By Emily Woodbury
Who doesn’t love getting a postcard in the mail? Most of the time when we check our mailboxes, what’s inside? Junk mail and bills. Isn’t it fun to get a surprise from a friend or family member?
My dad, Chuck, sent me the postcard above a couple of weeks ago from Arizona. He’s sent me many postcards from his travels over the years, the Jackalope making a frequent appearance. I always enjoy receiving them, and they have a mostly permanent home on my fridge, where, especially in times like these, I remember that travel and vacations do exist… somewhere!
As you can see from the results of this poll above (which, by the way, we asked you on May 7th), more of you than I would’ve guessed send postcards often or once in a while (a combined 22 percent). Only 61 percent of you can’t recall the last time you sent a postcard. I thought this number would be higher, so I’m glad that many of you are still sending them!
Once things open back up, will you send a postcard? Maybe you can get inspired by some of these comments…
Reader Impavid commented, “On some travels we send postcards to people we know but they don’t know we’re traveling. We send notes like ‘The scenery is here, wish you were beautiful’ (no that’s not a typo), mention something personal but not weird, or mention similar friends. We don’t sign them so they don’t know who they’re from. When we get home and the next time we get together we tell them it was us that sent them. They always laugh and say how they wracked their brains trying to figure out who sent them. It’s all great fun.”
notayurt wrote, “I mail postcards regularly whether traveling or not. My Facebook feed is filled with comments and thanks from folks when they receive them. I have one friend who I exchange multiple postcards with each month. We try to outdo each other in sending wacky, boring, and unusual cards. It would be great to get more postcards from others, but I don’t let the lack of replies spoil my fun in continuing to send them!”
And Sheryl Tilton said, “We travel in our RV 7 months out of the year. We have a 2 1/2-year-old grandson that we send postcards to from every stop. We’ve been doing this since he was born. His mother puts them in date order in postcard books. Hopefully he’ll love looking through them and reading our notes his whole life.”
I love what Barry Hiatt wrote. It’s a great way to combine the old tradition of postcards with new modern ways of keeping in touch. “Post Cards: We use the modern method to send the occasional card to friends and family. Several app services that enable you to use one of your travel photos to make the postcard and write your message, then the company prints and mails the card using an address book you create and save. Super easy and all of our recipients love them. Post Snap is the app we most frequently use.”
Thanks for sharing, everyone! Now go send a postcard!
Weelll. . . . When we stated our adventure 4 years ago, I had the intent to sent post cards frequently to our 4 grandkids. I even bought ‘forever’ post card stamps. Reality is that this didn’t happen. We bought cards and they sit in a container where I could quickly and easily write a card, but it just doesn’t seem to actually happen.
When I go on an extended trip I print out a map and highlight my route. I bought a notebook with a plastic sleeve. This map goes in the sleeve. I also bought plastic pages with postcard size sleeves. I send postcards to my 7 and 8 yr old granddaughters. They follow me on the map and put the postcards in the sleeves.
Since the postage rates went up, it costs more to mail a postcard than the card, and it gets there damaged
Every trip we take we send post cards to the grand kids from each stop we make that is of interest. It is educational for them as they follow along on our trips.