The postcard business is not what it once was. I know I personally rarely send them when on vacation because it always seems I'm home before the recipient receives the card or it simply never arrives. I wish this weren't true.
The future for ephemera is interesting to ponder. What will there be for future generations to peruse when everything we do is digital? Digital photos. Digital magazines. Digital mail. Those digital files may become corrupt or simply disappear. Pieces of our personal history pretty much evaporating as fast as we create it. Not so with this card.
Click on image to see it larger.
A military humor postcard mailed in 1943 from a son at boot camp to his father. I have quite a few cards from him, always signed "Teepee". This card meant something to the recipient who kept it for so many years. What will be found at estate sales in the future? A box full of Twitter tweets lovingly preserved? I think not. I'm glad I get to do my collecting now. Estate sales of the future are really going to be crummy.
I think that the upcoming generations won't give a flip about most of the things we care about and that's sad to say. There probably won't even be physical estate sales...it will all be done on eBay or some other online selling venue. Bleh!
ReplyDeleteI fear that too. Unless they're exposed to all this fun old paper they'll never have a clue. I introduced two little girls to my paperdoll collection and they were completely fascinated. Of course their question was "Why don't they make these now?" I told them a few companies did but they weren't as nice as these old ones."
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