I love finding vintage postcards, I can spend so much just looking at them to googling the address of the buildings be it motel or restaurant that might be the subject upon the front just to see if they still stand - most often than not you'll just find a ab empty grown over lot, a car park or a McDonalds.
Vintage postcards are so much more quirky then their modern, highly commercialized counterparts that we may or may not still send today. They often portray the off beat, off the road, or random local places as a form of advertising or vacation souvenir. For me, there's another reason - postcards have taught me a lot about America geographically as well as any tourist website. They are a great peek into social and local history, seeing how a place changes over time, to where people go, or at least use to go vacations and what publishers thought was worthy of sticking on a postcard in the first place.
So I thought I'd come to share some of the more quirky and amusing postcards I've come across in my pickings.
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| Snow bank in North Michigan - real photograph postcard (RPPC) probably 1930's/1940's - gets a little snowy around here. |
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| Pam Am's new 747 - the plane with all the room in the world. Pam Am, the world's most experienced airline |
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| Princess Street in Kingson, Ontario, Canada. Postcard 1954 - loving the classic cars. |
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| Oldsmobile Super "88" Holiday Coupe from Rogers Motor Inc., of New London CT - don't you just love her expression - I think I'd be as happy too. |
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| The clowns at Florida's Cypress Gardens - because clowns aren't crazy enough - i'm sure this is what nightmares are made of for some. |
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| 1976 Annual American Bowling Congress Tournament, Oklahoma City because bowling is a big deal. |
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| Bergan's Suburban Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge located along route 4 in Paramus, New Jersey. Postmarked 1955 |
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| Tulip Time in Pella, Iowa postmarked 1948 - the girl doesn't look all that impressed does she?! |
Do you still send postcards?
I love vintage postcards!! Especially from the 1950s, the cars and fashion styles of that time just screams All-American to me! :)
ReplyDeleteYeah there was something special about that era for sure!
Deletethese are great! the one with the clowns is super scary. I don't send postcards but I still buy them if I visit somewhere new just for myself :P
ReplyDeleteJessica
the.pyreflies.org
Yeah I have probably a few too many postcards just for myself!
Deleteis that restaurant/lounge still around anymore? i just hate to see these lovely buildings go.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I remember I don't believe it is - I can't even find any reference to it on the internet. It's a shame, one of the many that probably met the wrecking ball.
DeleteVintage postcards are amazing! I have a couple but I'd love to get some more. I'd never thought about googling the addresses, I think I feel a new favorite pastime coming on....
ReplyDeleteI could really get carried away with googling the addresses, it get a little depressing after a while when you find out just how many have been demolished, are now parking lots or got turned into some kind of chain restaurant. Mind you it's always nice to find that one odd place, typically an old hotel that's been converted into apartments, but it's still standing all the same!
DeleteThat man on the snow! He's like 'I own the snow!'. These postcards are definitely better than the ones you send today, I like the realistic look of them, it really is everyday life.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember the last time I sent a post card... It was probably when Kris and I went interrailing and his Aunt wanted us to send a card. We bought the postcards in Venice (I think... somewhere in Italy) and then sent them from Romania. We were having too much fun to remember to send them haha. We never found out if they arrived!
Tulip time sounds like something they'd have in the Netherlands, what with all the tulips they grow!
That's how I stand and look after i've shovelled the footpath and the driveway clear of snow. I'm like damn yeah. Even though it's only a couple of inches lol! Someone needs to take a photograph of me to put it onto a postcard! Tulip time in Pella is still a big deal I believe, they all get dressed up in historic Dutch costumes, have parades and food and celebrate their Dutch heritage.
DeleteThese are absolutely fab although the clown one does creep me out a bit. Something about people who dress up for a living weirds me out a bit! The postcards look more like photographs rather than the kinds of postcards you'd see today. I always buy a postcard on holiday to keep for myself so I have a collection of ones from all the different places I've been. Maybe in the future I (or my kids) will travel to some of the same places and see how they've changed!
ReplyDeleteDebi x
A lot of the early postcards where actually just photographs, having your portrait taken, or a group shot was a big advent back in the day and as families moved further distances, they sent the photograph and it became a postcard. Sadly a lot of them are just nameless faces, but I have a couple in my collection. Fun to wonder who they were.
DeleteThese are so beautiful! things like this always make me wish I born earlier than I was. The cars and fashion was just amazing!
ReplyDeleteNo one I know ever really sends postcards from holidays anymore, I kind of forgot that it was a thing that people used to do.
Sinead | Dreaming Again
I remember back in school everyone use to love sending postcards to each other during the summer holidays, granted this was before mobiles were the big thing and the internet wasn't a big deal either. Those where the days!
DeleteWhat a beautiful collection. I love old postcards too. I also love being nosey and reading what the sender wrote and wondering about their lives.
ReplyDeleteI still send postcards. I love to write letters and think it's so sad that so many of us just don't do it anymore. I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves a postcard!
Emma Xx
www.emmaslookingglass.com
It's a shame the whole art of writing is a dying art. I know it's so quick and easy to type out and send an email but I don't think they are half as thoughtful as a postcard or a letter.
DeleteI love these so much! They do make today's postcards look incredibly boring! I still try and send postcards although I often write them and never get around to sending them! xx
ReplyDeleteI always love writing them and then struggle to find somewhere to buy a stamp haha!
DeleteThose are fun. I never thought to google that. Wouldn't it be cool if you could google a place, like your house, and see what it looked like over the years? I'd love to see what my house looked like 50 years ago, even 75 & 100!
ReplyDeleteYou can actually do that, if you just search google, sometimes a city, a town might have taken some aerial views over the years. I know i've managed to track down where my house now stands a couple of years before it was built back in the 1950's.
DeleteMy uncle has a collection of old ship postcards. I may have to check it out someday.
ReplyDeleteI am writing a blog about Kingston Ontario next week, so it was fun to see that post card! I love post cards too x
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of the postcard, brilliant for a quick 'yep, I like you and want to say hi but have NO TIME' I might have written than exact sentence on a postcard actually!
ReplyDeleteI love the Pan Am one and yes, I scooted quickly past the demon water-skiing clowns.
M x