VINTAGE: Quirky Old Postcards

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.

Snow bank in North Michigan - real photograph postcard (RPPC) probably 1930's/1940's - gets a little snowy around here.

Pam Am's new 747 - the plane with all the room in the world. Pam Am, the world's most experienced airline

Princess Street in Kingson, Ontario, Canada. Postcard 1954 - loving the classic cars.

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.

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.

1976 Annual American Bowling Congress Tournament, Oklahoma City because bowling is a big deal.

Bergan's Suburban Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge located along route 4 in Paramus, New Jersey. Postmarked 1955

Tulip Time in Pella, Iowa postmarked 1948 - the girl doesn't look all that impressed does she?!

Do you still send postcards?

LIFE: May Your Stockings Be Full Of All Things Dear

It's time to wish you all a very Merry Christmas as I take a step back from the blog and try to get into the festive spirit myself. 

Working in retail and now, as an expat, they both in different ways have a killed a part of the Christmas spirit for me, perhaps that and just growing older. Both make me more aware of what the true Christmas meaning, in turn how this season should be more about love, giving, donating rather than the Christmas wishlists and haul posts that seem to dominate blogging at this time.

I wish you all the best for the coming days - and i'll see you all next week after a recharge of the blogging batteries. 

A very Merry Christmas to you all!

LIFE: Other Peoples Junk

This little part of the world is heaven if both estate sales and yard sales are your kinda thing. The past couple of weekends we've taken to randomly driving around (you really don't have to drive far) and having a gander at some of the yard sales just for a change from estate sales. 

While I find yard sales a little more frustrating than estate sales - you have no idea what you might find, they can be super hit and miss and some just don't hold any interest in us (lots of sales for baby clothes and items, household junk etc). But they can be fun all the same - from finding penguin nesting dolls, couple of vintage Detroit postcards to cookbooks, vinyls and an unbranded vintage powder compact with a sweet dragonfly design upon it's top, we didn't do too badly. Aside from me getting sunstroke, that wasn't fun.

I don't think anything is going to beat the $1 Jimi Hendrix Experience vinyl (Are You Experienced - 1967) we found the week previous, but last weekend the vinyl gods were smiling on us again. You go through peaks and lows, you can go weeks without finding anything you're interested in and then have a day when everything is in your favor. Take for example the three estate sales we hit which must have had thousands and thousands of records between them, from which we rehomed about 70 everything from The Beatles, Deep Purple to lots of lovely Motown Records (Marvelettes, Temptations, Spinners to the Supremes) to Stevie Nicks and Buddy Holly (an original 1958 one at that) with everything in between. Motown's never the easiest to find, at least in LP format, so finding 9 in one day is my kinda fun.

What have you found lately?

VINTAGE: Postcard Memories

Heidi doesn't like Christmas, university, lawyers nor her life she declares, in fact the only thing that seemed to make her excited was a gift of train tickets "home" from New York. Buying and collecting postcards you get an odd glimpse into personalities, occurrences and social histories. You find postcards offering general chit chat to full diary entries of a days events. Say like Heidi and her series of five postcards mailed to Bill up in Stony Brook, there's no suggestion of their relationship - perhaps brother and sister or old school time friend, it's certainly open and confessional. You glimpse a hint at Heidi's life, she seems a little dramatic speaking often of lawyers and schools. I often wonder what Bill penned back in response. 

Surprisingly I've never mentioned my other blog here on Dear Ms. Leigh. It's not so much a blog, but Vintage Postcard Memories is basically a visual collection of postcards found across the internet sitting happily alongside postcards I've sold and ones I've added to my unintended collection - the ones that end up too battered and busied to ever sell alongside being a sucker in keeping Chicago, Detroit and Yorkshire postcards. Anyway after gaining over 100 followers on there I thought i'd give it a shout out if vintage postcards are your thing too! 

Myself, I normally store my vintage postcards in an old scrapbook I came across or pinning and poking them between things to have them on show. Recently with help of some bakers twine and paperclips I managed to hang some across my dresser/desk. I have wild intentions of hanging them from wall to wall in my when-we-buy-a-house spare room come office come craft room.

