Postcards

I’m fascinated with antique postcards. Not so much for the image on the front, although most of them are pretty nice, but more so for the conversation written on the back. A few months ago I started my collection and even though it’s taken a while, it has now doubled in size…to 5 total postcards.

I went to the Harbert Antique Mall on the Red Arrow Highway in Harbert, Michigan today. I was here last November so this was my second time shopping at this store. They have a good amount of antiques and their prices seem fairly reasonable. They still had the china cabinet of my dreams but since I first saw it, I bought a nice vintage piece at a local resale shop for much less.

Today’s purchase of three vintage postcards totaled $9. You can see more more images of these cards in my Flickr set. The first card was postmarked Oct 13, 1908, and features a sunset on Lake Mitchell in Cadillac, Mich.

The card reads: Dear Christel. I am ashamed not to have answered your card before but am awfully busy. Hope you had a nice time at Petoskey. Saw Mary to say Hello when she went back to G.R. Also saw Laura & Lavin. Am going to send Elma a card tomorrow. M.L.

The first sentence is what drew my attention to this card. Not many people admit to being ashamed for a delayed response. I also love how she started the sentences with verbs. Very twitter-like.

The second card was postmarked in 1909 and features an image of Riverside Park and Drive, New York.

I had a hard time reading this card so feel free to send corrections if you can figure it out: Dear Ma, I got here allright and everybody else is well. (Her) slip in but is for Ma it is (showing) like everything now. You wanted to know what Liz wanted. She has socks but no jacket. The ride was so bad from W. — to — if it really had us around so hard. And the (swan) was so soft to (you). Next week Fend. is going to start painting. Will say more later.

This last postcard, postmarked July 17 (1927?) from The Auditorium, Milwaukee, Wis., is my favorite of the three.

It reads: Everybody is sending cards – so I’ve finally decided to do likewise. At any rate, Milwaukee is certainly escorting us about with the glad hand. The meetings are held at this place (-sh- but we haven’t attended any yet.)- R.A.H

Well obviously the trend is to see the sights when you’re in town for meetings. If only I could read the year better on the postmark. I’d LOVE to research the history behind this card more and see exactly which meetings they were skipping. As U.S. Travel states: Meetings Means Business! And I think all destinations should strive to escort their visitors with the glad hand.