“For email, the old postcard rule applies. Nobody else is supposed to read your postcards, but you’d be a fool if you wrote anything private on one.”–Judith Martin aka. Miss Manners
Miss Manners’ advice is germane and up to date; however email and postcards vary in important ways. Email is an electronic message and the postcard is a physical artifact that is delivered by terrestrial mail. Certainly we can add photographs or other images to email as attachments, but this is not the same as sending an actual, physical thing.
Email is so commonplace that we sort through it or have our devices filter it according to our preferences. Postcards arrive in a physical mailbox–if at all anymore. The only postcards I receive these days are appointment reminders from the dentist, advertisements promoting hearing aids, and my garbage collector’s bill. I cannot remember the last time a personal postcard arrived via the U.S. Postal Service.
Fortunately, I have a few hundred vintage postcards that people have sent in the past, or were given to me, or that I purchased as a boy. Of those, I selected four old cards in order to celebrate the unofficial holiday, “Postcard Day”.
The top card was printed in 1914 by J. Salmon of Sevenoaks, England. The second card was published by Petley Studios of Phoenix, Arizona, USA after the bridge had been moved from the UK to Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
The Grand Canyon card was sent to me by my paternal grandmother back in 1978.
The last card was shot by Tom Reed and printed by Phoenix Specialty Advertising in Arizona for the “Crest Motel” a mom and pop business in Sterling, Colorado. Our family stayed there once in the late 1960s.
Ciao
The Blue Jay of Happiness quotes 20th century mountaineer and wilderness photographer, Galen Rowell. “I remember when an editor at the National Geographic promised to run about a dozen of my landscape pictures from a story on the John Muir trail as an essay, but when the group of editors got together, someone said that my pictures looked like postcards.”
bluejayblog 
Postcards are a fascinating topic! When I started collecting postcards it was mostly promotional postcards and I couldn’t get enough of these beautifully designed little pieces of art. Chinese postcards were added later and over the years there were well over 1000. Each one tells a story …..
I somehow figured that you are a fellow traveler in the postcard realm. I love to contemplate and study them.
Those old postcards have actually arrived 🙂 Of the last 3 postcards that I have sent in the last few years, no one has arrived. But the postal service today is another topic that I could write a book about by now.
The Postal Service…yes.
Postcards are and were always cool but email and social media have kind of taken over. Miss Manners’ advice is still good because you have no idea how far your email will actually go and who will see it.
I miss receiving postcards from vacationing friends. I wonder if the cards are even sold at tourist areas any longer.
I know certain Walmarts around here still sell them but I don’t know about other places.
I still remember (though it was lost in a flood) the postcard my great grandma sent ME from her first trip to California. It made me feel VERY important to get mail, and had a horse on it. Wish I had it still. I miss her handwriting.
A card from your great grandmother would be very special.
More than receiving, I love sending postcards, but it’s getting harder and harder to do. They take more effort and feel more personal than email. Love your collection.
I can relate. I send them to friends as surprise mail.
I love that!