Old Postcard Mysteries and Memories

Everything about old postcards fascinates me. I love being transported to bygone days by looking at scenes and messages, judging era by the price of a stamp when a postmark is illegible. Here are five from a handful I bought recently. No one ever mailed the postcard of the North Star; however, someone wrote on (signed?) the back:

Dewey Tofson
“North Star”
1963

Are we looking at a bit of the Pictured Rocks in the background? Someone who knew the boat and/or the pilot might be able to shed light on this mystery.

Never mailed or written on at all, my second example today is a group portrait that includes animals and dolls but has no identifying caption. One woman is singled out with an X. Did she intend to mail this picture to someone? Who are these people? Don’t you want to know?




Postcards 3 and 5 might jog a few vacation memories, first an aerial view of Elk Rapids (perhaps the plane landed at Torchport after taking this shot, Gerry), then a happy beach scene at Idlewild. Were you there?



Lastly, a hand-tinted photo on a corner of what was then called the “Asylum Grounds” in Traverse City. A well-behaved dog sits patiently on the bank of the creek. “Down where the little Fishes grow,” reads the caption on the front, and there’s a note on the back from Mollie in Cedar (postmark) to friend (or sister?) Minnie in Provement (now Lake Leelanau), mentioning Traverse City, Kingsley and Leland in her message. The date looks like 1911.


Relatives of yours? Family stories handed down? Can you connect your life to any of these postcards or shed light on their mysteries? Or maybe, like me, you just love the mysteries that old postcards hold.