Friends of Gad Go to Egypt

When I first moved to Austin, I sublet an apartment from Gad, a biology grad student at UT (from Israel), who was doing some fieldwork that summer in Costa Rica. He sent me a few postcards and also gave me some postcards sent to him by friends and family.

This one wasn't mailed, so there is no stamp, but there is a brief message to Gad on the back. The caption reads: "Giza - The Sphinx of Sakkara".

Nephew Jeffrey Goes to the Oregon Coast

This postcard was sent to my W. 30th apt. in 1993 from my nephew when he was around 6.

He must have dictated the following to his mother, since I don't think his handwriting was that good then. He did scrawl his name, which is partially obscured by the stamp and postmark.

"Dear Aunt Susan,

I found some sea shells at the beach with my cousins. We also made a sand house and had fun. We visited Mt. St. Helens & Seattle. I picked flowers and played with my cousin Joey's dogs."

Hey, they also spelled my married name wrong, but that's o.k., everyone else did. But you would think that your own family would get it right. :-(

Peter Goes to Nepal

This is another card from Peter, who can also be seen in the January & February archives with cards from India and Morocco.

Can't read the postmark on this card, but the card was sent to that dump I was living in from 1992 - 1994. (I call it a dump because it had raccoons in the attic, and one day I came home and looked down at my white socks, and they were covered with fleas! I'd never seen a flea in my life before I moved to Texas.)

The card was mailed from Nepal, and there are two colorful stamps -- one R. 1 (one rupee) with photos of two temples, and one R. 9 -- artwork depicting either homes on the side of a mountain, or arrows on a chart pointing up, or perhaps both.

Peter notes that this card is sent from, "Nepal, Now", which is a nice way to put it, but it makes it sort of difficult to archive (if I were into archiving, that is.)

He also notes that he is on a 6 week break from school in Norway and he's enjoying hiking, swimming, hot springs, excellent food, etc. He also writes, "Almost 100% neef (ueef? meet? ueel?) July or August. (that European handwriting can be hard for me to read at times, but I'm sure I knew what he meant back when he wrote it.)

Peter mentions that he is applying to graduate school.

You can put a lot of information on a tiny postcard.

I Go to Girl Scout Camp, and My Counselors Beg My Parents to Pick Me Up

From 5th grade through high school, I spent from 2 - 6 weeks each summer at Girl Scout Camp in the Colorado Rockies. This was always my favorite part of the year -- I learned a lot and developed some cool skills. (lanyard weaving, gorp making, tent pitching -- I use still use those skills on a regular basis.) (actually, it WAS a lot fun!)

Can't read the year on the postcard, but the stamp is a $.04 Civil War Centennial (Shiloh) 1862-1962.

This card was sent to my parents from two of my camp counselors. Do you detect a note of quiet desperation in their message?

"Dear Mr. & Mrs. B.,

Susan is having a wonderful time here and we really enjoy having her with us.

Today we are going arching and are making ropes. Tomorrow we are cooking out.

See you Monday, July 8th, between 10:00 & noon.

Smokey & Gabby"

Uh, guess they wanted to make certain that my family remembered to pick me up from camp!

My Dad Goes Somewhere in the Pacific, and Sends My Grandmother a V-mail Card

I'm not going to post both the front and back of most postcards, but this (and the one from Gibraltar) are an exception.

This card is one my father sent to his mother during WW2. I'm not sure about the message on the back -- perhaps he started to write one thing, got off track, and didn't have another postcard to start all over? I'm sure they were in short supply. I've also posted this one on dad's diary (you can get to it from my profile on the right.)

Note that this message was approved by the naval censor.

Well a "Peace Coming New Year" to everyone.

Auntie Auleta Makes a Stop in Gibraltar

I can't read the date on the postmark -- 1948? 1958? 1968? I'm guessing 1958, since that's about the time Auleta & Eddie were living in France, and I think my grandmother died in 1964, so this couldn't be 1968.

My Auntie Auleta had a big influence on my life -- in fact, I wouldn't have finished college had it not been for her nudging -- "There is nothing wrong at all with being a waitress, but you are going to get so bored with it, if you aren't all ready."

