Postcrossing Blog

Sue (aka Suegathman) has been a guest on the Postcardist podcast, and a huge fan of postcards and correspondence all her life. We thought it’d be great to invite her to chat a bit on our blog about her love of postcards and of Postcrossing, and get a glimpse into her postcard-related interests! She agreed, and we hope you’ll be fascinated by her stories below.

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

In 2007, I spent lots of time on a message board (remember those?) for another interest of mine, and one of the members had the Postcrossing URL in her signature line. I’ve always been fascinated with anything to do with mail, and I clicked on the link and was intrigued. I signed up right away and sent my first five cards – which were immediately returned to me by the postman, because I put my return address in the corner and the scanning machine routed them back to me. I was mortified and almost gave up – luckily I decided to give it another try! I was on the lookout for a new hobby which wouldn’t take up a lot of time, since I had just returned to work full-time after many years raising kids. While I no longer had free time during the day to sew or read, I still wanted to do something that was fun and provided a little escape from reality. I also had a big stash of blank postcards I’d collected over the years. It seemed like a match made in heaven – which, in fact, it turned out to be.

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

It’s hard to narrow it down, since I have so many great cards to choose from. I really love old propaganda and advertising cards. They say so much to me about a culture and its values. When I received this card several years ago, I put it up on a bulletin board in my kitchen and invited everyone who came over to make up a caption for it, since it’s in another alphabet. The answers were hilarious! I also immediately fell in love with this card and put it on my bulletin board at work – which is a little cheeky since I work for the government. I share the responsibility for training our young interns, and I love seeing if any of them recognize these famous faces.

How did you get started sending postcards? What is your earliest memory of them?

When my sister and I were small, my parents would often take trips during the summers while our grandparents came to our house to watch us. They always sent us postcards from their trips, usually standard viewcards showing famous attractions they visited. Our entire extended family liked to send postcards – lately I’ve enjoyed sorting through batches of old cards which my grandparents and great-grandparents exchanged with my parents.

What’s one way that postcards have changed your life for the better?

This hobby, and our wonderful Postcrossing community, have carried me through many different phases of life. When I first signed up, I was newly back to work after raising kids, had just moved to California and was trying to figure out what my adult life would look like. During the 15.5 years since then, I’ve been surrounded by postcards as my marriage ended, I took care of my ailing parents, I lost my job, went back to school and started a new career, the kids grew up and left home (and came back again), I met and married my new husband, got through Covid isolation, changed careers again… whatever I’m doing, postcards are there with me. This hobby is the one constant as my life has moved in different directions!

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?

Two cards are extra-special to me because they came from people I know in “real life, ” who I didn’t know were Postcrossers! A friend I’ve known for more than 20 years sent me this card, featuring a couple of photos of us together over the years. And the husband of my mom’s oldest friend sent me a card not too long ago. These were both big surprises (and cool cards in their own right, too). It’s also been interesting, since I’ve been participating in the project for a while, to see which countries are most active. When I first started, most of my cards seemed to go to Finland. Later, there was a full year in which I hardly sent any cards anywhere but Russia. During Covid, so many countries stopped exchanging mail with the US. Lately, the US has gotten more active, so the majority of my cards go there or to Germany.

Have you met any other members in real life?

Yes – we’re lucky to have a really great local group in San Diego which gets together twice a year for official meetups, plus many of us have become friends in “real life” and do other things together. Some of our local Postcrossers are my close friends, and they’ve introduced me to other hobbies I really enjoy. A Postcrosser even got me my first job after graduation!

Is there anything else that you are passionate about?

Other than postcards, food is my greatest obsession! One of the things that makes me happiest is cooking for a crowd of people, and I love hosting holiday meal and having friends over for dinner (and board games or cards). I volunteer with Lasagna Love, which matches up volunteer cooks with families and individuals in need of a home-cooked meal. Except for a few breaks for travel or health issues, I’ve been making and delivering a lasagna or two every week for the last 2 1/2 years, which is a lot of fun – I’ve gotten really efficient at it!

I met Eric (aka eta55) last year, when we were both invited to talk about Postcrossing for the Transatlantic Educator Dialogue podcast. During our conversation, he struck me as a really interesting person, so I wanted to bring him to the blog for a spotlight interview. Enjoy!

