In my mailbox today were two — and only two — postcards, coincidentally both from Indonesia, and from different senders who got my address from different sources. This card, from Shinta, shows three side-by-side volcanoes in East Java. All told, Indonesia has about 150 active volcanoes, but it looks like only one of the volcanoes in this picture was feeling fiery that day.

Shinta was very generous with the variety of stamps! There are postage stamps celebrating wildlife, traditional food and clothing, the Year of the Rabbit, and… what’s that blue one? Molecular biology? Human cloning? Aspartame?

Check out Girls Go Postal! to see today’s other Indonesian postcard which, in yet another coincidence, also features three smokin’ hotties.

“The San Joaquin Valley is the ‘Raisin Basket’ of the world, producing over one half of the total world’s supply. After two or three weeks of drying in the sun, these grapes will become delicious raisins.” I never did care for raisins. I mean, you’ve already got grapes; why go out of your way to make them dry and chewy?

This is a modern “Colorscope Photo Prints” card, published by Scope Enterprises of California; the photo is by Arnold and Carole Compolongo.

Tuula in Tampere, Finland sends this beautiful reproduction of a vintage Estonian card, showing the Tarvastu Bridge, near the city of Viljandi. I suspect that the border around the picture was embossed on the original, but this modern reproduction is not.

This scene is very reminiscent of scenes near my own home; there are a great many places over Lake Lanier where the only sign of man’s presence is a bridge like this one. Ironically, Lake Lanier is itself man-made.

“Between 1935 and 1943 the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project printed over two million posters in 35,000 different designs to stir the public’s imagination for education, theater, health, safety, and travel. Due to their fragile nature only two thousand posters have survived. This contemporary design illustrates many of the WPA-era posters, including those of our National Parks.” And so, alas, it’s not a reproduction of an authentic WPA poster, but it did fool me. This brilliant re-creation is by Doug Leen and Brian Maebius.

This card comes from Marsha, who bought this card in Hawaii in January, and mailed it to me from Wisconsin in February.

Want to visit some other exotic places from times past? Check out today’s Postcard Friendship Friday.

Is it me, or does this sturgeon look surprised? “The Lower Dells has always had an abundant supply of sturgeon. This photo by H. H. Bennett, pioneer landscape photographer of the Dells, was made in the late 1880s. The spear fisherman stands at the cribs near the present dam.”

This Wisconsin postcard came from Tim in Indiana via Maine or, as Tim puts it, “a Wisconsin postcard sent by a Hoosier with a Maine postmark.” Turns out that Tim has three Mailer’s Postmark Permits, one of which was issued in Meddybemps, Maine. Mail postmarked by the mailer has to be mailed from the post office which issued the permit, so Tim would have had to postmark this card with an advance date, put it in an envelope, mail it to Meddybemps, and ask the postmaster there to mail it on the correct date. As you can see, the postmaster didn’t wait; this postcard is postmarked next Tuesday.

Sure, it seems like a lot of trouble, but who else can postmark their own mail with the word “Meddybemps”?

“From red rock canyons, mountains, ski slopes and deserts, to rafting rivers, fishing lakes and exploring cities, Utah has it all. Utah has seven forests, seven monuments, five parks and one historical site — all nationally ranked. These popular landmarks create one of America’s most varied vacationlands.”

This postcard was mailed from Amarillo, Texas by the Joneses, Samantha and Richie, who were out touring with Ralph Roddenbery. Together they make a helluva band. I’m not sure what it says about the Postal Service, but Ralph and the Joneses got back here to Georgia before the postcard did.

And all this time I thought everything in Kansas was in black and white. “Unlike the small native sunflower which grows wild in Kansas, these large sunflowers are grown by farmers as a crop. Large fields of the golden flowers are visible in the summer and early fall.”  You think that’s weird? In my hometown, they grow dandelions as a food crop.

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:

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.

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.

It took me some time to decide which lake this is; there is no English-language caption on the card, and Winnie, who drew a very cute self-portrait on the back of the card, told me only that the picture “is a famous lake in Taiwan”, and even then only as a postscript.  On the other hand, it’s always nice to get a postcard on which the subject of the message is something besides the postcard itself.  As for the messages that I myself send out, I plead the fifth.

Ultimately, I was able to puzzle out the Chinese caption on the front of the card.  Sun Moon Lake  (日月潭) is named from the notion that  the lake’s east side is round like the Sun, while the west side is in the shape of a crescent moon.  It’s also the place to be in Taiwan if you’re on your honeymoon, much as Niagara Falls used to be the traditional destination for honeymooners in the US.

