I love postcards. They are more than just a piece of paper with a picture on them, sent through the mail. They are little time capsules that can be revisited time and time again. Over the years I have sent hundreds, many to myself. And I have kept them all.
The ideal postcard, to me:
1) Is funny
2) Could be potentially embarassing to purchase
3) Contains nudity, and
4) Is dated
As you can see, the fine example above – sent by me to KLS in 2001 – satisfies 75% of the criteria. (Although since Chimps are almost always nude, I suppose this is an example of the rare ‘reverse nudity’ card). Here’s an example, received in 2007 from SFL when she went to Paris, of all four criteria:
Tasteful isn’t it? I have many cards far less tasteful than this one, since I can’t help but purchase ‘nudey cards’, especially now they are going out of vogue. But this being a family friendly blog (?), I dare not post any! Well, maybe this one is ok…
The back of the card is at least as important as the front, and I like to think I have become increasingly innovative over the years. Here is one such example from my recent trip. Note the strong relationship between the photo and the writing on the back 🙂
Here’s another example of an innovative back. I have tried this technique successfully twice now in two separate countries (USA and Australia):
The above cards betray nothing about what I was doing at the time, and that’s perfectly fine. But sometimes nuggets of memory make there way onto these cards that will never be forgotten and are a joy to read so many years later. If it wasn’t for a scrawled message on the back of a postcard, I may have forgotten that I weighed 215 lbs in 2001 (!) and on one day in January 2000 spent A$120 on MTG cards at Charlestown Square with my brother 🙂
Over the last few years of travels, I have been averaging more than one postcard per day, sent to most everyone who reads this blog. Do you enjoy them I wonder? Actually I don’t wonder, or rather your enjoyment is immaterial, for I will continue to send them.
My rules for effectively postcarding are as follows:
1) While traveling, always have a pen and addresses with you. Keep them in your pocket!
2) Purchase postcard stamps as soon as possibly, preferably the first day of your trip
3) Obtain postcards. Buy more than you think you’ll need. If you find really great ones, buy a few copies!
4) Write and send them whenever the opportunity arises. In a restaurant! On a train! On the toilet! (<- never done this, but should)
5) Sending the postcard is paramount! If you can’t think of anything at all to write, just write anything!
In a little over a week we’re off to Japan again. This will be our fifth trip, and I’m looking forward to it like a child on Christmas eve. Trips to Japan are different from ‘normal’ vacations in many ways, and one is the difficulty in finding postcards.
Indeed, in four previous trips I have only ever sent myself two postcards, one in 2002 and one in 2009. Here’s the 2002 one:
Cute isn’t it? But postcards like this – at all! – are very difficult to find over there, as the past three trips demonstrated. My determination is greater than ever though, and here’s hoping you’ll be receiving some in the mail from that fair island in the very near future 🙂