How did you get started sending postcards? What is your earliest memory of them?

I have always been interested in correspondence. My uncle served in the Marines, and he used to send me letters from when he was deployed overseas. I thought it was amazing to get a letter from a foreign country when I was a little kid! I really never knew very much about postcards though. I knew they existed, but never really sent or received any until I joined Postcrossing.

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

I read a news article about it somewhere, but I don’t remember the source. That was in the fall of 2017. I then encountered a teacher during a holiday gathering who was using it in her classroom to get her students engaged with other cultures. Our encounter inspired me to pursue it further, and I joined Postcrossing in January of 2018 and have been enjoying it ever since.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

Here is a photo of my mailbox:

It is out here in the real world, hungry for postcards!

The post office I use most frequently is a nondescript little shop front in a small strip mall on the way to work. Not particularly photogenic, many post offices in America are not, sadly. It has a postmaster and one clerk. The bulk of the cards I have sent have gone from there, so it has been instrumental in my involvement with Postcrossing. The postmaster got covid in December 2021 and was in and out of the hospital (very dedicated woman, she kept returning to work too soon and they had to call an ambulance for her twice!). She was a long termer, and was struggling throughout January 2022. I reached out on the Postcrossing forums and asked for postcards to be sent to the postoffice for when she returned to work and welcome her back. She got over thirty well-wishing cards from all over the world, and the next time I came in she told all of the customers they just had to wait, and went through each card with me in tears. Another story of Postcrossing and the power of loving gifts to strangers. I am pleased to report that she is doing much better now, back to her old self, and hand cancelling all of my postcards with glee every time I drop by!

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

I can’t show you a picture of it, because my favorite postcard is always the next one I will receive! There is hope and love and potential coming to my mailbox, and each card has a unique message, and very often a delightful image. Each one gives me the opportunity to go learn about the person who sent it, and to explore where they live, and learn more about our world. Each one creates a connection, even if only fleeting. Someone sent me a little gift a few days or a few weeks or even a few months ago, and when it comes today, that will be my favorite.

I do have favorite topics. I am always moved when I get a battered, scarred card that has fought its way through to me, often after a very long trip. I recently got a card from a postcrosser in the Bahamas, it had taken over two years to get to me from an island in the ocean about 750 miles away. I messaged the sender since it could no longer be registered, and they were delighted to hear that I had finally got it! Another connection! I always like to get meetup cards, because they mean that a group of postcrossers has actually crossed the gulf between sender and receiver and gathered together to celebrate each other and these connections. I met a group of Irish postcrossers via a couple of virtual meetups and I got a really special card from them recently. A few weeks ago a group of them travelled to Spain to attend a wedding of two of their group! So the Irish meetup card from the wedding in Spain I think really speaks to what I love about this hobby!

This is an impossible question, really, each one is my favorite!

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

Hard to pick just one thing. There is the joyful anticipation of walking out to the mail box, for sure. I think what I really like best is the little puzzle of finding a way to spread some joy to a particular stranger. You draw an address, and you have no idea of who it will be or where they will be located. Their bio and their favorites may provide you some ideas. Then you have to find the right card, and the right stamps, and craft a message to create a little package of a present all on a postcard. Sometimes you decorate it. I think another really joyful part of the process is the “hurray” messages. When you find out that little piece of cardboard that you released into the chaotic universe actually made it across oceans and continents and into the hands of another human that you don’t really know, and that they were glad to get it and that it brought a smile to their face! The fact that can actually happen, over and over again, thrills me every time!

Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?

If I asked you to guess the country I’ve received cards from that has the shortest average travel time, what country would you pick (keep in mind I do receive cards from my home country)? I think most anyone would say in the U.S, you’d receive quickest from the U. S., right? Nope. That average receipt time is 10 days. I got a card from Rwanda (my only one from there) in eight days! Wouldn’t you love to know the story behind that trip? My only other cards (officials) from Africa have come from South Africa, they average 36 days. How did that Rwanda card get here in 8 days? That’s the shortest trip from anywhere I’ve received cards from!