If you have a tumblr leave me a link - i'd love to give you a follow! 

VINTAGE: 1920's Postcards

Just how cute is this series of vintage hand tinted postcards from the 1920's?  They are from a series of seven postcards of the same glamorous lady in various hats and flowers uploaded by the tumblr user Dolores of 1918 - there's a couple of other such postcard collections on her page so I urge you to check them out. 

VINTAGE: Paper Ephemera

You can find the most curious of items slotted inside well thumbed books and magazines. What a former owner used as a paper marker can be a treasure to me, which explains my box filled with a delightful, an increasingly growing collection of vintage paper ephemera items, a document box of social history. 1940's sewing patterns missing far to many pieces, food brand advertising fallen apart from their cookbook binding, postcards with adorable stickers, images and postmarks to war time lumber invoices. There are some very old, rare and delights - a turn of the (19th) century postcard and outer envelope pre 1903, a 1937 bakery advertisement for Halloween treats to 1950's car advertising postcards. Eventually some of these I hope will find places in frames on my craft/spare room wall, others just kept safe in a box for an afternoon of pouring and drinking in their visual aura.

Kinda had some bad news about a family member back in the UK just now, not a close one but family all the same, so i'm off to go loose myself in vintage pretty things until I get my teeth around Thai curry with the boy tonight. Have a great weekend everyone. 

VINTAGE: Bears in Bar Harbor

Life has been extra busy since we've been pushing harder with our store, so after I've done all my work I'm finding it increasingly challenging to get driven enough to do anything extra on the computer. So blogging has taken a hit, again. The last couple of days have been spent scanning, researching and working my way through a couple of hundred vintage postcards we picked up a couple of weekends ago - even a couple over 110 years old and never used. 

I thought I'd share with you one of my favourites that I have on hand - this gorgeous vintage linen (named so because they have a rag content to them) Curteich postcard which was published in 1947, postmarked in 1949. One of the things I love in particular about linen postcards (popular between 1930's to 1960's) is the richness of their colours and their texture makes them extra special. I could probably bore you all to sleep with some of the postcards I've come across lately, they intrigued me immensely.

Whenever I work on vintage postcards, it always make me remember how much of a shame it is that we don't mail postcards like we use too.

1916 and Railroad Postcards

A little unknown side to me (at least unknown on my blog) is my love for trains - for riding them collecting memorabilia about them and model railroads. One of the reasons why we need a house of our own is because of all the model railroad trains and gear we own that we have no room to make use and use them in the apartment. So when I found these two vintage railroad postcards I knew I had to buy them for myself and add them to my collection, luckily they were only 50 cents each, but what's even more surprising is what I learnt while scanning these postcards. 

Now i'm not too sure of the train nor the engine featured in this postcard but what's exciting it that it was postmarked October 19th, 1916. While the penned author narrows their name down to the initials G. A. B, it was dedicated to their "dear friend";

"Will write a letter at school 

Rensselarville, N.Y

Oct. 16, 1916

Dear Friend; - We arrived here about 1:30. Did not have any trouble. Everything worked fine. My pocket book was (...) all right. It wasn't very cold tonight not as cold as Sat. Passed a motor (...) on the (...). Be sure and write a letter tonight. Tell me if you have any time.

Your friend

G. A. B"

Reading unfamiliar 1910's handwriting isn't the easiest but you get a general lovely sense of the note, of someone going back to school, a note about the weather and sights along the way. Everything we'd now sadly not give a second thought to when we type out a text message.

The second postcard probably dating to the same era shows the flagship locomotive of New York Central's Empire State Express No. 999 - credited at the time as being the "most famous train in the world" as it was the world's first high speed passenger train.

Rather more then a note or a postcard this card remembers a dinner meal on this particular train - each item from cantaloupes to the potatoes, tomatoes and pickles marked and remembered. I love the notations "Great huh" and toothpicks. 

