I enjoyed reading others’ thoughts about postcard collecting. I’ve been collecting them since I was very young (under 10) after being given some cat postcards by my grandmother.

My brother was given some dog postcards and he collected for many years. Postcards are a wonderful inexpensive memento when traveling, and we had very limited allowances. Even on my honeymoon, I bought postcards just about everywhere we went.

When my brother moved away to CA he gave his postcard collection to me. Many years later, when my grandmother died, what was left of her collection was inherited by me (by default – no one else wanted it). There were four shoeboxes and 5 postcard albums full. This was after she had given many postcards away to grandchildren over the years. She had traded postcards in clubs by mail and bought them in her later years when traveling. She received many postcards from friends, neighbors and relatives who knew she loved postcards and didn’t have much opportunity to travel until she was elderly.

I have integrated many of her postcards into my and my brother’s collections. I have six boxes full and I’ve left the ones in the albums as they are. I have organized them by state and anything that doesn’t fit a state category I have divided by subject. I enjoy going through them and reading the backs of them.

I forgot to mention that I also kept the postcards that were left when my other grandmother died. She didn’t really collect postcards as a hobby, but she saved all the postcards she received over the years from neighbors, friends and her children who traveled. It has been interesting to read all of them and get a peek into my relatives’ lives that I wasn’t aware of when I was growing up. I had cousins who traveled to Europe with their high school groups and sent postcards back to Grandma, cousins who were in the military and did the same.

It’s still fun to get postcards when we travel and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of looking at them. I always wonder what will happen to all my great collections when I’m gone, as I don’t think any of my kids will want all my “junk” - - but who knows? I find myself becoming more nostalgic as I grow older. Other collections I have are “Occupied Japan”, depression glass (green, cranberry and pink), pitchers – regular sized and miniature, Fiesta Ware, Red Rose tea animals, handmade crocheted doilies, crocheted afghans, quilts, vintage hankies and tablecloths, state plates, salt and pepper shakers, and “Child’s Garden of Verses” poetry books by Robert Lewis Stephenson. I am currently enjoying decorating my new sun room with vintage (‘30’s – “50’s) everything! Marsha R