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.

“‘The Spirit of ’76,’ also known as ‘Yankee Doodle,’ described as the most inspiring patriotic picture in America, hangs in the Town Fathers’ meeting room in Abbot Hall (in Marblehead, Massachusetts). Painted by A.M. Willard, it was presented to the Town in 1880 by General John Devereux, whose son was the model for the drummer boy.” This is a “Lusterchrome” card by Tichnor Bros., Boston 15, Mass.

The card notes that reproduction is prohibited without the express permission of the Board of Selectmen in Marblehead. So assiduously had they guarded this image over the years that the August 12, 1935 issue of Time magazine made special mention of a rare occasion on which they allowed the image to be reproduced.

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.

This Tichnor Bros. postcard is literally like new, despite dating from about the mid-1940s. Here’s what the card has to say about Florida Southern College: “A four year accredited coeducational college established in 1885 and located in the heart of the citrus belt in beautiful central Florida. Students from 36 states and 14 countries study here in a year-round delightful climate.”

As one might guess from looking at the building, it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. In fact, Wright designed his “Child of the Sun” campus and all of the buildings on it in 1939, and envisioned that construction would take about three years. Male students were admitted to the college with the understanding that their tuition would be paid in the form of construction labor. Unfortunately, World War II intervened, causing both a shortage of labor and an increase in the cost of building materials. However, the female students were able to complete many of the buildings while the men went off to war.

Since 1992, this building has served as the campus’s Visitor Center. Oddly enough, the college does not have a school of architecture.

“Famed throughout the world is Atlantic City’s Boardwalk. The Boardwalk overlooks the ocean and wide expanse of beach. There are eight miles lined with magnificent hotels, theatres and shops.” Now you know why the Boardwalk costs so much in Monopoly.

Unlike most large-letter cards, this one has a single scene of the Boardwalk, beach and ocean that spans all letters, instead of an individual scene in each letter. The card was published by Tichnor Bros. of Boston.

I can’t help but marvel about how, once upon a time, this scene (published by Tichnor Art Company, Los Angeles) was beautiful enough to market on a postcard. I try to resist the urge to talk about politics, but I am thrilled about how the Democrats were forced to cave in and allow the 25-year offshore drilling ban to expire.

Unfortunately for those of us who purchase gasoline and heating oil, this does not mean that anyone’s going to be drilling for new domestic oil anytime soon. In California, you have a majority of residents in favor of offshore drilling, but the Governator and a majority of the statehouse opposing it. In Florida, much of the Gulf Coast remains off limits until 2022, thanks to a separate Federal law passed in 2006. And before the ban had even expired, Democrat Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts introduced legislation to “protect” much of the New England coast from drilling.

Don’t think that the Democrats in Congress have given up, either. Even though they had to take this one in the teeth for now, I’m sure they are hoping that the ban can be reinstated quickly under a Democrat-controlled Congress and a still-theoretical Obama administration. Nancy Pelosi has already said that she looked forward to re-addressing the issue “with new leadership in the White House.” After the elections are over, the Democrats won’t have to worry about losing office over busting the chops of the American consumer in the short term, and they’ll have at least a couple of years to figure out how to blame it on the GOP. And Pelosi? She’ll be fine; I’m pretty sure San Francisco isn’t going to vote her out in favor of a Republican.

Hell, even Barack Obama favors “limited” drilling, or at least is saying that he does, in order not to alienate the moms who have to drive to soccer practice. But don’t count on it.

Even if all of that is overcome, even if people start paying enough for gas to overcome the NIMBY syndrome, and even if the Democrats stop caving to the small but very vocal minority of environmental wackos on the Angry Left out of fear of being voted out by angry consumers, it will still be at least until 2011 before the Interior Department can ramp up and start auctioning off leases.

You people want change? You changed to a Democrat-controlled Congress two years ago. Think about that on your walk to work.

“Bridge Spanning Cuyahoga River on Ohio Turnpike.” I don’t want to be too technical, but it appears that the bridge pictured is spanning the Ohio Turnpike. Unless, of course, they built the turnpike on the riverbed. Hope they don’t get a lot of rain! Actually, what I think is happening in this picture is that, once one reaches the rise in the distance, there be the bridge — making this card woefully mislabeled. Blame our old friends the Tichnor Bros. of Boston 15, Mass., who manufactured this “Lusterchrome” card. (What, it doesn’t look lustrous to you?)

Great Aunt Esther sent this card off to Great-Grandma Lottie on November 17, 1958: “We are on our way to Peninsula on this side of Akron Ohio, to see a man that did work for Bill. He is not able to work anymore.” Come on, Esther; I’m not looking for a full biography or anything, but did you have to leave us hanging like that? Did the man lose a leg or something?

This is a “Lusterchrome” postcard, number K-6218, by Tichnor Bros., Inc., Boston 15, Mass. The card has some post-production stamped text on the back reading “Greetings from Jekyll Island, Georgia” — no doubt where this card was originally sold — but it’s unlikely that this is where the photo was taken. This card is unused and in pristine condition.

Is it just me, or do the men appear to outnumber the women in this photo by about 37 to 1? And where are the bikinis?