Once again, it's World Postcard Day when we celebrate the date of the first postcard, sent in 1869. Long before email or text messages, the postcard represented a quick and inexpensive way to send a short message. More recently, picture postcards were a popular through the mid 20th century as a way to send souvenir photos from vacations back to family and friends. Today, enthusiasts like myself preserve the tradition by sending postcards around the world in an exchange program facilitated by Postcrossing. Of course, that's not enough anachronistic messaging for me, so I also send personal postcards to family and friends during vacations and on other holidays and special events. This year I will be sending a commemorative postcard that was published a few weeks ago to specially mark this day. And by sending a few cards on this day, I will earn a profile badge at Postcrossing, as I have every year since 2020. As I write my postcards today, I'll be remembering the long history of the humble paper rectangle- the world's first short message system.
