Happy World Postcard Day!

It seems like there is a special day for everything now, doesn’t it? Today, October 1, is World Postcard Day. Simply put, it is a day to reach out and send a postal hug to anyone – a loved one, friend or stranger – by dropping a postcard in the mail to them and saying hello.

In light of this auspicious occasion, I thought I’d share with you one of my favorite hobbies – sending, receiving, and collecting postcards.

I was twelve years old when I got the idea that I would never again throw away a postcard, and I haven’t. I have several older siblings and a large extended family, and in those days, postcards arrived often either to my parents or to me. Many of my siblings were already beginning careers or on college trips. My two older sisters took trips together. Of course, they couldn’t forget their little sister, and I looked forward eagerly to the cards I received.

Multi-view postcards, such as this one from one of my brothers, were especially treasured. He has passed, so that makes it even more so. I don’t see these sold anymore.

Around the same time, my parents took me on a huge vacation from our home in Ohio all the way to Arizona, stopping in Colorado along the way. My oldest sister, Diana came along. She was already in her mid-twenties and living on her own in St. Louis. My Dad sent a card to the five remaining siblings who were all at home working summer jobs. I love having something in his handwriting.

I don’t remember seeing Esther and if, I did, it wouldn’t be possible today. Remains like Esther’s are treated more respectfully now and have been reburied by their tribes.

When it was my turn to leave home, I sent post cards home too, like this one from basic training. With the soldiers firing their weapons on the top, I’m sure I was going for shock effect. I’m happy my parents saved it for me.

As I traveled, I would purchase fistfuls of postcards to send to friends and family. Invariably, some wouldn’t get sent, and I added these to my collection.

This would have been all I could tell you about postcarding until 2014, when something happened that took my collection out of its disorganized little tin and into the stratosphere. In a magazine, I read about a postcard exchange group called Postcrossing. It is an online group where people can exchange postcards globally through the mail. Postcrossing’s tag line is to “send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person somewhere in the world”. They have been around since 2005.

Currently, there are 804,385 members in 209 countries. At the minute I am writing this post, 366,761 postcards are currently making their way to members around the world, including the 6 that I have traveling to Canada, Australia, France, China and Germany.

When I first joined, I went over to our local Schnucks grocery store and purchased five postcards of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. I set up a login and a profile telling a little bit about myself. I could have skipped that step if I’d wanted to. I clicked on the box that says “Send a Postcard” and drew my first name and address, with a “US” country code and number. At the beginning, it is only possible to send five postcards to five different receivers, and I wrote the different codes on each card with a short message. When my postcards were received, the recipients logged them into their sites, and I received an e-mail from each individual.

Logging in the postcards triggered Postcrossing to give members somewhere in the world my name and address. In due time, I received my first postcard in the mail, from Finland.

It was perhaps not quite what I was expecting, but exciting nonetheless. The translation: “Wealth ends and beauty fades, but love always remains.” In Postcrossing, if a person especially likes a postcard, they can “favorite” it with a heart. Looking at a recipient’s “favorite” wall is a good way to see what kind of postcards they like. I made this a favorite, because it was my first, and for a long time after that I received many postcards with quotes on them.

I also received these postcards from Vietnam, Mexico, and Puerto Rico near the beginning, not knowing that I was lucky. I never received postcards from these countries (territory, in Puerto Rico’s case) again. Some countries don’t have many Postcrossers.

The purpose of Postcrossing is not to collect postcards, although that’s a happy byproduct. Its purpose is to reach out and touch by the act of sending the card and hopefully putting a messsage on it. Sometimes someone across the world is reading a book that I’ve already read. They will tell me about a trip they just took, their family, their garden, some special interest, or just what they’ve been doing that day.

This poignant card from Ukraine made me sad and I hope by now that the city portrayed on the front of it hasn’t been bombed to smithereens. The sender wanted me to know that this is not the first time in history the Russians have invaded and that, eventually, Ukraine will be victorious.

The stamps on the card portray the Russian soldiers from the first invasion. On the invaders’ side, I do receive a lot of cards from Russia. People are just people the world over.

Speaking of stamps, sometimes the sender overloads me with a lot of beautiful ones on the card. Many people in Postcrossing collect stamps, too. The sender of this postcard from Czech Republic put the card in an envelope and covered it with a whole page of stamps. Wow!

I’ve learned a little bit about postcards along the way, too. Maximums (maxi cards) are postcards that have a stamp on the front that matches the view on them, usually to commemorate the first day of issue. I’ve received many of these from Australia, and other countries too. I know that the post office in Australia sells them, but I don’t know if that’s the same in the others. The United States Post Office does not sell maximums. These cards from China, Netherlands, and Finland are some of my favorite maxis. Maxis are on my profile as a type of card I like to receive.

Receiving a card with an image that I like, or a card from a country new to my collection, or cards with an especially meaningful message, pretty stamps, or even a treat in an envelope with the card like a tea bag, makes for a very fun experience. A card with more than one of these attributes makes it even better. This sender painted a card of herself and her dog riding a bike through her home city of Prague:

Part of the experience that I enjoy is drawing a name and picking out a card. I could send any card, but I now have a large box of unsent cards and try to match something on the recipient’s profile. Most people like basic scenic tourist cards so they can see what the other side of the world looks like. Animals, birds, flowers, map cards, “Greetings from” cards, art cards, movie stars and royalty are also popular, although I don’t have any of the latter two categories. I can tell when a recipient is excited about my card, as I am when I receive a particularly perfect one.

To date, I have sent and received just over 700 cards on Postcrossing over the past nine years. I’ve seen Postcrossers with thousands of received cards. I don’t know what I will do when my numbers creep up over a thousand, but that is a few years away.

From the beginning, I knew I needed a good storage solution, so here’s what I came up with:

The notebooks hold one or more cards from each country. There are also sections for specialty cards such as vintage, Christmas, and others. The overflow goes in the box. I have another box that is just for cards from the United States, which I don’t receive from Postcrossing, although I could. Those are mostly the old cards plus ones I still receive from friends and family. I always say that if I need a third notebook or box, I will stop. That would be a sad day, though, so I’ll have to think about that!

Everything goes in a big tub which currently sits in storage. Once or twice a year when I visit our storage unit, I file away my received cards. I do miss not having this out to enjoy as I did when I lived in a house, but I’m sure that day will come again some time.

This would have been all I had to say about my hobby for now except that yesterday I received a mail drop containing about three weeks accumulated mail. I received postcards from seven people around the world. A German Postcrosser named Peter totally made my day. Pettson and Findus, originating in Sweden, is a popular book series in Europe. This postcard is of Pettson and his cat Findus:

It is so cute! But not only that, he also put the postcard below along with it in an envelope, and wrote interesting messages on both:

His mother drew all these little owls! The envelope also held a business card-size beautiful photo of the Water Castle in Hamburg at night – a tea and treat shop was advertised on the back – and there were stamps of historic half-timbered houses on the envelope.

The other six postcards were all interesting, too. It’s gifts like these in my mail drop that are a bright light in my life.

You don’t have to belong to Postcrossing to send a postcard and brighten someone’s day, though. In this age of social media, it is rare and special to receive something in your mailbox that has been written and chosen just for you. Doing this for someone else is a gift for their day.

I’m currently traveling internationally, as I was last year, so I will purchase and send out my cards from the country I’m in. Besides my Postcrossing names, I will be sure to also send a few to friends and family.

Happy World Postcard Day!