters, scaled down to about 5 x 7 inches (12 x 18 centimeters).  The first, from 1929, features a poem entitled “Night Panel” (no, I don’t get it either) and a fine, upstanding young citizen shouting “Stop!” to flappers and other revelers.  My Russian is terrible, but I think that the gist of the poem, which starts with a phrase something like “Here is how things should be”, is that the youth should work and have faith in the government instead of in drink and debauchery.

And speaking of work:

This second poster from 1947 reminds the proletariat that, hey, you can work at night, too!  Of course, we’ll have to put you on the waiting list for tractor headlights; you should have them in about two years.

Nancy Archer’s a rich gal with a cheating husband who flaunts his affair all over town.  Naturally, she gets irradiated by a spaceman, and exacts her revenge.  Hey, back in 1958, when Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman was released, radiation was all the rage, if you’ll pardon the pun.  Nancy’s wardrobe is also much improved.  What did they make her clothes out of, anyway?  And, for that matter, why?

Nancy doesn’t need that philanderer, anyway.  I plan to introduce her to Glenn Manning:

Glenn is an Army officer who, naturally, gets irradiated, Army life being what it is.  In The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), it’s a plutonium bomb rather than a spaceman and, coincidentally, he also grows to a height of 50 feet.  Unfortunately for Glenn, his circulatory system can’t keep up with his growth, and his brain becomes oxygen-starved: the bigger he gets, the dumber he gets.  However, he still knows how to get his point across:

Both of these postcards were published by The Museum of Modern Art.

Marco was kind enough to send me two beautiful cards from Naples, Italy, so I thought I’d use them to inaugurate a new feature called Two for Tuesday.  Really it’s just a way to remove the guilt from skipping a day here and there, like I did last Saturday.  First off, a panorama of the city:

This card attempts the same description in Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese; the English description reads “Foreshortening panoramic street Partenope and Saint Lucy”.  Looks like somebody’s Babel Fish is playing tricks on them; I believe that the correct English translation is “panoramic view of Via Partenope and Santa Lucia”.

The Russian translation is even worse; it reads “Foreshortening panoramic улица Partenope и Святой Lucy”.  German is probably the most accurate; however, I can’t speak to the Chinese version.  Nevertheless, the view is stunning; it’s a great oversized postcard.  I don’t think we could get away with these colors in the US; our architecture isn’t suited for it.  But here it’s gorgeous.

The second card shows the Via San Gregorio Armeno (“Saint Gregory of Armenia Street”), also in Naples, where — well, I’ll let Marco explain: “This postcard shows the famous street of the Nativity scene makers. On this street, many handcraftsmen create true masterpieces of miniature, to decorate the Neapolitan Crib (presepe in Italian). Most shops are open all year, but a good period to visit the street is in September – November, when all the handcraftsmen start to prepare their shops for the busy Christmas time. During Christmas time, more than half a million tourists come to see the shops with the original miniature figurines, and the shops are especially busy.”  I couldn’t have said it better myself.

In case you don’t already think Marco is awesome, he also found three age-appropriate cards for each of the grandsons, and tied up each group with a personalized gold ribbon.  He also sent the envelope with a number of interesting Italian stamps, which came all the way from Italy without being cancelled.

It turns out that Marco is a great fan of all things American, especially New York City.  I sent Marco a similar number of cards, trying to find as many as I could that were as uniquely American as possible, including an NYC postcard that I hope he will find very dear.

You are out of your Vulcan mind if you miss the new Star Trek movie, which is just a week away!  Number One Grandson and I are looking forward to it.

Be sure to check out the Star Trek Movie Launch site for showtimes and tickets.

 
Tommy, aka Number One Grandson has gotten in on Postcrossing, and has posted his first two postcards to his own blog.  (Austin, Number Two Grandson, got started a week or so before his big brother, but he’s a little too young to have a blog of his own.)

How about giving him some encouragement?  Visit his site and give him some comment love.

Of course, if you’re feeling especially charitable, you can send a postcard to Tommy or Austin in care of my address.