In the middle of the lake, between the sun and the moon, is Lalu Island, which is sacred ground to the Thao tribe (or Shao, depending on who you ask), who are a people aboriginal to Taiwan.  As a result, no non-tribesman are allowed on the island, nor is swimming allowed in the lake, except for a few special events.

Yesterday was quite the red-letter day, mailwise.  I got home and found no less than six postcards in my mailbox, and no bills to spoil the cache.  Also, FedEx was nice enough to leave a box of postcards that I ordered to send out to you, from the good folks at RedStamp.com – Stylish Correspondence.

All the cards were terrific, but this yellow-shouldered parrot from The Tropical Blogger really stood out.  It comes all the way from Bonaire, which is part of the Netherlands Antilles, and is one of the “ABC” islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao).  Thanks for thinking of me!

The stamp is an issue from 2006 for Christmas and New Year’s.  Either this is an excess of postage for the card, or it means that Bonaire has enjoyed a few years without a postal rate increase.  I hope it’s the latter.

“Waterfalls dot the picturesque landscape of scenic North Georgia.”  That’s true; you can’t throw a stone around here without hitting a waterfall. “Pictured are Tallulah Falls, Toccoa Falls, Anna Ruby Falls, Amicalola Falls.”  Up at Amicalola Falls this last weekend, the grandsons participated in a fishing tournament for the kids, and Number Two Grandson, age 5, won second prize for the biggest fish in his age group.  Those fish were tasty, too. When I asked him what he’d won, he said, “Oh, it’s just a box with hooks and bait and stuff.”

You, too, can have a postcard from scenic North Georgia; just drop me a line and ask for one. As always, feel free to send me a postcard from where you live.  There’s usually at least one postcard leaving here most days thanks to Postcrossing.  Today’s a busy day; there’s a card from Number Two Grandson and half a dozen from me.

For Postcard Friendship Friday, here’s a postcard mailed to a Friend.  Postmarked Santa Monica, California, 13 December 1938, this real photo postcard was dispatched to Mr. Friend P. Williams of Albany, New York.

Let’s talk about our friend Friend; I was able to learn a great deal about him from a variety of sources.  Originally from Olean, New York, Friend graduated from Cornell University in 1899 with a degree in civil engineering.  He spent most (if not all) of his career working as an engineer for the State of New York.

In 1906, he became engaged to a Miss Alma Horton, the daughter of Mr. F. M. Horton of 97 Gates Avenue in Brooklyn.  (I can’t help but wonder how they met; I can’t find any evidence that he spent any significant amount of time anywhere near NYC.)

He worked on the “Barge Canal” Project, which was a series of major improvements to New York’s canal system, which began around 1903 and lasted for decades.  By 1914, he was the division engineer for the project’s Western Division and, from 1919-1921, he served as a Special Deputy State Engineer, still with the project.

Ultimately, his career progressed until, by 1935, he was the Engineer-Secretary of New York’s Division of Water Power and Control.  When he received this card in 1938, I imagine he would have been about 62 years old and close to retirement.  His work certainly explains his residence in Albany, the state capital.

So friend Friend is no mystery.  The message, however, has resisted analysis:

Our writer uses a postcard featuring one of Oregon’s natural wonders to extol the virtues of California. “Californians are very proud of their state (justly so) and have shown us every square inch, or so it seems. We have been from San Diego to Portland, Oregon, and Dororty has done her duty, lecturing and signing books. We love California, but cold old Albany will look pretty good to us. We shall have a lot to tell you!  Just today we visited the Kellogg Arabian Horse Farm, and you know how much I enjoyed that. There were some beautiful horses there — pure white stallions. Our love to you and the girls. T. H.(?) Santiago.”

You would think that a woman with a name like Dororty and who is obviously an author and lecturer would be easy to find; I found a few, but none of them seemed to fit in with this message. Nor was I able to find Mr. Santiago.

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

Camp O-AT-KA is a summer camp for boys that exists still today.  It was founded in 1906 and has been on the same site in Sebago, Maine since 1907 .  This postcard might date from as early as 1910, based on the sturdiness of the card stock that was used (and the card is still like new), but I suspect that it’s probably from the early 1920s.

The camp was founded by the Reverend Ernest Joseph Dennen, an Episcopal minister from Lynn, Massachusetts.  He had developed a program which he called “The Order of Sir Galahad”, designed to teach the boys of his parish the virtues of “helpfulness, obedience, truth, chivalry, and service.”  The camp, in turn, was a reward for the boys who had worked hard to live up to these virtues.

