Postcard feature: Brick Path

This postcard is from the June 2012 Helena series.  If you've ever been to Helena, Montana, you may recognize the brick pattern!  I love that part of town.

This postcard came back to us years ago, before we had a blog on which to keep track of our project. The finder wrote us a wonderful note with some great questions.  I'm hopeful that we can get a message to her that will enable her to finally find this blog and get her questions answered!  She wrote:

July 4 2012

Hi, I'm Keely and I'm from Helena, Montana.  I found this lost post card at the Lewis and Clard library in a book called, Child of the Mountains.  Even though I don't know who you are, and probably won't get the answers, I have a few questions for you.  1.  How did you get it to Helena? 
2.  Did you put it in a library book?  3.  Why did you do this?  So those are my questions, even though I don't expect to get any answers.  Sorry it took so long I kinda forgot about it, and is ther more than 1.  
Sincerely, 
Keely M.
[street name]
Helena, Montana.

At the time we got your note, Keely, we had a contact in Helena, a schoolteacher, whom I hoped would be able to help us find you.  But as you know, Helena's a big town, and she didn't know you. However, today I'm going to contact the Lewis and Clark Library.  I'm hopeful that someone there will know who you are and be willing to tell you to come to this blog and get your questions answered.  The answers are:  We often visited Helena for a while because of our husband and Dad's work, so we put the postcard in a library book while we were there.  We got used to calling the project "Lost Postcards" even though technically that's not correct; they're more like left-behind-on-purpose postcards.  We do it because we like art, and postcards, and mail, and libraries, and people. There's more information about that in our first blog post and our blog description. And yes, there were more than one--in fact, we placed 10-20 postcards at a time in the library there several times over a couple of years!

Thanks for the wonderful questions and note!

Postcard feature: Monsters

In packing for a trip to San Antonio, I found a Ziploc bag among my things that had several Lost Postcards in it.  Yeah, I'm disorganized.  But what a fun surprise!  The cards were mostly returns from Helena--the Jan 2012 series, the June 2012 series, and the March 2013 series--with one stray postcard from the Hayden Jan 2012 series. That would have been the same trip--Helena for work, with a side trip to Hayden to see our second eldest son.

There were some fun postcards in this little baggie!  I'll start with this one from 2013:

It's one of mine, inspired by the boys and their favorite movie of the time.  I'm pretty sure this was the trip where I finally caved and bought some movie players for the car at a pawn shop!

The finder said:

Hope you are having a great fall so far-I found this in a library book in Lewis & Clark Library in Helena.  My 4 1/2 year old lvoed the purple monster's feet.  Thanks for sharing the monsters with us!  Susan Murray
P.S. Check out my teen book review blog-- www.youngpeoplesbooks.blogspot.com
Well, how can I resist a 4 1/2-year-old who loves big feet, or a Mama who has a book review blog?  I went to the blog, sent a note, and got an address, and Susan's girls and I exchanged some very fun pictures of monsters! We connected on Facebook and I've enjoyed her girls' antics (and sense of style!) ever since.

Thanks, Susan, for returning our postcard and for the trust!

More from this baggie to come...

mejaka

Postcard feature: Bird and blade

 A postcard came back from Portland this week!  The artwork is Jesse's; to be honest, I'm not sure what it is, but he's in bed already because we had a very long day yesterday when our car broke down on a mountain road in the middle of nowhere.  Between that and Daylight Savings, the boys needed an early night.  But it looks like a bird and blade to me.  (Does it?  Or is my own exhaustion showing?)

This postcard had a most unusual and interesting note.  The finder wrote:

I found this postcard inside a book my teacher gave me to read.  I'm 64 years old.  I have started school from the 1st grade now I'm @ the end of the 3rd grade.  I have dyslexcia I'm improving my reading please respond when you receive this card.  Thanks  Kenda

We will absolutely be responding!  And here, we'd like to say that no matter your age, learning and growing are good things!

(Note:  We scrambled the area with the address!)

Postcard feature: Let it snow!

Another postcard this week! This one came back to us from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where we left it over a year ago.  The art is Jonno's, and boy, was he excited to have one of his cards come back today!

We've had a long, snowy winter here, but today was springlike.  I'll just say--"Let it snow!" was great a few months ago, but it's not my sentiments today!

The finder writes:

Put in the Lost & found at C d'A Public Library, Children's Dept!  Let's send this on its journey!  Merry Christmas & Happy 2017!

Thank you, kind finder!

Postcard feature: Tomatoes

 What a surprise to get this postcard back from Helena!  We haven't been to Helena for some time--a couple of years at least!  The corner that would have shown the year is ragged, and on the other side I think there was contact information for the finder on that same corner.  This card was placed before we started keeping track on this blog, too, so there's no URL for the finder to look up.  I do have a Helena contact, though, so we may thank this finder yet!

Especially since this finder was kind enough to add postage.  There's more than enough on it now! The finder wrote:

Heyyy,
I found your postcard in a library book.  I figured you might be missing it so I'm mailing it home to you.

Postcard feature: Pile of pandas

Things have been a bit rough around here lately, but what could be more cheering than a pile of pandas?  This postcard was returned to us in February.  Sometimes it takes a while for us to feature something!  But it's perfect, because finding it today made me smile, and I needed to smile.

This card was left behind in the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho library in January.

As always, thank you to the discoverer for returning this pile of pandas to us and adding some fun comments any parent will understand:

You are not lost, Little Postcard, you are found. Please support your local library  Don't walk in barefeet where LEGOS are present.  Chou and shalom
Oh, the LEGOS I have stepped on with five boys in the house!

Postcard feature: Velocity

I admit it.  I can quote line after line after line of Monty Python's _The Search for the Holy Grail._ So can my kids.  It's the only Monty Python movie I've seen, and if I could, I'd delete one entire scene from it.  I'm pretty straight arrow and I prefer my movies clean.  But oh...the rest is so funny.

I was tickled to get this Python-inspired postcard back with more Monty on the reverse side!

The finder--who signed it "With Warm Regards, The Northwest Library"--pasted to the back the lyrics to The Galaxy Song.  Since my Monty fanhood is of a very limited sort (one movie, seriously; I don't trust him not to be way too irreverent and crass for my tastes, so I haven't explored him further), I had never heard this song.

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving 
And revolving at 900 miles an hour. 
It's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned, 
The sun that is the source of all our power. 
Now the sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see, 
Are moving at a million miles a day, 
In the outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour, 
Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way. 
 
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars; 
It's a hundred thousand light-years side to side; 
It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-years thick, 
But out by us it's just three thousand light-years wide. 
We're thirty thousand light-years from Galactic Central Point, 
We go 'round every two hundred million years; 
And our galaxy itself is one of millions of billions 
In this amazing and expanding universe. 
 
Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding, 
In all of the directions it can whiz; 
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know, 
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is. 
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure, 
How amazingly unlikely is your birth; 
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space, 
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth! 

Thanks to the finder for taking the time!  Anna and I looked up 

The Galaxy Song on YouTube.  (Warning:  Preview before watching 
with children; there's an animation in the middle that parents will 
want to be aware of.)