personal political

postcard from virginia

Last week I had a lovely surprise - an e-friend who I have never met in person sent me a real world postcard.

wonderdogs

postcard #10

Recently a good friend of mine got a cheap flight to Vietnam, from where she sent us this postcard.

On the back it says it is a Vietnamese long dress. Then it says: Hien Mai - fashion model. I assume 'hien mai' means 'fashion model' iin Vietnamese, though I suppose that could be the name of this particular fashion model.

postcards #6 7 8 9

The postcards have been pouring in lately but rather than a weekly series this seems to have gone monthly.

sympathy cards

We've been receiving cards and emails (and telephone calls) about Lot's death. I'm grateful for them all, for the acknowledgement of what a big change in our lives it is not to have her living with us any more.

postcard #5

postcard #4

[I'm not sure if this is number 4, as it's so long since the last one. Observant readers will have noticed that my 'weekly' series hasn't appeared in at least three weeks. So much for having a series to keep me regular.]

This postcard arrived last week, sent by my brother to co-parent.

postcard #2

I should make it clear that my weekly postcard series isn't necessarily going to feature cards that arrived in the week of publication. That would be a bit too neat, wouldn't it, to receive a postcard through the mail every single week and be able to blog about it. Sometimes we get three postcards in one day and then none for weeks... So I'll be dipping into my postcard archive.

This card features a painting of Russian revolutionaries by my best friend's mother-in-law, Eva. Eva's son had the painting made into a commemorative postcard after she died. On the back it says:

The October Revolution
Red Guards at the Smolney 1917
Oils Eva Mary C., born xx 1905, died xx 1996.
A lifelong Socialist, Eva took inspiration from the Russian revolution.

thoughts about postcards

Thoughts to self about new postcards series for this blog: what does it mean that a blog called Personal Political is now going to feature a series on domestic postcards?

postcard of the week

I've been thinking for awhile that this blog needs more of a focus. Well, not the blog, but the blogger is in need of a focus. So I've decided to institute a weekly feature - postcard of the week.

I used to write lots of letters. In the attic, I have boxes of my own and my friends' letters from the 70s and 80s. Then what happened? Computers and email. I hardly ever write letters now.

I do write postcards, though, and luckily, so do our friends. Postcards are the main form of personal correspondence we receive. I don't know if we're unusual but we usually receive at least one postcard a week. Maybe it's because we have strong connections with family and friends who live in other places.