As mentioned, I found a heap of postcards in a Little Free Library during our Irvington walk earlier this month.
Two of them had been written, sent, and received. I enjoyed reading old correspondence, and thought the internet would too. Here’s the first one.
I love that this was sent to what I assume are coworkers, and that those coworkers work at the Central Library.
V. had no idea when they wrote this, but in a mere 34 years this postcard would find a new reader.
First of all, this is a damn well written postcard. I can tell that Judy has probably been to France and talked of how fashionable people were. I hope she wasn’t too disappointed to learn of the decline. And I know that Paul likes French wine. Perhaps V. brought home a bottle to share.
And in so few sentences, so many interesting details! V. knows how to pick the best of traveling to report on.
Here is the second card:
I love that Sinclair Lewis stamp. He looks so much like an author.
I looked up the address and you can see it here. I checked Portland Maps to see if possibly MC Lamb might still live there, and found that the property is owned by Reach Community Development. I can’t tell if they owned the house in 1987 or not.
Reading this, I feel Paul’s pain. I hate when I want to send a certain image, or even certain genre of image to someone in postcard form and the museum doesn’t oblige.
It sounds like Paul spent his time well, though I can’t tell if Paul himself liked the Getty. He was excited about Benny Carter. Who, if I’ve got the right one, died in 2014. Actually, I don’t think that’s the right one. He started painting in 1991. It might be this Benny Carter. Paul could have gotten off topic and switched to musicians. Postcards can do that to you.
It’s also occured to me that this Paul might be the same Paul who liked wine on the previous postcard. But how did he get a postcard he sent?
That was a fun trip down other people’s memory lane! Thanks anonymous postcard donor. I wonder if you even know you gave away those cards.