She lived in France for several years when I was a young child, and that was my first exposure to the wide world outside of our small town.

Deb Goes to Kansas -- and Stays!

I met Deb in our little town in SE Colorado the summer before I was to start a new school for 4th grade. She and her sister were playing on a playscape -- LJ being somewhat of a prairie town, the playscape was actually a stagecoach, which was pretty cool and fun. And then when I went to this new school on the first day -- there she was -- in my class.

After HS we sort of lost touch until recently. She now lives in Kansas and among other things, takes some very beautiful photos -- this sunrise being one of them.

This card was postmarked from Wichita, Kansas on Feb. 8, 2006. The stamp is an appropriate one for Valentines Day -- two birds beak to beak forming a heart.

Excerpts from the back of the card:

". . . A postcard for your collection. I took this one looking east towards Wichita. We have some great sunrises out here in the flatlands. . ."

With sunrises like that, no wonder she stayed in KS.

One corner of the card got a bit bungled during transit, but because of that, I did notice a teeny windmill in the lower right corner that I might not have seen before.

Nothing to snark about here, but I'm sure that one of these days I'll get snarkable material.

Peter Goes to Morocco

Here is another postcard from one of Peter's travels -- this one from Morocco, mailed to my Ft. Hood, TX address (must have been 1990 - 92) from Ceskoslovensko (Czechoslovakia). (doh! Peter dated it 1/26/92) The stamp says "5 Kcs, Cechy-Nachodsko" (and I'm omitting the diacritical marks, thus probably changing the meaning entirely) and it has a picture of a castle turret or something like that.

The card caption says "Maroc Typique/Typical Morocco" -- plus what I'm assuming is the same thing in Arabic, but who knows, perhaps it says "Tourist Trap"!?

Excerpts from the back of the postcard:

"Hello, Hello!

Thanks for your letter. I'm on my way from Morocco back to school in Norway. It looks like I'm going to be in Norway most of this year; however, I'm still planning to apply to some grad schools in (?) (for the fall of 1993) Span & Morocco = fun. A 4-week vacation seems to be too short for me. (happy face)

Saludos! Peter"

Jimmy Goes to Bhutan

Jimmy is a fellow postcard collector from Ireland -- we exchanged a number of postcards in the early 1990's. Most of his cards were from Ireland, but he's done some other traveling, including Asia. Travel to Bhutan (if I remember correctly), is very difficult, as the country strictly limits the number of visitors in an attempt to preserve the culture. I believe that Peter, whose postcard from India you'll find a few down, also traveled to Bhutan. (and sent me a postcard.)

This postcard was actually mailed from Ireland with an "Eire 38" stamp (uncanceled and undated, so I'm not sure when it was sent.) It was mailed to W. 30th in ATX, so it must have been between 1992 - 94.

Excerpts from the back of the card:

"Hi Susan, Happy New Year!

I bought some of these cards from the Bhutan post office. As it turned out they were cheaper than buying Irish cards, even after postage! . . .

So far we've escaped the snow they've had further north & am now looking forward to visiting the D-Day sites of Normandy in April.

All the best, Jimmy"

Kellee Goes to Leningrad

A dear friend I met when I lived in Germany, Kellee, sent me this postcard dated 24 March 93 from Leningrad (now St. Petersburg -- or rather, St. Petersburg once again.) I was living on W. 30th Street in Austin at the time. (A nice little walk to my office.)

Kellee was a great travel companion and a lot of fun, and we went all over Central Europe in the mid-1980's.

This is a picture of the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism (the former Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan).

The card was sent from Russia with two Russian stamps -- 50 something and 10 something (I have no idea what the currency/denomination is -- underneath the numeral is a symbol that looks like "py6".

Excerpts of Kellee's message:

"Dear Susan,

Greetings comrade! We are in Phase (2 ?) of our journey. We traveled overnight by train from Moscow to St. Petersburg. St. Pete. really is the Venice of the North. The Hermitage is beautiful, December Square wonderful and there are canals everywhere (a lot are frozen). The people are very interesting. We walked through a pro-communist rally 2 nights ago in Moscow. It was outside the white house."