Greetings from everywhere

Keeping in touch while on the road or capturing memories of a great vacation, postcards, even at today’s postal rates, are the most affordable way of saying “hello” from afar.

Growing up, entire vacations could be chronicled with postcards—pictures of everything from roadside motels to theme parks to majestic mountains. There was a card for every place and every occasion. As kids, we spent a good deal of our vacation allowances on postcards and were thrilled to get one from a traveling relative or friend.

While the history of the postcard dates back to the mid-nineteenth century in Europe, the first postcard produced as a souvenir in the U.S., the first real travel postcards, were offered to the public in 1893 to commemorate the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Over the next 50 or so years, the cards evolved, taking on many forms. Early modern cards were printed in color on linen-type paper but it wasn’t until 1939 that the modern full-color photochrome or “chrome” printed cards were introduced and offered for sale by Union Oil Company for their western service stations.

Postcards remain the most popular “souvenir” sold today and are the world’s third largest collector market after stamps and coins. Postcard collecting is called Deltiology, and there are several websites and books devoted to it. And, even in an age of instant messaging, email and cell phones, it’s still a joy to give and receive this small, but thoughtful, handwritten greetings.

A few ideas for using postcards:

• Remember a trip using postcards. They are a great way to reflect on the day’s activities and send yourself a nice memory enhancer for when you return. There used to be specially designed postcard scrapbooks, but with all the interest in scrapbooking these days it’s easy to make your own—and you can add photos, ticket stubs, menus and other “souvenirs” of your trip. Be sure to date each postcard so that in years to come it will be easier to recreate your memories of your trip.
  
  
• Children (and grandparents) love to give and receive postcards. The short space for writing is less daunting than writing a letter and sending them is a good way to build the letter writing habit.
  
  
• Postcard collecting is simple, fun and a very affordable hobby. Old postcards typically sell for $1 to $5, although rarer, older ones can be pricier. Collectors break down the categories to view cards (travel and location cards), art, historical and greetings, but there can be thousands of subcategories from single subjects to particular eras or types of postcards.
  
  
• Antique malls, flea markets and thrift stores are great resources for postcards. Many dealers file their cards according to type or style making it easier to find exactly what you want, but it does usually require some digging. Prices can be as low as 10 cents and most sell for under $3. Another excellent place to find postcards for sale is Ebay.
  
  
• You can narrow your search to specific scenes or holidays or years.
  Display your postcard collections imaginatively. Collect travel or flower or similar postcards together in a frame or frame single cards and hang them as a grouping on the wall. Make a postcard collage under glass on a coffee or end table (put felt pads on each corner of the glass to keep it from slipping. Fabric and ribbon covered bulletin boards popular these days are perfect for displaying your collection without poking holes in them with thumbtacks.
  
  
• Reuse pretty postcards. Although purist collectors might cringe a bit at this, one idea is to cover the backs of old, used postcards with white (or colored) paper and send them as greetings in envelopes. This is an especially fun way to create new, personalized holiday greeting cards by using single cards or collages by cutting images from damaged cards. Another idea is to paint the backs with gold or silver paint, use a hole punch on one end and hang them with a ribbon from a doorknob, in a window or on a holiday tree.
  
  
• If you didn’t collect postcards as a child or have since lost yours, Boomer-era postcards easy to find and collect. To make a new “all about me or all about my family” scrapbook, make a list of places you’ve lived and visited over the years and search for postcards to match these places and times. You may find a postcard from 1962 of the exact roadside motel you visited at the time or 1960s souvenir cards from the New Jersey Boardwalk or that long gone Crab Palace restaurant in Maine.

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