But what's even more special is what I learn when researching the Empire State Express using that infamous free encyclopedia - this train was detonated to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry - a museum we visited on our trip to the Windy City. I, yes little old me had not only seen this locomotive in person, but i'd actually stood on it.

Yeap that's me.

Old postcards, happy memories.

Recently I've been branching out and selling some vintage postcards - I love not only seeing the places they have come from but imagining who posted or was intended to receive them. Ages ago I scanned in some of my grandparents old postcards we found after cleaning out my gran's house all from places they had been on holiday. They seem to have a prettier, idyllic sense to them in their modern contemporaries. I thought it was about time to share them.

If were a very early reader of LOTS you might remember the first postcard which was originally featured back in October of 2009. This postcard was sent to my grandad from his gran back in 1930 with the sweetest note written on the reverse; 

"Dear Arthur, 

How would you life to go rambling in this wood? 

That is what I've been doing, 

With love, 

Grandma" 

My great great grandma lived near Skipton in West Yorkshire and traveled across to the Humber to my grandads house in Hull. This sadly was the only postcard which had actually been sent, the rest below probably just collected for their memories.

Being a Yorkshire lass we often took drives up to the North Yorkshire Moors for walks ourselves so Beckhole and Goathland is a very familiar place to me. Other might know Goathland as being the set location for Heartbeat. I'm sure the sociologist in me would really enjoy analyzing images such as this for their portrayal of the rural idyll.

I'm sure this campsite is one in which my grandad took the family one summer in the late 1950s to late 1960s as I remember my mums comments about remembering the place when we took a family holiday in Dumfries and Galloway in 2010.

I would be lying if I had any clue where this postcard was from or even marks, but don't you just love that image? I certainly wouldn't enjoy driving a car that close to such a sheer face of a cliff! 

Collectors Club - Postcards

Thanks to everyone that commented on the first edition of this series of bloggers who collect. Today I'm featuring Dani from A Blog From Blackpool who has an amazing collection of postcards.

I collect old, written, sent postcards from Blackpool and Greece.

My collection started by accident I wanted to write a collection of short stories in which the lines between fact and fiction could be distorted and a bought a small selection of old sent Blackpool postcard off Ebay.


I found them fascinating like little glimpses in to someone else’s life and I started to use them to inspire my writing.

At first I was only interested in Blackpool postcards because I like to be able to relate to the images and the places mentioned, plus I’ve always had a huge obsessive interest in the history of Blackpool.

Whilst searching for Blackpool postcards online I came across a collection of Greek postcards for sale, looking through a few images I realised that some of the postcards where from a place I’ve visited in Crete which was enough to spark my interest.

I now have over 150 postcards most of which are from Blackpool. My oldest postcard was sent in 1903.

My favourite postcard was sent in 1905 and simply says “As promised” on the back. This was the first postcard which inspired a story.

Collecting postcards is not a particularly expensive hobby; I must have only spent about £10 - £15 on my entire collection. I think this is great value for more.

I think most people who collect postcards don’t collect postcards from/to strangers and I assume those that do collect them for the stamps or the rare images but I collect them for the memories written on the back.

*  *  * 

Do you want this series to last more then a couple of weeks? Do you collect and want to feature your collection in this spot? Get in touch!

PROJECTS: Homemade Stamped Invites

Yesterday we ordered the stamps to make our wedding invites. It's a huge step in the wedding direction so its actually something constructive for once. We can't really plan too much because it's still all dependent on visas and moving dates and things from which I'll be married hopefully by October this year. It feels like we're not sorting anything when we should, so something like at least decorating and making the invites is at least fruitful.

If you've been reading around on my blog lately you'll know I have a bit of a thing for Love Birds (hence wanting a tattoo) and it somehow came about Joe suggesting it for our invites. I think we're always been a bit too different, rustic with crafty elements to go down the manufactured mass produced computerised invite so we've decided to stamp and make our own!

