Snowy Greetings

This postcard has a bit of history. I found it while cleaning out a desk about a year ago. The back was addressed to a long ago penfriend, and I think I had meant to get a Yosemite postmark and mail it to her. Judging from the postage on the back, the card was addressed in 2004 because that's when that postage stamp was released. I guess I put the postcard aside, meaning to find a way to get that postmark, and then forgot. That year was also quite crazy for me because I had just moved to Pennsylvania, leaving all my family in Massachusetts. I knew I had made the best move, but it was still a bit odd being so far away.

So, when I discovered this card, I decided I wanted to get that postmark and add the card to OPP. I sent it off to "Postmaster" at Yosemite National Park, with a note, and within a couple days, it was back in my mailbox, with a message from Postmaster Bill Carroll at Yosemite National Park.

I don't celebrate a traditional Christmas, but I do enjoy the lovely cards and other trimmings of the season. I wish everyone a lovely day today and a happy and healthy New Year.

The Other Bridge

The top picture is the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in California during construction in the 1930s. Marie-Therese writes that the picture makes her all the more amazed at how bridges are building. It looks like the middle section is flying!

San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is not nearly as glamorous as the other San Francisco bridge, the Golden Gate, but it is quite an engineering feat. It is actually two bridges that intersect at Yerba Buena Island. And it was opened before Golden Gate.

When Marie-Therese visited San Francisco two years ago she took Golden Gate out of the city and came back via Bay Bridge, which was lovely because she could see the entire city before her and the Golden Gate, too.

I remember my first trip across Bay Bridge. I was in high school and on my first trip away from my parents. I remember thinking the bridge was way too long and worrying about how it stayed up.

City Under Ash

Pompeii, Italy, famously buried by volcanic ash nearly 2000 years ago, still captivating visitors with its glimpses of life and death. The ruins are Temple of Jupiter and the Forum, which were both destroyed by an earthquake 17 years before Mount Vesuvius erupted. I believe that is the volcano in the background.

Kathy visited Pompeii while she was an exchange student in Italy. She writes that it is her favorite travel experience to date. Eerie and sad, but with history and well preserved architecture ... a place that takes visitors back in time.

Tick Tock Two

Today's clock is from Rouen, in Northern France. This astronomical clock, called Gros Horloge, dates to the 16th century, though the clockwork is much older, perhaps 12th century. This postcard is also quite old. It was published in France and the captioning on the back looks handstamped. From the fashion, maybe 1940s?

Marie experienced a first in Rouen. In 1986 she left her sunny south of France home and went to work in Rouen. It was raining when she got there, and the next morning she awoke to fog. Marie hadn't ever experienced thick fog, and, to make matters worse, she had to drive in it! She crept along at a very slow speed and wonders now at how many other drivers cursed their luck that morning.

Clocks are one of my favorite collecting themes, but the reason I decided to have back to back clock "orphans" yesterday and today is because they were both adopted by Maries. And they both arrived back here right around the same time. And the two Maries have similar handwriting. I always have to check the postage to see if it is German or French before I'm 100% sure which Marie is writing :-)

Tick Tock

This beautiful black and white postcard shows the astronomical clock in Lund, Sweden. The top part of the clock shows the phases of the Moon and sunset times. In the center, figures representing the Three Magi and their servants circle out and around a Mary and Joseph. The clock plays twice a day, except on Sunday, when it only plays once. There is also a calendar at the bottom which allow for calculating the days of moveable holidays, like Easter. The calendar is only set up to work through 2123. After that, according to Wikipedia, "a new one must be obtained so that the clock can be used." Love the optimism that sees the clock still being used in more than 100 years!

Marie's boyfriend studied in Lund and she visited him there a few times. While he was in class, she took a bike and toured the city. She writes that Lund in a lovely "student city," and she is so captivated that she and her boyfriend are considering going back for an extended visit in a few years. And she wants to make a point of seeing this clock! No worries ... it has another 100 or so years before it needs to be upgraded :-)

In English, clocks go "tick, tock." I wonder what the sound is in other languages?

Meep Meep

This Charley Harper artwork of the roadrunner bird is called "Tall Tail." I love the geometric design in many of Harper's animal portraits. Walter lives in Texas, where roadrunners are quite abundant. He writes that the bird can eat rattlesnakes, which I didn't know. Courageous bird!

This card was originally scheduled to post yesterday, but as I was looking up information about roadrunners, particularly the cartoon version that featured a very clever roadrunner who is constantly outsmarting a coyote, I read a bit about the coyote's creation being inspired by the description of coyotes in Mark Twain's book Roughing It. I knew I had Twain's study planned for posting today, on his birthdate, and thought it quite amazing that I had coincidentally scheduled this card for the day before. I had no idea there was a connection prior to my research yesterday.

So, I decided to hold onto the card until today so I could write a bit about Roughing It. I read the book many years ago for an American Literature course in university. It is a travel story, which I always enjoy, but I think I enjoyed it all the more because it wasn't Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn. Earlier in the course we had been assigned the very traditional Little Women, which I read as a child, and didn't enjoy at all as an adult. I think I'd probably feel the same about reading Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn as an adult. But Roughing It is great fun. You can read Roughing It online, for free, through Project Gutenberg.

Twain In New York

This lovely retreat is on the campus of Elmira College in Elmira, New York.  Mark Twain is a much loved, though often controversial, late 19th century/early 20th century American author. He was born 176 years ago today. Twain wrote some of his novels, including Tom Sawyer, in this study during summers spent in Elmira. And he is buried nearby.

I've read a number of Twain's books and essays. His work is pretty much required reading in most US schools, except where his work is banned. And it often is because of themes that run counter to prevailing philosophies. I would love to read his autobiography, which was only released last year, 100 years after his death.


Google honors Twain with a Google Doodle today that is very charming. It features a large panoramic painting of a scene from Tom Sawyer. Google doesn't allow their Doodles to be linked, but this is an article at the UK's Telegraph with an image.

Debra lives near Elmira and sent this postcard back with a charming little fact ... Twain named his cats "I Know," "You Know" and "Don't Know."