Another Boring Postcard from Hamilton

Having recently signed up for the boring postcard of the month club (see prior post) that sends me a boring postcard each month from Hamilton, I checked my vaults for other postcards from Hamilton, Ontario. Much to my delight, I found an incredibly boring postcard from Hamilton:

I guess it’s not hard to find a boring postcard from Hamilton, such is the city itself. Toronto and Hamilton have a rivalry – or rather a mutual hatred.

My friend sent this to me last year. Judging from the scalloped edges and the subjects, this postcard is a bit old. Probably not as old as one might think as Hamilton is truly very behind the times, so my estimate is this postcard is 3 or 4 years old. Here’s the back:

Postcard caption:
“Confederation Park – tourist camp. City of Hamilton – owned and operated Ontario…”

Postcard message:
“Dear Glen. What could be sadder than a trailer park in Hamilton. Hard to believe this was the best image of the park and that this photographer wanted credit for it.”

My friend is wrong about this likely not being the best image of the park. I’ve been to Hamilton many times. This is not only the best image of the park, it’s the best image of the city!

From Here to Timbuktu

I previously blogged about how I got a postcard from Timbuktu via the website, called appropriately enough, Postcards from Timbuktu. I decided to get two of them.

Timbuktu is in Mali, Africa and is an UNESCO World Heritage site. I’m not surprised that it is a World Heritage site considering its incredibly beautiful and unique architecture as exemplified by this postcard:

The photograph was taken by one of the team members of Postcards from Timbuktu.

The postcard took less than 3 weeks to arrive. But I blame the delay in no small part to Canada Post. I recently mailed 3 postcards all at the same time to a city very near me. They arrived a week apart. I also blame Canada Post to the damage caused to this one, as they’ve done this before.

Check out the back of the postcard as I love the stamps and cancellation marks. I wish all countries would still apply cancellation stamps. I also love that they put a city stamp for “Tombouctou” (which is Timbuktu in French, official language of Mali).

Postcard caption:
“The Sankore Mosque in Timbuktu, Mail. Photo taken by Mohamed Aguissa.”

Postcard message:
“Hi Glen! One thing that we enjoy doing when we are free is to play football. My favourite team is Barcelona in Spain and my favourite player is Lionel Messi. Do you have a favourite sport?”

If hunting for postcards counts as a sport that would be my favourite!

To see more amazing photos of Timbuktu and to find out more about the Postcards from Timbuktu project and their efforts to help with the pandemic, visit their blog or their Instagram account.

Boring Postcard of the Month Club

I mentioned before how I used my birthday money to get postcards from Timbuktu. I also used some to sign up for another exciting postcard project. This one is closer to home: Hamilton, Ontario.

The project is called Postcards from Anywhere and, like me, focuses on boring postcards. Here is the artists’ statement:

Long enamoured with ‘boring’ postcards and their charming absurdity, we approached several artists of different disciplines and challenged them to submit their own dull images, worthy of being made into postcards. A reflection of these times wherein the pandemic keeps us local and lets us discover beauty and charm in the most mundane things and also a time when the phrase ‘wish you were here’ has never been so heavily weighted. Do you miss getting mail? Do you love boring postcards? Do you like supporting the arts? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, then our service is for you. Starting January 2021, Postcards from Anywhere will mail you a high quality postcard of sublimely banal imagery from a different artist every month.

You can sign up late – as I did. But I quickly got my first postcard from them. Behold:

I love this postcard as I have seen outdoor “art” that is equally dull and out of place with its setting. I also love this as I have postcards in the Collection with a similar subject matter and perspective. Good choice by the artist for my first postcard!

The backside offers details on the artist as well as message from the project creator:

Postcard caption:
Top: “I have been taking these kinds of photographs for about 7-8 years now. I am not sure when I started, but they are, for me, an investigation of sculpture. This heavy rock was placed at the entrance to LimeRidge Mall when it was completely closed to the public. Alejandro Tamayo. Wish you were here.”
Bottom: “LimeRidge Mall, Hamilton, ON June 2020”

Postcard message:
“Glen! Thank you for your support of this project – I hope our cards are boring enough for you!”

In talking to the project creator (of course, I contacted them as this project is the most exciting thing to happen to me in ages!) and they introduced me to the concept of “mail art“. I hadn’t heard of mail art before, but now I have a new line of thinking about postcards!

Postcards from Anywhere were interviewed on mail art and their project in the Globe and Mail recently called Mail art makes a comeback as pandemic locks artists out of galleries.

