New Year's Eve

On a cheery note, we advise that "you can say it in postcards" :

 

Oh, strike that! Got it wrong! Meant to say: THE BEST IS YET TO COME!!! ROLL ON 2010!

Laissez Faire,,, Viva Las Vegas!

Greetings from Nevada, circa 1950s, linen postcard

Card available here.

For those who adhere to a minimal government or laissez faire doctrine, a 1950s Greetings from Nevada postcard - "The One Sound State" where there was no sales tax, no state income tax, or inheritance tax. Not even a thumb tax! Of course, there wasn't much government either, allowing the Mafia to govern the gaming industry quite nicely, thank you very much....

A Case of Four Flush

 A case of four flush, circa 1910

Card available here.

A four flush is a poker hand that is one card short of being a full flush. A four flusher is a person who makes empty boasts or bluffs when holding a four flush. By the 1880s, the term was used more generally to describe a welcher, piker, blowhard or braggart. Do you know any four flushers?

Need we say more?

The Red Carpet Service - Where Have You Gone? Flying In An Earlier Age

The caption on the reverse of this United Airlines postcard from circa 1960 proclaims "Red Carpet service is the finest in Air Travel". Oh, wherefore art thou Red Carpet service? Gone the way of in-flight service and the Friendly Skies... 

Card available here.

Neither Eastern Airlines or the Super C Constellation are with us anymore. But airline safety has improved (got to look on the bright side). 

Card available here.

Merry Christmas, Dear Readers!

 A Merry Christmas to Our Readers. We hope Santa stopped by your place.

Have some fun!

A message to those we won't be spending Christmas with this year: 'Til our next meeting!

Merry Christmas to Those in Uniform - "On A Hike"

To the men and women in uniform and their much enduring families, Merry Christmas!

On A Hike, indeed! circa 1907

Looking for Santa on Christmas Eve

Can you see him yet?

 

Well, get on board then. Tickets please!

Riding The Plane

Daddy lives in Oregon, Mommy lives in Maine,

We spend the time before Christmas riding in a plane.

 

One day the music will play again.

Firecracker Baby postcard

 

A friend of mine covets this card from my collection largely, I think, because of the politically-incorrect nature of the image. Who - even in 1910 or so - thought it was alright to hand a toddler a large firecracker?! Maybe it's a candle, but that would only make it slightly less dangerous! We call this untitled card "Firecracker Baby". This conversation piece has been well worth its purchase price of $0.99 on eBay several years ago.

My Life in Postcards

Main Street, Eketahuna, New Zealand, circa 1909, Muir & Moodie. 

click on any of the images for a larger view

Welcome to My Life in Postcards: an account of parts of my life expressed through postcards or how I'm living the postcard life.

Being the shy, retiring type, I've selected the image above as my first postcard to share with readers of this blog. From the very first moment I viewed it, I was struck by its existentialism. Who is he? Why does he keep his back to us? What is he walking away from? Or walking towards? Why is that horse in the left middle distance apparently crossing the street unaccompanied?

You'll have your own answers, no doubt. By all means, suggest a few in the comments below.

What I can tell you about the picture is that it is of the Main Street in Eketahuna, Wairarapa, in the North Island of New Zealand. Taken in 1909, the view was published by Muir & Moodie, a company that produced high quality postcards during the Golden Age of postcard collecting in the early 1900s. George Moodie was dispatched during these years to photograph town views throughout New Zealand.

There is a very good chance that the figure pictured is indeed George Moodie, perhaps using a time-release shutter or having an assistant take the shot. Alternatively, Moodie may have had an assistant.or a ringer pose as "The Man".

Eketahuna has long been referred to, unkindly perhaps, as a one horse town. It is the "Podunk", the mythical town name used in the U.S. to express the same idea, of New Zealand. One of my brothers once wrote on a postcard sent from Kurow in the South Island of New Zealand, that it was a "half-horse" town that barely had one street, the state highway running through it. But Kurow will have to wait for another day for its turn on this blog.

George was busy with his camera in Eketahuna back in 1909. Here are a couple more examples of his craft, one with that chap walking away from us or pacing the train to the left.

For now, please sit back and enjoy the view. If you like what you see of New Zealand, you might step over to the sister blog, The New Zealand Journal, for a look.

Railway Station - and that Man!, Eketahuna, circa 1909, Muir & Moodie.

 Panorama of Eketahuna, circa 1909, Muir & Moodie.