We've chosen this personalised love bird carved rubber stamp from an online store on Etsy called Cupcaketree. It's a brilliant collection on there of stamps for all sorts of occasions or general everyday occurrences. So ours will have R + J in the love heart. They are so cute and sweet, not totally vintage, but rustic in its own way. 

We're hoping to stamp them onto plain card sized as a postcard. One side with the above love birds and upon the other side another "vintage" styled postcard stamp we've ordered from Jo Ann Fabrics. This stamp will be the base upon which we'll fill the details of the guests name and wedding information (to be filled in later when we actually know).

Next we just have to decide on ink and card colours, that's the difficult part, can't wait till we get to make them when we're back together in four weeks, be so exciting!

Gems on your doorstep

Sometimes I think we as humans forget the things, the delights, the beauty's and the pleasures that can be found on, or close to, our doorstep. One of the things I just love about England and being British is our history, a history which remains so remarkably intact and visible for all to see at every turn, a history which gets may tourists flocking to our little island. From churches to castles, city walls to grand country houses history both rich and poor sits alongside and embedded within our nationality.

Yet I fear, even I often overlook the delights to be found on my very own [or at least 20 odd miles away] doorstep. Growing up in the fields of East Yorkshire, York has always been the shopping city of choice. While it was the city for clothes shopping I will confess to over looking the historical delights playing out before me within these visits; too busy being stuck behind the numerous and numberless amounts of foreign tourists crowded along the shambles or requiring directions for the "big church".

The "big church" happens to be the Minster, the largest of all Gothic cathedrals in Northern Europe and seems to be the magnet to which the tourists are drawn, yet it is a building I've walked pass countless times without really giving it a second glance. It's a shame really - while its more then a little expensive to visit these days, it remains a magnificent eye turner from streets away. Even the shambles the tiniest of little streets is a gorgeous delight, packed full of traditional shops, from knitting, wooden toys, sweets and tea shops, yet only too often I view it as a street to get me to somewhere else.

I guess in the rush rush society we all too often forget to stop and look around our surroundings and we miss so much that would or could catch the eye of someone else. We become so safe in our surroundings that the beautiful may sometimes be invisible.

[York Minster]

Outside the Minster this guy always seems to be, drawing away on the streets copies of works of art. Not only do the buildings make the city or the place, sometimes it really is down to the people.

Sometimes we all could do with looking a bit closer at the things nearest to us, before we miss them or they get overlooked for good.

____________________________________

I additionally would like to thank you for all your kind thoughts and ideas/cures regarding the old wisdom tooth issues. Currently the throbbing has subsided somewhat, and I have experienced the delightfully rancid taste of clove oil - that's not a taste I'll forget too easily but it has helped!

Oh and I have to share finally being able to get a job - it may only be part time and it may only be for the Christmas period but money was starting to get short and even though its only temporary and requires the joy of travelling and hassle of public transport, hopefully it'll be worth it.

My motto to everyone out there struggling and feeling so fed up because of the recession and lack of employment, really is to keep trying.

Sometimes there really is a lucky break waiting to be had!

Postcard From the Past

[click for larger, and clearer image]

Through sorting out the half of my grans old photograph albums we stumbled across an old postcard sent to my granddad from his grandma. Capturing Hirst Wood near Skipton in West Yorkshire - where his grandma lived, we're assume from the postmark that the postcard was sent to my granddad in Hull, East Yorkshire in the September of 1930. Stamping the penny red stamp at possibly 6 or 8 [?] AM [if anyone else can read this any better - I'd be glad to hear your thoughts!].

I think the simplicity of this post should be left in stating the note between grandma and grandson ... sometimes simplicity is best ....

"Dear Arthur,

How would you life to go rambling in this wood?

That is what I've been doing,

With love,

Grandma"

Je t'aime on a postcard

Simple and effective, the words of love are the same across boundaries. Few words are required to make the biggest and most lasting of statements. The postcards origins and age I have little idea, yet its understated colours and its declaration to be passed to your lover is one which still resonates over the decades.

Image taken from Metropolitan Postcard Club New York