Here are the postcards!

I’ve been collecting postcards since 2008. Since then, I’ve sent and received over 1800 postcards from all over the US and dozens of countries. I respond to every postcard I receive, so I’m always open for private swaps.

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My origin story: Back when I was a young boy, I got the idea to write a letter to several world leaders, but I only ever ended up writing the US president and the Queen of England. I was so tickled to receive responses from President Bush and then Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II! Well, they weren’t directly from the world leaders, but rather from their staff members. President Bush sent me an autographed photograph (which I lost later in a show-and-tell accident).

One of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting sent me a very detailed letter, typed on Buckingham Palace stationery, answering all of my questions about the Queen’s horses and her corgis and her favorite foods. I marveled at the strangely-sized paper, the texture of the embossed coat of arms centered at the top of the page, and the stamps on the envelope. A real person had spent time reading my letter, responding to it, folding it and placing it in an envelope, and then more real human beings had taken the time and effort to transport it from London to some mail distribution center, to an airport in England, to an airport in the US, and back through the various USPS chains until it arrived in a plastic mailbox at the foot of my driveway in southeast Michigan.

I’m still fascinated by this process today, and all for less than the price of some chocolate! So I maintain correspondence with about a dozen penpals across the world, and send and receive postcards. At last count, I have a little under 2,000 postcards that I’ve received. Keep scrolling to see the most recent postcards that have arrived in my mailbox.

Kristopher Geda Kristopher Geda

Queenie (Illinois)

I love it when people find postcards in one location that come from another location. In this case, our niblings Emily and Carter found this postcard in Michigan City, Indiana but it features Queenie, an African lioness who arrived at the Lincoln Park Zoo in 1943.

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Kristopher Geda Kristopher Geda

Napa wineries (California)

What a lovely postcard to get from our friends Kimee and Michael who were enjoying some wine tasting in Napa. The question is : how many of these wineries do we recognize? For me, I can say: 15

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Kristopher Geda Kristopher Geda

Munchen multiview (Germany)

This postcard arrives from my penpal Jörg who's visiting his best friend in Munich. It's the only place in Germany I've been!

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Kristopher Geda Kristopher Geda

Yellowstone National Park (California)

I received this postcard with wishes for me to visit Yellowstone, which I've never done! The handwriting tells me it's a Chinese-speaker who wrote it, but unfortunately they never signed it. I'm not sure who sent it to me (I think it's a student)!

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Kristopher Geda Kristopher Geda

Pulsano (Italy)

This postcard arrives from Lino's vacation to Pulsano and features an image of this beautiful little fishing port.

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Kristopher Geda Kristopher Geda

Graceland (Florida)

Of course Graceland isn't in Florida (it's in Tennessee) but this postcard arrived from my aunt and uncle, having passed through TN and stopped at Elvis Presley's home on their way from their summer home in Michigan to their overwintering grounds in Florida.

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Kristopher Geda Kristopher Geda

Maison Empereur (France)

What a fantastic image! The reverse of this postcard says that this a sundry store. So cool! And it's still in operation, near as I can tell, having been founded in 1827. Do we in the US have any business still in continuous operation from such an early date?

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Kristopher Geda Kristopher Geda

Road Town, Tortola (British Virgin Islands)

This is the first postcard I've received from the British Virgin Islands. It arrived in early October after my mom's cruise stopped there in August. The cancellation is 28 August, so it did take a little over a month to arrive.

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Kristopher Geda Kristopher Geda

le fromage, c’est la vie (France)

Mon ami Francis s’est échappé à la France avec son mari pour fêter ses 50 ans. Là-bas, ils ont “trop bu, trop mangé…” quel voyage!

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Kristopher Geda Kristopher Geda

I followed my heart (Germany)

J’adore tellement ces cartes postales que Dominique m’a envoyées d’Allemagne. Je suis tout à fait d’accord avec la phrase ici: J’ai suivi mon coeur et il m’a emmené vers un café.

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Kristopher Geda Kristopher Geda

Folsom uniform (Australia)

Matty always finds the most delightful postcards to send! This one arrived during Folsom weekend so the timing was quite appropriate.

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More to come from the past…