May I Have This Post?

Is Your Post Card Filled?

Value and Romance on a Small Bit of Paper

You see them around all over the place, now mostly in tourist travelled trading places, guest shops, souvenir shops, and landmarks and you might have heard people telling you to send in a card with your name, address and current phone number to various places. (image to right -- image from Image*After¹) Of course you have seen the business reply cards in magazines and as warranty registration cards. Of course I am talking about postcards -- something that has been with us for over a century now. They officially came into being in 1861 -- developed by John P. Charlton from Philadelphia who transferred his copyright to H.L. Lipman -- "Lipman's Postal Card, Patent Applied For". Governments took over, including exclusive right to call them "Postcards" in 1893.

What is the value of a postcard? They are a very simple way to send a message by post for one thing and often they can be sent at a lower price than a regular letter. Today the cost to mail one is not too much different from a letter and of course anyone can read what is written on them. My Mom used to say that the person on vacation sending you a postcard -- or post card -- most often already had returned home by the time it reaches its recipient because each person in the post office who handles it take a moment to read it.

(images above from A Brief History of Post Cards²)

I imagine there are no secrets in a post card... unless you put it into an envelope or parcel or deliver it by hand.

But postcards have something special to them, mailed or not. In picking out a postcard to send someone, you are in a foreign location perhaps, maybe on vacation, maybe on business, but taking a few moments out of your day to think of others. I am getting away from the business sorts, like business reply mail and warranty cards here. They also are something from that place although it is possible to order postcards of exotic locations from the comfort of your home. A person might take their own photographs and write something on the back of them as mementos to send or keep, but still there is an interesting feeling with postcards.

Postcards historically are of values in that they capture a bit of a time and place and sometimes sentiment and feeling of that time. They trace the progress of a community with their snapshots of buildings and roads. Even showing one thing they often show others. A shot of a building might also show cars and people in it and give a glimpse at how they lived. If you look at a postcard from two different periods you might see how telegraph wires were added to be replaced by telephone wires to be replaced by underground wiring.

Postcards could be "wishes" of places a person wanted to visit or things they wanted to purchase or they might be telling of where they finally got or what they got. Businesses have often created PR with postcards and often very artistic ones.

You can find Canada's official Postcard Barrel at the Port Moody Station Museum. Deposit or pick up unstamped postcards during Museum open hours for hand delivery around the world.

Some subjects of postcards: Distant places, Architecture, Vacation Destinations, Advertisements, Street Scenes, Artwork, Landmarks, Cities, Towns, Wars, Heroes, Events,  Politics, Celebrities, and probably other subjects.

Our museum -- The Port Moody Station Museum³ (image to right) -- has a "Postcard Barrel" which is Canada's Official Postcard Barrel! I know there is one on the Galapagos Islands as well. They are an odd sort of thing, you drop a post card into it that you want sent somewhere in the world and people visiting have a look through and pick out ones close to where they are going and hand-deliver them. (see inset left)

You can always send an email, or take a picture to share, or buy postcards to take with you and give to friends -- but to mail it from afar, where it takes on a postal cancellation stamp, and perhaps a local stamp as well, and travel through the postal system until it reaches a friend's home and hand -- that ads something special and romantic to the whole thing. It is a bit more than a photo or a letter. It is a special souvenir not only of a place, but a time and a person.

Later!
~ Darrell

136.

__________
¹ Image*After Unattributed images from Image*After.

² "A Brief History of Postcard Types" Stefano Neis - Yahoo! GeoCities/Heartland/Meadows.

³ "The Port Moody Station Museum" 2734 Murray Street, Port Moody, BC

"Why Use A Postcard" Anders Eriksson - Post Cards usinfo.info

"History of Postcards" Emotions Greeting Cards.

6 Rings and the Americas

Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and "The Americas" -- The Five Competing Continents in the Modern Olympics

Sometimes you hear something and it goes past you -- like "The five rings of the symbol for the 'Modern Olympic Games' representing the '5' competing continents: Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas". (image to left *-- image from Wikipedia)

I pondered 5 continents before of course -- most recently during the current games at times like during the hoisting of the Olympic Flag at the Opening Ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games -- wondering at first that Antarctica wouldn't be included and then considering why they might exclude Australia... Then I thought, "Perhaps they were forward thinking and considered the 'Eurasian Continent'?" I often wondered when I heard the definition in school why Europe and Asia were considered to be separate continents geographically.

I never realized that North America and South America would be lumped in together as one continent.

North and South America are as separate from one another as Africa is from Europe and Asia. Something just doesn't seem right to me. Perhaps if I lived in Europe it would make sense to me -- after all we are "The Colonies". Though that doesn't explain why they don't just include Australia as a large Asian Island, larger than Japan or like Greenland is to North America or England to Europe.

Don't get me wrong (I hope I don't end up writing that too often.) I like the flag design and how it looks. I think that 6 rings might not be so bold and esthetically pleasing a design on a flag shape. A longer linear shape would be too wide and a more circular design wouldn't fill the space as nicely.

Are representing the competing continents the real reason for the five rings? Is it just sour grapes on my part -- because I live in North America -- that I think there is something wrong with North America and South America not getting separate statuses as continents... sort of like sitting at the "children's table" at a family get together instead of with the adults?

Isn't it time we get to sit at the Big People's Table and while not redesigning the Rings Design -- reconsider what they represent and not say they represent the competing continents. After all they do represent the coming together of people from around the world from varied cultures and walks of life to compete in unity.

Later!
~ Darrell

PS

IOC**:

The Olympic symbol consists of five interlaced rings of equal dimensions, used alone, in one or in five different colours, which are, from left to right, blue, yellow, black, green and red. The Olympic symbol (the Olympic rings) expresses the activity of the Olympic Movement and represents the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic Games.

But watch out! It is wrong, therefore, to say that each of the colours corresponds to a certain continent!

117.

__________
* Image of Olympic Rings used only for purpose of artistic review and does not represent any connection to the IOC or Olympics.

** International Olympic Committee - WWW.OLYMPIC.ORG - Official website of the Olympic Movement.