Dear Readers,
As the end of summer draws closer, friends and family have been sharing photos and stories from sun-filled summer vacations around New England and across the States. According to Facebook and Instagram, some were even lucky enough to visit far-flung foreign lands.
These days vacation memories are shared on social media, but I miss when the mail carrier brought me postcards. In my childhood, sending them was de rigueur when you went away. People would say, “Don’t forget to send a postcard!” And you actually sent them one.
I still have postcards that my father sent home to his family from the South Pacific where he flew planes in the Army Air Corps in World War II. In my twenties, I went to Japan in search of the father who I barely knew before he died. He wasn’t terribly communicative with me, which is one of the reasons I love the letters and postcards he used to send, both to me and to his family long before I was born. As a treasure hunter, I read them for clues to who my father was.
Ahh, postcards.
I have hundreds of them that people have sent me, and I have just as many that are unwritten. For years whenever I traveled, I collected them as souvenirs. I also have postcards from friends’ art openings, beaches that I went to as a teenager, restaurants, and everywhere that sold or just gave them away. I have black and white postcards from prominent buildings in my hometown of New Britain, CT, and cheesy joke postcards bought for 5 cents at Liggett’s Drugstore 40 years ago. Each offers a unique public snapshot of a moment in time.
My sister Betsy traveled to Strasbourg France last week for her family’s end of the summer vacation. My paternal grandfather was born in Strasbourg when it was still part of Germany, and, thinking about her trip, I went to my box of memorabilia and pulled out this postcard that my grandparents sent to my father and his siblings in 1931 when they returned to Strasbourg for a visit. Talk about cherished ephemera.
Taking out my postcards today reminded me of how the mailbox used to be filled with them this time of year. Sometimes the writing would be small and cramped and full of details. Or it might say nothing more than, “The weather is here. Wish you were wonderful!” I still send postcards sometimes. Not like in my childhood, but every so often, I’ll dart one off to a friend, sometimes making my own from a cardboard cereal box or with a goofy photograph that I come across. You can put an address and stamp on almost any stiff piece of paper and it will be delivered.
My postcards tell the stories of my travels and my friendships for the first four decades of my life. In my upcoming memoir, Trove, A Woman’s Search for Truth and Buried Treasure, I could just about illustrate every page with a postcard from my collection. I have so many from the places I went in search of love and truth and treasure. And now they are like treasure themselves.
In exactly one month, on 9-19-19, my book will be released with Brown Paper Press, and, truthfully, I’ve been a bit of a wreck preparing for the launch and several upcoming events.
But then I take a day like today to read and look at decades worth of postcards, and I slow down and remember that we’re all just people trying to connect however we can. What we used to accomplish with postcards and stamps and hours of writing out addresses, we now do with emails and social media posts and a quick press of a button. I’m not getting all nostalgic for the olden days, but I do love a hold-in-your-hand postcard with a friend’s handwriting, margin notes, doodles and jottings.
So for those who pre-order Trove before it’s released, I’d love to send you a postcard.
If you pre-order in the next month, shoot me an email to Sandra@SandraAMiller.com or leave a note below with your snail mail address. I will hand-select a postcard that somehow connects to a place in my book and mail it to you with a personal message on it. Some postcards may even have clues on them. (More about that in my next post coming in two weeks.)
Thanks for reading. Thanks for loving postcards, too. I can’t wait to send you one!
XO Sandy
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Would LOVE a postcard! Had no idea you were from New Britain. My sister lives there and has turned me on to one of my favorite places: The New Britain Museum of American Art. Fantastic!
Looking forward to your book. The path up to it has been a fun adventure. Snail mail: 77 Rhinecliff Street, Arlington MA 02476.
Seriously Susan? Your sister lives in New Britain? Well THAT is a funny coincidence. And I love that museum almost as much as Capital Lunch on Main St. Much of my book is about NB and growing up there. Thanks for the preorder. Postcard on the way to you….
So looking forward to 9-19-19!!
Thanks Tracy/Cornelia. You can see all the places I sailed when our hearts were young :-)
Hey! I preordered like a million months ago so do i still qualify for a postcard? And ordered for Abigail too! Haha… if you have a couple a spares, please send!!! And i promise to send YOU a postcard from Ireland.. XO
Of course you get a postcard. You’re a superfan. Email me Abigail’s new address, too.
If preorders from February qualify, please count me in! :-)
Of course they do! Email me your address Sue…a postcard will be on the way to you.
Sandra! Sandi! Sam! Runt!
You got it!
I love this Sandra! Will pre-order.
Honestly, I’ve saved everything anyone ever sent me. Got a massive box. I even got my grandmother’s letters somehow and her early 20’s journal.
Since everything is a pendulum, I believe in the future, some generation will rediscover the joys of getting personal postcards or letters in the mail box — if the post office survives.
Touch is a much needed sense.
Thanks! G.
Thank Giuletta! Of course you would appreciate the value to ephemera as something that delights us through time. Thanks for the preorder. Postcard on its way.
We can’t wait for your book launch either! I love postcards. A good friend recently gave me back several that I had sent her about 25 years ago and it was such a cool blast from the past to read what I was feeling and thinking then.
Thanks Amy! Another friend did the same with letters, and I was thrilled. It was like being mailed a diary I’d written. I’m still reading through the postcards I excavated yesterday. I could see you being a big postcard writer/sender. See you soon.
Ooo, snail mail. The classic kind. I want a postcard, too! And can’t wait for my copy of Trove to arrive soon . . .
YAY! Sending you a pirate-y postcard.
Sandra, I reread your note and was reminded that you said you had a postcard post on your blog, so I had to come find it!
So, so, cool! I have hundreds of postcards, too. If I were to take a wild guess, I’d say 500, but the collection continues to grow. You probably have more!
I enjoyed reading this story about your collection. I grew up with an appreciation of snail mail, too. (We’re “sort of” the same generation… I’m older, I’ll admit.)
Of course, my website is an extension of my collection. And I’ve begun to put my postcards in my IG stories. Today, I was on number 244. I have a group of IG friends who consistently “drop in” to my IG stories to see all of my quirkiness. I do series and number them. I’ve done board games, mugs, trinket boxes, fake birds, key rings, etc. Currently doing pics of bikes and my neighbor’s mailbox flags. They change them for holidays and seasons, so there’s never a lack.
I also meant to tell to how much I enjoyed Trove! Before I opened the book, you already had 5 points because memoirs are my favorite genre, but you earned the other 95+ some. :)
I think the overall appeal was/is your determination to be yourself with a continuous search, and to not miss out on the what gives you joy. And what better way than a treasure hunt!
* Neighbors’
Thank you Anita. I’ve become such a fan of your site PostcardsAndAuthors.com. Your quirkiness makes it so fun. Thanks for saying wonderful things about Trove here and on IG. You are definitely getting another postcard from me!
You’re welcome.
And I’ll be happily surprised. :)