Here’s a still from the original Star Trek series (“The Menagerie”, 17 November 1966) featuring Susan Oliver as an Orion slave girl, and is one of 30 cards in the Star Trek Postcard Box by Chronicle Books.

Susan Oliver is my hero.  The fan site SusanOliver.info carries images of a letter and photo she sent to a fan back in 1966, an Air Force sergeant in Vietnam.  In the letter, she expresses pride in those who serve.  There are a number of entertainers today who would do the same, but it seems that it’s a small percentage overall. Sadly, Susan Oliver passed away in 1990.

Don’t forget: there’s only three weeks to the Star Trek Movie Launch, so click the link and get showtimes and tickets. Naturally, the new Star Trek movie features an Orion slave girl as well. Better than the original? You be the judge.

Here’s your chance to infect some six-year-olds with the postcard bug.  A first grade class in Florida is collecting postcards from all over the world, from now until 28 May 2009.  For more information (and the address), check out their wish at Wish Upon a Hero.

“The sky over the Magic Kingdom’s regal Cinderella Castle explodes with brilliant color at night in the traditional Disney fireworks display.”  Of course, Walt Disney World and the other theme parks are just a few things you can do when you visit Kissimmee.  Every time we’ve gone, we’ve usually splurged on a theme park or two but, with cash being tight for most people nowadays, there are a lot of free things to see and do as well.

Probably the best free attraction is the Saturday Nite Cruise, which has been going on every week in Old Town Kissimmee for years.  Classic cars come out of the woodwork and cruise up and down the brick streets; a lot of them are for sale, if you happen to be in the market for a vintage automobile.  There’s also live entertainment, and the whole thing turns into a massive street party.  A lot of the cars also turn up on Friday nights as well, but with a little less fanfare.  Of course, as long as you’re in Old Town, there are plenty of places to shop and eat.  But you might just as easily bring along a sandwich.

And speaking of free, you should enter the Kissimmee Freedom Sweepstakes, where you could win one of three weekend getaways for two, or one of two weeklong getaways for four.  I did; I could use a free vacation right about now.

Ilona has an interesting project underway: she is asking folks to send postcards to her sister, Esmeralda, and her future brother-in-law, Frans, which she will collect and present to them on their wedding day on 29 May 2009.

A wedding card would be most appropriate, but Ilona will accept any sort of card.  You should address your congratulatory message directly to the happy couple, and send them to:

Esmeralda en Frans
(address redacted)

Depending on where you live, it is probably safe to send the cards as late as 15 May 2009 — but the sooner the better!  If you’re sending a postcard from the USA, the correct postage is 94¢. Feel free to link to this post on your own blog: http://www.wildpostcards.com/2009/04/send-a-postcard-to-a-wedding

Porpoises and dolphins are technically two different species, though they have a common land-based ancestor.  Seafaring fishermen tend to use the word “porpoise” to describe porpoises as well as any small dolphin.  This is a “Color King Natural Color” card, published by the W. M. Cline Company of Chattanooga.

Have you seen the “Dolphin Bubbles” phenomenon?  I first saw it online a couple of months ago and can’t get enough of it:

Nobody seems to be sure exactly how they learned to do it but, apparently, they’ve been teaching each other how to do it for quite some time. I also understand that it’s primarily the females who engage in this behavior, because the males are apparently too busy telling each other fish stories, bragging to each other about the one that got away. (OK, no, not really, but the males seem more concerned with social interaction than with self-amusement.)

My family and I have swam with the dolphins on a couple of occasions and, while one is immediately impressed with how intelligent they are, I am under the impression that nobody has seen this behavior in the wild before. I guess great minds require cool toys.

You can see some very cool still photos of the dolphins at play (and hopefully more videos to be posted soon) over at the Dolphin Bubbles website. I can’t wait to show the grandbabies!

“Several years were required in completing this splendid building. Located on Washington Square. Contains many fine paintings. The Municipal Courts Building is directly west of City Hall.”  I’m thinking that some artistic license was taken with regards to the coloring of the landscaping.

