Seek and Ye Shall Find
A friend asked to see some information from a certain postcard that I recently shared. Does she know just how much work that involves? I have been cheating by daily sharing post cards that pop up as Facebook memories instead of taking a new photograph on my cell phone and jockeying the picture to be right-side up and making sure it is in focus. I have to hold the camera by hand over the postcard and snap the photo. Sometimes it’s difficult to keep the phone’s camera steady, to be sure that there isn’t a shadow, and to make sure the light is just right. So now you know my little secret. I’m not being lazy, but frugal with my time and effort.
I began the search through my boot box filled with postcards last evening. The postcards from the early 1900’s are most fragile. I have begun to sort them out and plan to place them in plastic-sleeved photo albums where they can be seem without being handled. I don’t want them to be damaged anymore than they are. Some have smudged ink on their backs. They are becoming difficult to read. Some were written in pencil. They are even harder to read. The graphite is rubbing off and many words are nearly illegible. I don’t want any more deterioration than has already occurred.
Most of the older postcards are from my Grandfather Edson Thomas Beck and my grandmother Anna Nichols Kalp Beck. Several are to or from my grandfather Ray Miner and my grandmother Rebecca Rugg Miner. There are even a couple of postcards from my great-grandmothers. I have cards from my aunts and uncles when they were kids.
I have cards sent to me by friends and some that were bought and carried home to me for my collection. I have cards from Iceland, England, Israel, and Estonia. I keep the prayer postcards from missionaries that our church supports. I have those cards from Africa, Haiti, Greenland, Spain, Germany, Myanmar, Japan, Costa Rica and several other countries. I have kept postcards advertising church camps, Vacation Bible Schools, and church postcards announcing Easter and for Christmas.
I imagine that if I posted a different card for each day of the year, I would not repeat (unless there is a duplicate card) for nearly a year and a half. So back to the original hunt and seek, I am still looking and am about halfway through the cards. (I have more postcards that were sent to my children. They are separated and stored in other shoe boxes or the amount of postcards I have would nearly be doubled.)