Crappy New Postcard Year

[Karmann Ghiaman]

A good time to alleviate the horrors and meaningless of 2014 by looking back on other futile years with a rummage through the Dustbin of History...

 

 

"I say Cameron, what's that big building over there?"

"Don't know Old Fruit. Looked inside once. Bloody boring. Full of books."

 

 

Furkastrasse. Nice Charabancs in their original natural environment. Unusually, 1920s people not getting out for a smoke at this stop.

 

 

Looks like the Dowager Duchess and Bates have just arrived and are about to 'take the waters' before retiring for an afternoon of scones and unbridled inter-social class lust in the aptly-named Grand Pump Room...

 

 

Boardwalk Empire eat your heart out, this is Atlantic City UK circa 1950. People are going HATLESS!

 

 

Dante is sickened by the lack of Italoshite cluttering up the streets and squares of his beloved Florence in 1951. Since when did Italian youths ride pushbikes for God's sake?

 

 

Meanwhile, back in Blighty... The QM and Princess Margaret have managed to sneak past the Guards and are emerging from that wide open gate. If you want your car blown to smithereens, try parking there now.

 

 

This one was sent to Mr & Mrs Wood in Lincoln, date unclear, but presumably shortly after the War as Rationing is implied by the most excellent message:

 

Dear Mam and Dad, Just a few words to let you know we have posted you some Tinned Jam off in case you wonder who its from To day (Tuesday) we have been just outside Dublin (12 miles) to Bray a seaside resort. very nice but the rain spoilt it (only Showers) We are just eating some chocolate and cream biscuits. Cheerio for Now Love from Brenda and Ernest

 

Ireland has that effect on visitors.

 

 

Cough the Cat (remember him?) seems to have had an extensive modelling career on 'Good Luck from' postcards before he moved on to Tiswas. This didn't go far since it was sent to Fettenhall (? am I reading that right?) 'Nr. Wolverhampton' in August 1954:

 

Dear Hilary

 Hope you are having a nice Holliday the weather is lovely for you. We have not managed to make the ice lollies yet but have had the ice drinks instead

 Hoping to see you this week end love from

N.M. Sutton

 

They were the text messages of their day (but less banal).

 

 

"This reminds me of when me and the lads arrived at Stalag XIV, Doris."

 

 

One fucking beauty sweeping in on the left there! From the days when buses reminded you to stock up on booze 'n' fags, oh yes.

 

 

Back in Brum again. Not sent, I'm afraid, but will post text where possible. Ah, here's one:

 

 

July 1962:

 

The girls seem to have settled in now, sorry over delayed interview but hope all is well now. Looking forward to Margarets next letter hoping it will contain news of interest. They seem to be enjoying themselves. Hope you and Mr. A. aren't too lonely.

 Kindest Regards.

 W & G. 'P'.

 

I don't know about Mr & Mrs Antcliffe, but half a century later I detect a strong hint that that they want a letter from Margaret and NOT a boring one. Did people really go on holiday to Birmingham? I know it was dull before they invented sex, but was it really that awful?

 

Looking forward to your comments. More postcard crap to follow...

 

[Cavcraft]

Class, please keep it coming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*MEGA_LOLZ @ Cough The Cat, only recently discovered him as someone at work mentioned it, so I Youtubed it. Rumour has it Bob Carolgees had an antique shop not far from here but was a right miserable bastard if you went in and asked him to do Cough or Spit. Actually that sounds like some sort of euphemism, no wonder he wouldn't oblige.

[Karmann Ghiaman]

With compliments...

 

 

You want horses and buses? We got horses & buses. March 1965 to Mr & Mrs E.W. Morris in Merioneth, N. Wales:

 

 

Dyma ni cwm ychyrig weddwl mynd i Ideal Home Exhibition beddiw. Tynydd litha.

 Cufion annyl

 Merion & Kitty

 

Would have been difficult handwriting to decipher even in English, but apologies to the many Welsh readers amongst you. I have a strong impression that they visited Earls' Court, however.

 

 

This one's got everything. It is the Yarmouth ferry arriving on the Isle of Wight circa 1973:

 

We are girding our loins and resting prior to some heavy autumnal gardening on our return! lovely weather to date & everybody in fine fettle. Love to you both Annetta & Illegible

 

It was posted in Freshwater on August 17th. That was a very good year.

