The ‘magic’ of postcards
This item appears on page 25 of the October 2020 issue.
I truly enjoyed Rick Steves’ recollections of staying in touch via postcards while traveling on a budget in the 1970s (June ’20, pg. 32).
Believe it or not, I’ve continued the habit of sending postcards from my travels to a small circle of those who appreciate this way of communicating. It doesn’t matter that cards arrive well after my returns. There is still an old-fashioned magic in colorful pictures with exotic stamps and postal markings from afar.
Until recently, I’ve had an almost 100% rate of success with those mailings. However, something changed over the past year. In April 2019, out of 10 cards dropped at post offices in three separate towns in Mexico (Mérida, Campeche and Palenque), none reached their destination.
During a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in February 2020, I mailed four postcards from a Palestinian mailbox in Bethlehem. None of those arrived either.
Nevertheless, I don’t plan to give up mailing postcards. Looking for nice cards and stamps is a fun sidebar to my overseas ventures.
PIOTR KUMELOWSKI
Forest Hills, NY