This week’s entry for Postcard Friendship Friday the 13th is addressed to Miss Evelyn Chester, a neighbor of Kay Anthony.  From Granite City, Illinois on May 26, 1945, “Nellie” writes: “Hi — Hold everything in the road until I come back.”  Wait — you want me to do what now?

Don’t forget to check out what the other PFF bloggers have on display this week. Once you’re done, get some free pictures to spice up your blog.

Sorry, I’m not giving away anything (I’m still the most incredibly talented umemployed guy I know) but Diane at Good Mourning, Glory! is giving away a veritable plethora of scrapbooking supplies — nay, dare I say it? — a scrapbooker’s dream come true.

I have too many books already, so I don’t dare make any of my own, but you should go for it.  You have until midnight Friday, March 13 to enter.  Don’t say I never did you no favors.

I haven’t posted in a few days because I’ve been busy Christmas shopping. And look what I found! These two Christmas ornaments seem to have started life as copies of vintage Christmas postcards (presumably copies, anyway, since there were duplicated designs in the store display). A little glitter, a couple of beads, and some silvery pipe-cleaner-type garnish later, you have something suitable for the Christmas tree. (We don’t put up a tree at the house, so these are living on the fireplace mantle instead.) Very nifty.

My wife came home a few months ago with two identical tins that she found at a thrift shop for something like a quarter apiece. Like most women, she will often come home with things that we don’t need because they were on sale. She bought them thinking I would love them in the same way that I love Tastykakes. And I do like the tins; I just really don’t have the room for them. Consequently, these tins have been sitting in my living room ever since, trying to find their purpose in life.

On a similar note, I am expecting today a delivery of very spiffy storage boxes and supplies (for example, archival-quality polypropylene postcard sleeves, to help preserve the collection), so I will have some new boxes for all of the new postcards that have recently joined the collection. (Also, the boxes that Aunt Brenda kept hers in are getting a little ragged.)

When my wife asked where I intended to keep the new storage boxes, I indicated that I would put them near where these Tastykake tins are situated; she then came up with the brilliant idea of keeping the supplies in these tins.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose.

For those of you who have never heard of Tastykakes, they are the most fantastic single-serving cakes and pies on the planet, having been manufactured in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since 1914. Growing up in New Jersey, my Aunt Brenda and I would walk to the nearest store to get them almost daily during summers off from school, and I could buy them in the school cafeteria during the school year. I used to be able to get them on a regular basis in Florida, but they had obviously been frozen for transport, seriously affecting their quality. Here in my neck of Georgia, it is rare to find them and, when I do, they’ve still been frozen.

A couple of my employees are expected to return today from a boondoggle in Pennsylvania; they were given strict instructions to return with Tastykakes in hand. If there are none on my desk when I get to work, I may have to fire somebody.

I have finally gone through most of the 1,000+ postcards I acquired on September 17, and by far the most striking collection is that apparently belonging to Kay Anthony of Spartanburg, South Carolina. She collected (as far as I know, and judging from what I purchased) just under 200 postcards during the late 40′s and early 50′s.

She apparently corresponded with several people specifically for the purpose of trading postcards. How did one get in touch back then with others who wanted to trade postcards? Classified ads? Was there some sort of club for people with short attention spans who liked the pretty pictures on the cards? Sign me up!

One of her regular correspondents was a man named Lloyd Stoltz of Reading, Pennsylvania, who was a fastidious individual. His handwriting is incredibly tiny, perhaps intentionally so that he could get a lot of information onto a postcard. Also, he signed his cards with his own little ideogram, combining the letters “L” and “S”, and many of his cards have a small rubber stamp impression of his full initials, “L.P.M.S.”

There is a slight musty smell to the cards (which has been clearing now that they’ve been removed from their album), which leads me to believe that they have been stored away for decades. Not having seen the light of day, the colors on the cards are brilliant.

I plan to start posting some of her cards in a week or so; I hope you enjoy.