October 1 is World Postcard Day! This is a celebration of the joy of postcards, and to commemorate the day you should send at least one postcard!
So – this Thursday – grab a postcard and start writing. It doesn’t matter what you write, so write anything! If you’re short of ideas, here are a few:
– Your favorite animal, food, movie, song etc.
– Your goals for the future, or historical achievement you’re very proud of
– Your favorite memory from before the year 2000
– A joke, poem, limerick or lyric
The stamps are important too. Go for variety if you can, or if you’re sending domestically and only need one stamp try for an unusual or pretty one (this means no simple flags if you’re in the US!).
Send the card to anyone, as long as it’s me. Better yet, send more than one to family and friends. Be sure to mention World Postcard Day. And try to get it in the mail on October 1st 🙂
Speaking of cards, this is as good a time as any for a Postcrossing update.
I’ve now received 248 cards and sent about 260. I check my postbox every 2 weeks or so and they keep coming even during the pandemic. The average time for a card to arrive is longer now (in some cases excessively) but so far I haven’t had any of the cards I sent not arrive.
I’ve got a mini-album I use to showcase the favorites I have received, either due to the card, the stamps or the message. I’ve almost filled it and will have to buy another album before too long.
That’s on the back of an Australian card I received where the sender used vintage stamps. I was quite impressed that they used a $0.45 silver jubilee stamp from 1977! Most stamps are good forever, and it would be fun to buy some older US stamps and do the same one day.
I’m showing off the above due to the astonishing penmanship of Grigorii. Also Russian stamps are always very big and very pretty, and there seems to be an endless variety of them. Not every card is lettered this well, and I’ve receive some I could barely read at all!
The above is the most extraordinary card I’ve received so far, from the Aland Islands off the coast of Finland. There’s very few Postcrossers living there so it’s unlikely I’ll ever get another and receiving this was a genuine treat.
I’ve sent to 41 countries and received from 42. Russia, China and Germany are far ahead on the list of sent and received countries, and I still haven’t received anything from South America. I think I’m loving Postcrossing even more now due to the pandemic, and no matter where the card is from I love seeing it in my mailbox.
But of course the best cards are from those we know. Given we can’t travel now you may think there’s no good reason to send one, which is why World Postcard Day is so timely this year. Please consider sending some, but even if you don’t watch your mailbox since you know I won’t let the day pass without sending a bunch myself 🙂