Stay tuned next month for the next excitingly boring specimen to arrive from this project…

Free Canada Post Cards

A few days ago, I learned about an initiative by Canada’s official postal service, Canada Post that involves giving every Canadian (with a residential address) a free postcard! Each Canadian randomly receives one of six postcards that they can send to anyone in Canada for free. Here is the one I received in my mailbox today:

Here’s the back:

The free postcards are part of an initiative called Write Here, Write Now that appears designed to help get Canadians back into the art of letter writing. You can find out more on Canada Post’s website. If you get one of these postcards from a friend or family member, you are encouraged to post it social media using the hashtag #WriteHereWriteNow

The postcard came in a fold-out with some promo material on the campaign and the postcard tears out with perforated edges:

I LOVE postcards! And I love free stuff! So overall I’m very excited by this initiative. But considering how incredibly beautiful and artistic Canada Post’s stamps are, the graphic design of this postcard is quite lacklustre. Perhaps the simple and cutesy approach is aimed more for ages groups that aren’t as keen on letter writing.

If you don’t know what to do with your free postcard, the Deltiology Deity is always looking for new specimen donations!

Postcard from Timbuktu!

With the pandemic blocking almost everyone’s travels (except some despicable politicians), my prime postcard source has dried up. Luckily, I found out about a project called Postcards from Timbuktu. I must admit I once thought Timbuktu was fictional; I never imagined I’d ever get a postcard mailed to me from there!

For a small fee, one can have one of Timbuktu’s former tourist guides send you a postcard from Timbuktu. When ordering, you chose a postcard of one of the city’s amazing sites or a hand-drawn one. Using birthday money from my in-laws, I got myself one of each! Below is the first one to arrive:

I love this drawing, particularly the bird!

When one orders a postcard from Timbuktu, you can write your own message or have one of the guides write their own message for you. I chose the latter option as it is interesting to get a personal message and their slice-of-life. Here is the back with the message they sent me:

Postcard caption:
“This postcard was designed by Moussa in Timbuktu, Mali”

Postcard message:
“Hi Glen. Thank you for supporting our project. That really means a lot to us. Right now in Timbuktu it is getting very cold at night. So we drink tea around a fire on the roof to stay warm. I hope it is not too cold in your place.” [BTW, it is.]

This is one of the best birthday gifts ever (thanks to myself for ordering it and my in-laws for paying for it)! I admire this project, as it helps provide some income to former tourism workers. The Postcards from Timbuktu website describes the situation:

You also put some money into the Timbuktu economy and provided some work to a former tourist guide (there hasn’t been tourism in Timbuktu since January 2012 due to a rebellion and jihadist occupation, a French military intervention and now, lingering insecurity).

Their website has a biography of one of their postcard senders, who was a tourist guide but is now using income from this project to help fund his university studies, read Mohamed’s bio.

I think this is an inspiring project. I highly encourage you to get your own Postcard from Timbuktu!

Music Video Brings Postcards to Life

My daughter and I have been compiling a list of the top 200 music videos of all time. While compiling candidates for our list, I came across a video that is a postcard collector’s delight! It features the singers and actors in poses and sets that bring to life many of the standard postcards from Florida over the years.

As Florida is the favoured tourist destination of many Ontarians, I have a whole box full of just Florida postcards. I have more from there than anywhere else (other than Ontario). So I recognize many of these postcards contained in this video.

Enjoy the video!

More Business Reply Postcards

Earlier this weekend, I blogged about how I had recently learned about a new genre of postcards: business reply postcards. Business reply postcards are the cards that companies use to get their customers to mail them to give them info or future business. I only discovered this genre recently and didn’t have any specimens in the Collection. Luckily, I have a tendency to save a lot of stuff and I found some business reply postcards from magazines or products purchases ages ago. The first type I posted about were ones for magazine subscriptions.

The other type I could find were for warranties. Nowadays most warranty information is filled out online, so this genre is dying out. Luckily, I have one from our washing machine that was just a few years old. I love how it’s multicoloured and so efficiently designed (although it is snarky that they make Canadians pay for postage).

The second one I could find was for a Kitchen Aid blender that my wife bought about 2 decades ago. It was our first big purchase as a couple (it was too make delicious, potent frozen drinks like daquiris and pina coladas). We went deluxe and got Kitchen Aid as the amount of ice chopping we did was extensive and we’d already killed lesser blenders. Many years later this Kitchen Aid blender is still going strong, which is good because I never filled out my warranty information apparently! I might not have filled it out as it was incredibly lengthy – they wanted pages of info – I’ve only included a small sample of the info they wanted.