Today, those virtues are apparently only for rich white boys.  Your boy can enroll in the camp’s two-week “starter program” for the low, low price of only $2,850.  If I were you, I’d go for the seven-week program: a real bargain at $7,700. Sure, running a big camp is expensive but, even adjusted for inflation, I went to camps of comparable size as a boy for about a tenth of the cost — and some of the values I learned were priceless.

“The Kunhar River, swollen by the glacier melt, meanders its way through the entire Kaghan Valley to join the Jehlum River at Muzaffarabad. The swift and foaming river is the live line of Kaghan Valley. At some places it becomes a raging torrent especially in the the lower part of the valley, while in upper part where the valley broadens, the river becomes calm and serene. Kunhar is stocked with delicious brown and rainbow trout fish which is considered to be the best throughout the sub-continent.”

I was having a hard time getting a sense of scale from the photograph, until I realized that the small dots in the lower right seem to be large grazing animals standing next to vehicle tracks worn into the terrain.

This terrific oversized (about 5 in. x 6-3/4 in.) card comes from Cheema; check out his collections of both postcards and covers.  The stamps are pretty cool, too. I am always fascinated by triangular stamps; to my knowledge, the US Postal Service has only issued three three-sided stamps in its history.  Looks like postage from Pakistan to me was 32 Pakistan Rupees, equivalent to about US$0.40.  Postcard postage from the U.S. to Cheema increased recently to 98 cents, equivalent to about 79 PKR.  He’s getting a deal!

This early postcard, probably around 1910-1915, features the Aare River gorge (Aareschlucht) near Meiringen, Switzerland.  Satellite imagery from the area is quite stunning, and the view from the ground today is equally as beautiful as it was a hundred years ago.

The first path to and through the gorge was built in 1888 and, naturally, admission was charged.  Interestingly, it was not Meiringen that received the original concession from the government; instead, it was the village of Villigen, which was over 120 kilometers away.  By 1912, electric lighting had been added, allowing the gorge to remain open to the public after dark, and the first restaurant was built and opened in 1928.  A flood in 1942 destroyed most of the paths, but these were rebuilt and additional roads to the gorge were added by 1947, resulting in a large increase in visitors.

From 1912-1957, a tram ran between the gorge and the towns of Meiringen and Reichenbach, home to Reichenbach Falls, also on the Aare River and the place where Sherlock Holmes met his death in A. Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Final Problem”.

Egrets. I’ve had a few but, then again, too few to mention. “Thousands of egrets decorate this mangrove island in newly opened Everglades National Park, Florida.”  Everglades National Park was officially dedicated by President Truman on 6 December 1947; various proposals, committees, studies, land deals and political shenanigans in furtherance of (or sometimes in opposition to) this goal had been in the works since as early as 1923.

The postcard itself is postmarked 23 January 1953 at Naples, Florida and, much to my consternation, I was at first unable to translate the message.

Thanks to Al Gore and His Marvelous Internet, however, you’re never out of touch with someone who can easily translate between Czech and English.  It turns out that what Kris once referred to as the “classic American theme” of rubbing your presence in Florida in the face of those dealing with winter is, in fact, a universal one:

“Dear ones: Heartfelt greetings and a reminder of the sun here in hot Florida. Today is January 22 and it’s 90 degrees.  We are doing well and thinking of you in Michigan, where you are freezing. The Belohlaveks.”  This message is even funnier if you read it aloud with an Eastern European accent.

I guess we’ll have to take the postcard writer’s word that this is in fact the view off Cape May.  For all we know, one could drive up the road an hour or so and buy an identical card that says “Sea Gulls Dip over Breaking Waves, at Barnegat Bay, N.J.”  Oh, wait — they couldn’t be dipping over Barnegat Bay.  Because then they’d be bay gulls.

Bad puns aside, this beautifully-colored card was produced by Tichnor Bros. Inc., Boston, Mass, probably in the late 1930s.  It’s a gift from Donna, who was happy to let me appreciate it and prevent the postcards from completely taking over her living space.

“The city of New Plymouth is the administrative centre and largest city in Taranaki province. Left: The City clock tower. Right top: Pukukura Park in the City. Right lower: Centre City shopping complex.”

This card from Mel makes New Plymouth look like a terrific place to visit. She writes: “It is autumn here at the moment and getting cooler. Here in New Plymouth we have an awesome mountain and beautiful beaches.”  The view of the mountain from Pukukura Park certainly is spectacular.