{"id":1210,"date":"2017-02-25T09:04:38","date_gmt":"2017-02-25T13:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skiprd.com\/?p=1210"},"modified":"2017-02-25T09:04:38","modified_gmt":"2017-02-25T13:04:38","slug":"whither-postcards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skiprd.com\/?p=1210","title":{"rendered":"Whither postcards?"},"content":{"rendered":"

At every worthy stop we make, Wendy and I send off postcards to the grandchildren, aka\u00a0Little Darlings (henceforth LDs), all eight of them. But lately it has become a formidable challenge to find postcards even at the most likely stops. Disney had precious few (maybe a half dozen), and only the same limited selection was to be found at all of the venues. Many other stops had none. Sometimes, we’d ask a store clerk if they had postcards and was greeted with an odd stare, followed by, “I think the place across the street\u00a0used to have\u00a0some.”\u00a0I was preparing to add\u00a0a comment\u00a0to one of\u00a0my travel posts about this strange phenomenon\u00a0but coincidentally a post on the same topic showed up today\u00a0on the RV Travel blog<\/a>, describing postcards as a “relic of the past.”<\/p>\n

The premise behind Woodbury’s conclusion is that picture postcards, as media of choice for sending off pictures of destination spots, along with the obligatory “wish you were here” message, have been overtaken by photo messages, Instagram, Facebook,\u00a0selfies, and every other form of instantaneous electronic communication. True, true, and in many ways our ability to follow each other’s travels, see the sights, and participate vicariously in travels to new places is both more extensive and intensive\u00a0than it ever was. But the replacement of the postcard with an excess of instantaneous photo updates, I think,\u00a0like so much of the modern electronic alternatives, somehow loses something in the translation.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0difference between a postcard and a photo-feed, I guess,\u00a0is firstly not so much\u00a0in the adequacy of the communique, but in the generosity of the message. It takes considerable effort to hunt for just the right card, carefully\u00a0write out (with a pen, of all things)\u00a0a message particular to the recipient, address it, and find a place to send it off. At least with eight LDs, it’s\u00a0hours start to finish. But that’s why postcards are\u00a0more an act of thoughtfulness than a blunt, in-your-face\u00a0info update. More than just saying, “wham-bam, here’s a picture, see you later” it says “You matter enough to me that I’m taking time out my travels just to let you know how much I care for you. You’re worth the effort.” And, secondly,\u00a0the impetus for a picture postcard is, obviously,\u00a0the picture. There are no “selfie” postcards, which is\u00a0why they stand in stark contrast to someone who visits something as majestic as\u00a0the Grand Canyon and thinks, “What a great place to take a picture of me.”<\/p>\n

Oh well… I guess it’s to be expected that photographic relics of the past still hold appeal to living relics of the past\u00a0(namely us). Next post will be back to reality…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At every worthy stop we make, Wendy and I send off postcards to the grandchildren, aka\u00a0Little Darlings (henceforth LDs), all eight of them. But lately it has become a formidable challenge to find postcards even at the most likely stops. Disney had precious few (maybe a half dozen), and only the same limited selection was … Continue reading “Whither postcards?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deep-thoughts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p68mhx-jw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiprd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiprd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiprd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiprd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiprd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/skiprd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1211,"href":"https:\/\/skiprd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210\/revisions\/1211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiprd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiprd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiprd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}