Is there anything else that you are passionate about?

I am passionate about dogs. Of all of the creatures I have interacted with, they are my favorite.

I am passionate about science and the accumulation of knowledge. That is another keystone of the way forward. I am always delighted to gain an understanding of how things work!

I am passionate about the Constitution of the United States of America. It is an imperfect document, to be sure, but I believe it provides a template for the best way forward for humans as a race. Democracy is a messy business, and it is hard and requires dedication. Finding a balance between individual freedom and what is best for the group writ large is always a compromise. We have to continually work at it. I have to say as well that we (Americans) are not always very good at it.

I am passionate about communication. I am fascinated by the ways we go about it and it is utterly astounding to me that we are able to effectively communicate at all. We each experience the universe differently, our senses themselves often differ in capability, and yet we still are able to somehow bridge that gap and share ideas. That is nothing short of amazing. In that vein, I would offer that I am passionate about poetry.

Beethoven. That music speaks to me in my bones.

What excites me? What am I most passionate about?

Margo. My partner, my lover, my friend. Above all Margo.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies or collections?

My wife likes to say that I collect hobbies! In no particular order:

• I am a birdwatcher, so in a sense you could say I collect birds, or at least observations of them.
• As a retired sailor, I love to visit beaches and lighthouses, so I collect those images and experiences.
• I am gradually building a Lego city in my basement; the patterns of pieces and construction techniques intrigue me.
• I collect rocks and tumble them. There is both a tactile and science/knowledge component to that.
• I play chess, and have a small collection of chess sets.
• I have a collection of submarine first day covers, as well as other ship first day covers, mostly sailing ships.
• I have a small collection of fountain pens.

If I had to summarize the nature of my collections/hobbies/interests, I’d have to say that I collect knowledge and experiences, and that I have a fascination with patterns, in many dimensions and modalities.

Morten (aka bokmorten) comes from Norway and has been using Postcrossing since 2014. We learned about his work as a librarian and children’s books expert, and got curious about how he found us and how his Postcrossing journey has been going.

How did you get started sending postcards? What is your earliest memory of them?

When I was 8, my father introduced me to stamp collecting. That was a link to sending and receiving post as well. Later, in my teens, I had pen pals home and abroad. I have always been curious about other people, their lives and customs.

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

I read about Postcrossing in the newsletter of Foroya Post (Faroese Post). Tried it right away, and I’m still here.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

As you might see, we live in a small village/suburb with rural surroundings.

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

I am not a collector per se, so there are only a few cards I’ve kept, using them as decorations or book marks. Among those, I’ve been enjoying some “Gesamtkunstwerk” where stamp and card share the same theme. Like the Gaston from France:

Or this Austrian card and stamp with Ukraine flag theme and some of the Moomin cards from Finland with related stamps.

I must also mention the very nice Hungarian postcrosser who sent me a Hungarian translated version of a famous Norwegian children’s book. She’s still a Facebook friend.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies or collections?

I’m a frequent contributor to Norwegian Wikipedia, awarded “Wikipedian Of The Year 2013” in Norway. I also write and edit other non fiction writing in local history, children’s literature history and in the Norwegian academic encyclopedia Store Norske Leksikon.

Is there anything else that you are passionate about?

Through my work, I am the proud and eager editor and publisher of children’s books in the threatened minority language Southern Saami, and into other Saami languages as well. This work has awarded us two national awards, among them 'Library of the Year 2019', and two times nominations to the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the world’s largest children’s literature prize. Read more about our work in English, or Scandinavian (for Scandinavian readers and those putting their trust in web translations).

Thank you for answering our questions, Morten!

Agapi (aka agapara) hails from Greece and came to Postcrossing during the pandemic, as did many other members. She started the lottery chains in the new forum, which has led to hundreds of lotteries popping up, one after the other, and many happy postcard recipients. We were curious to find out where her love for postcards came from, so we asked our usual questions.

How did you get started sending postcards? What is your earliest memory of them?