I scoured the house and these are all the business reply postcards I could find. I’m glad I snagged a few before this completely dies out. I imagine I probably will never see any more of them. But of course I’ll be on the lookout, and will let you know here if I do.

Business Reply Postcards

Since starting this blog about 8 years ago, it has been rare that I find out about a genre of postcards that I never knew existed. In my free time, I read about the history of postcards (there’s more to it than one might think, as the medium is over a century old). For the first couple years of the blog I added many genres and subgenres to my list, but it has been ages since I found out about a new genre. That is until a few days ago when I read about two genres.

One is casualty postcard – these were given to the family of military people admitted to hospitals. They contained a checklist for hospital workers to fill out to easily notify family of their family member’s health status. I don’t have an example of one of these, but now I’m on the lookout for them!

The other kind is less exciting but was once ubiquitous, that is the business reply postcard. These are postcards made by companies with a preprinted form for customers to fill out their information and return it to the company. Postage was paid by the company and the company’s address was preprinted on one side. I instantly recalled these as over the years I have seen many of them used for customer warranties, surveys, contests, and subscription orders. However, it has been years since I have seen any of these as businesses instead strive to drive people to their website for such data entry or orders.

I was worried the Collection would never have any samples of this new-found genre. But then I remembered that I have a tendency to save (hoard) things. So I went back to magazines that I have saved over the decades. Luckily, I was able to find a batch of business reply postcards for magazine subscriptions. These are the ones I found:

Canada’s History magazine, business reply postcard (front)

Canada’s History magazine, business reply postcard (back)

Canadian Wildlife magazine, business reply postcard (front)

Canadian Wildlife magazine, business reply postcard (back)

US magazine, business reply postcard (front)

US magazine, business reply postcard (back) – BTW, US’ headquarters was in Iowa?

People magazine, business reply postcard (front)

People magazine, business reply postcard (back)

The one below is the the most recent and deluxe. It is from a children’s magazine, Owl, that my daughter got when she was little. The postcard is essentially an envelope and one was supposed to seal the sides together after filling it out. It’s much more elaborate and impressive than the previous ones:

Owl magazine, business reply postcard (front)

Owl magazine, business reply postcard (middle)

Owl magazine, business reply postcard (back)

I’m not sure if I’ll be getting any more of these as the digital revolution is gradually eliminating all forms of mail. However, I did find some other types of business reply postcards in an old, abandoned filing cabinet buried under junk in our storage room. I’ll post about these later this week.

My Funny Valentine

I’ve just now started to eat the candies I got for Christmas; I’m just not that into candies. So even though chocolates are the traditional Valentine’s gift, they aren’t particularly special for me. So getting me a Valentine’s gift has been a challenge for my family. This year my wife and daughter outdid themselves by finding and customizing this awesome Valentine postcard for me:

I’m not sure where they found it as they won’t tell me for some reason. Considering the pandemic lockdown here, I was really surprised they found it as shopping for postcards has been next to impossible. I particularly love it as it has two of my favourite postcard genres: comics and DIY.

I love the overwrought artwork from the 1950s era comics. My daughter coloured it in for me and that makes me love it even more!

Here is the back with the message my daughter wrote for me:

Postcard message:
“To Daddy Glenny. Happy Valentine’s Day. I love you so much! Love”

This is by far the sweetest Valentine’s gift!

Happy Valentine’s Day

For Valentine’s Day, I was looking for good antique postcards in my great-grandfather’s collection. I was really hoping to find another Vinegar Valentine (nasty, mean postcards people used to send at the turn of the last century). But instead I found a bunch of sweet ones (along with a few bizarre ones). Here is one of the sweet ones:

Despite being over 110 years old, the colours are still vivid. It also has a couple different types of embossing. Considering the postcard was made in Germany, it’s not surprising that it was such high quality as for the first few decades of postcards German printers greatly surpassed all others.

You can really see the embossing by looking at the back of the postcard.

The postcard is to my great grandfather and it doesn’t say who it is from, just “P.B.” I wonder if it’s from that trouble-maker Pearl that I previously posted about. Not only is that Pearl trouble, but she sent this on or near October 24, so she couldn’t even keep her holidays straight!

I’m surprised my Great-Grandmother Nellie let my Great-Gramps keep these!

I hope your sweetheart sends you something special today!