Ahh, Love!

I have recently become enamored (it must be the Valentine's Day season!) of vintage postcards thanks to my acquisition of a stack of them from the 1940s and earlier. The photos on them are charming--full of impish humor and charm! This one, with a caption reading Got Something I Didn't Expect, features a young woman looking at her boyfriend (at least I assume that's who he is) with an expression of utter reproach. I'm pretty sure my husband has seen that same expression on my face.




My current favorite is the Yum Yum Baby We Were Made for Each Other card. The look in this woman's eyes draws you in and makes you want to know more about her. I imagine her as a spirited, independent young woman with a tremendous sense of fun. I realize she was probably a model, but she's become real to me.



But what intrigues me even more than the images on the cards (and I am a fan of all, even the basic ones that show an image of the front door of a motel) are the messages on the back. For instance, on the card above, the sender simply wrote, From Ruby, and left it at that. I assume Ruby sent the card to her boyfriend, and I think about how excited she must have been when she sent it.

Sometimes I find a card where the message and the image don't really seem to square at all. I have a few, for instance, where a friend sent a card with images of romance on the front and a message on the back inquiring when Grandma (or someone similar) would be out of the hospital.

I'll be posting more images from my now-growing vintage postcard collection here, as well as in the shops.