I think a snail might have delivered it faster!

Here's an interesting story about a postcard that was delivered to its intended recipient about 60 years after it was originally mailed.

According to the news stories out there, Scott McMurry was a teenager in 1958 (give or take a few years) when his mother mailed a postcard from the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Earlier this month, the postcard was received in Florida by a woman who has a similar street address to the Georgia address where McMurry lived as a child.

She and her friends did a little detective work and found McMurry in Virginia. In the meantime, the U.S. Postal Service reclaimed the postcard and finally delivered it to McMurry, about 53 years after it was first mailed.

For more details about the lost postcard, as well as some photos, read the original story in the Daytona Beach News-Journal or the updated story in the Chicago Sun-Times.

(Thanks to my husband for alerting me to this story that he came across online!)

Beautiful Stamps!

When I was a kid, I collected stamps. I had often admired my mom's stamp collection from when she was a young girl, and then I received my very own book. The stamps came from all sorts of places...from letters that came in the mail, from my grandmother who got them from other relatives, from ads in the back of comic books...

I carefully mounted each stamp in it's proper place in the book. Somewhere, I still have that stamp collection. It brings back a lot of memories.

As I got older, I didn't keep up the hobby of stamp collecting. But, I still appreciate stamps. Nowadays, I'm happier to buy interesting stamps -- both new and vintage -- and send them off on envelopes to pen pals.

One of my favorite publications is "USA Philatelic," the quarterly part-catalog, part-magazine put out by the U.S. Postal Service. It usually features an article about one of the newest stamps, as well as lists and photos of the stamps that are available. There also are lots of other things to buy from the catalog, including notecards, stamp guides, first day covers, etc.

The "USA Philatelic" that came out earlier this year was beautiful, featuring the cherry blossom stamp story. You can still order a copy of it online for free. I think the catalog is so nice because the cherry blossom stamps are so pretty!

If you want to subscribe to the publication so that you get it in your mailbox four times a year, sign up at www.beyondtheperf.com, the online site for the catalog.

New Letter Writing Blog!

I discovered a new letter writing blog today. I found it in a rather backwards manner...through a letter in my mailbox!

A while back, I finally got around to setting up a new post office box, and I posted my new mailing address on this blog. I didn't make a big deal about it; I just quietly posted the address over there on the left side of the blog. I check the P.O. box about once a week, and usually there's nothing but sales fliers in there.

But, today, there were two hand-written letters! Joy! It's so exciting to get mail!

One letter is from JoAnna Haugen of The 52 Letters Project.  I blogged about that project on March 1.

Evangeline's Papyrus stationery.

The other letter is from "Evangeline." She has a new blog, Letter Writing Project. She posts photos of letters she receives and stationery she buys! I was the lucky recipient of a beautifully written letter on some of her Papyrus stationery. Oh, my! I wish we had a Papyrus store nearby. Or, maybe I should be glad we don't, for my bank account's sake!

Stop by Evangeline's blog and welcome her to the letter writing community!

Happy Letter Writing!