My family always bought postcards from souvenir shops when travelling, but we always postponed or forgot sending them to our friends, involuntarily creating a ‘collection’ of postcards back home. I actually started sending out postcards when I was 17 years old and a friend of mine that travelled a lot decided to send me postcards from his trips abroad. I liked the idea, so I started doing the same when travelling. At that time, I had already started collecting postcards from every place that I visited in Greece and hanging them up on my wall or organizing them in albums.

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

Three years ago, I was introduced to the project of Postcrossing by a friend who used to be very active in Bookcrossing and had also joined Postcrossing for some time; but I didn’t feel like joining, as I thought I didn’t need a new hobby at the time.

Fast forward to September 2020: we were already 6 months into the pandemic, travelling was not the same anymore and we had to spend more time at home. So, while I was re-arranging my postcard albums, I remembered my friend telling me about Postcrossing. That was it! I drew my first address, picked a nice postcard from my collection and headed to the post office. The months that followed were pretty hard for me (and for lots of other people too, I’m sure), as the pandemic took over our lives. Postcrossing was like a window to the outside world – a reminder that I am not alone and that we’re all going through this together.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

This is the post office in Karpenisi, the place where I have temporarily moved because of work. The Greek Post Office logo features Hermes, who was the messenger of the Olympian Gods, according to the Greek mythology.

Also, here’s an old postbox I spotted in a village near Karpenisi. So small! And look how different Hermes looks in the old logo.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

I love reading people’s profiles and trying to pick a postcard that “fits”. I’m also very curious about how long my postcards will take to arrive at their destination, so I always keep an eye on the traveling postcards page and try to guess which postcard will be delivered first.

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

These postcards have got to be my favorites of my officially received postcards up until today. On my profile I state that I am a big fan of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, so the sender decided to send me not one, but two postcards of “The Birds” and “Psycho” posters, designed by two Czech artists. So unique!

What’s one way that postcards have changed your life for the better?

Sending and receiving postcards during the pandemic has definitely helped me maintain my sanity and cure my wanderlust. It has led me to do things that I probably wouldn’t do otherwise, such as finding penpals and trying out various DIY crafts; I’ve started to use my hands more. Also, creating an online map of my postcards has significantly boosted my geography knowledge.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies or collections?

I have a small collection of four miniature houses, a hobby that I also took up during the pandemic.

Thank you Agapi, for sharing your Postcrossing experience with the community! While we are at it, happy holidays, everyone!

Orla (aka ohegarty) caught our attention when she sent us a postcard for the 150th anniversary of postcards a few years ago featuring a whale-themed cancellation mark that she had designed!

Turns out, she’s the postmaster of a seaside community in Newfoundland that has the best beach in the world for watching humpback whales, so the design and initiative made total sense. We were curious to find out more, so we asked her a few questions:

How did you get started sending postcards? What is your earliest memory of them?

I am a first generation Canadian Irish immigrant. My grandfather sent me/our family postcards and letters in the 1970s-1980s from his various travels to visit his children and grandchildren.

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

I read about your launch and early success but did not join back then. I was reminded of this site when a postcrosser sent a cancel request to my post office (I am now the post master in a small rural seaside community) and designed/ordered a special humpback whale cancel since our town is famous for being able to watch humpback whales feed from our beach.

Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?

Every send or receive is a surprise. The rare countries are extra special though, I have to admit.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your post office or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

What’s one way that postcards have changed your life for the better?

Joining the Postcrossing community opened up a different kind of creativity for me. And a different kind of connection to other humans that feels more real than our common electronic virtual square on various social media platforms.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

Reading a new profile and thinking of what I could send to make their mailbox extra special.

Have you inspired other people to join Postcrossing, or met other members yet?

I’ve inspired at least four IRL friends to join and none of them know each other! I’ve only met the 4 people that are now members because of me, but I’ve attended an international virtual meetup — I know that’s not the same but still counts.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies or things that you’re passionate about?

I have the worlds largest collection of feminist postcards and feminist postage stamps. Actually, I’m not really sure about that claim but I’m willing to find out about other collections like mine!

I’m passionate about Feminism. I started the Counting Dead Women Canada list. Femicide is the ignored tragedy on our planet.

PS: You can hear Orla talk about postcards and her life in Newfoundland on episode 89 of the Postcardist podcast!