 

 

Mourne Mountains, Co. Down, Northern Ireland. This was posted for 4d from Belfast on 26 September 1968 (when Northern Ireland was just about to go off again):

 

We exercised no ingenuity to send this, the most hideous photograph of Ireland ever taken [That's what you think! - KG Man] : it was the only card the General Stores, Duffy's Emporium, could provide. The actual view from this huge and infinitely desirable house is almost embarrassingly beautiful, Sea, mountains across the bay, cormorants, heron, and today a basking seal. At night, exhausted by dogs, air and arguments about the theatre, we retire to a vast bedroom the colour of a geranium, its acres of polished floorboards dominated by a flowery & beribboned Tester bed, O heavenly Luxury. Our love to you all,

 Mary

 

Well, that's one way to write a postcard.

 

 

We had childhood holidays here around this time, 1972. I well remember the jellyfish in that sort of walled-off swimming area by the castle, and those ruins + the tunnels under said castle which some Medieval besieger had dug through solid rock in an epic failure of an attempt to undermine the place. This was not from me or my parents, though we may well have been there then. It was sent to Mr & Mrs J. Anderson at "the Wild Turkey" (a pub?) in Greengairs nr Airdrie. By contrast with Mary's Booker Prize-winning entry above:

 

Weather not very good, but we are enjoying the break. Trust everyone is well

 Your [sic] aye

 Irene & Billy

 

 

Of course I like this because of Lord Tennyson's Beetle parked in front. April 1968:

 

We are staying at this famed structure in ancient Vectis and what is more we are in the poet's own bedroom while the children are in the adjoining chamber of his wife Emily. Today we did a great deal, including a ride by Hovercraft to Portsmouth to do the Victory. Alum [?] Bay has been done, also Conisbrooke Castle. Apart from the hovercraft it might be 1908, very nice. Love Tony

 

And for those of you who like hovercraft, picture coming later + other watershite. Wonder if you can still stay in the poet's bedroom? Doubt it.

[Cavcraft]

Damn, I can't come, itchy wedding minge?

[TimothyClaypole]

That cat looks a lot like Stouffer from Harry Hill (only not blue).

[Pillock]

Awesome stuff! I like how some of the messages have been well composed and are truly insightful, and others make the witterings of a 12 year old on a Blackberry sound like classic fiction.

 

Cav, you can indeed go in Bob Carolgee's shop, its a candle shop somewhere in Widness I think. He sold Spit at auction though.

[chaseracer]

'Tettenhall', the posh end of Wolverhampton (yes, really!)  Less than 15 miles separated posting that card and receiving it, but at least it didn't have to go via Swindon and Peterborough like it probably would today...

[eddyramrod]

Rumour has it Bob Carolgees had an antique shop not far from here

 

Antique shop?  I  wonder when...  Certainly before and during his Tiswas* years he had a record shop in South Road, Waterloo, just down from the Merseyrail station on the same side.  I never managed to see him in there, but then, I did live in Southport, so it wasn't exactly my neighbourhood.

 

 

*"Tiswas" should really be all-capitals, as strictly speaking it was an acronym: "This Is Saturday, Watch And See."  I only discovered that after watching Sally James for at least a year.  Mmm, time to move to one of the "women" threads I think...

[cort16]

That cat gets around. its on my sig after finding it on a good luck from Galashiels postcard. I guess it was some kind of a theme back then?

[Mr Lobster]

Ace! I love these postcard threads, keep 'em coming.

[Karmann Ghiaman]

I think Cough and Stoupher might be related? There are, indeed, many Good Luck From cards with centre cats of varying realism. Wouldn't it be great to find one from somewhere horribly unlucky? (probably best to leave the British & Irish ones to everyone's own imagination, but 'Good Luck from Aleppo' might give a reasonably inoffensive idea of what I'm getting at.)

 

 

Nice example of America having the biggest in the world of some useless object. Some shite parked in background. Sent in 1985:

 

We are having a lovely time & have large airy flat in illegible on bus route - temp 92o - 96o first weeks - now in 70s - shopping quite difficult (all names different) but I have car transport once a week - D's students very nice - one does down-hill skiing as part of course. The 'tarheels' are local teams at sports - great games on Saturdays - Eddie would enjoy - Hope all is well - am occasionally in the library (v. large & spacious)

Much love D & J.

 

A lot of useful/useless info about the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill there then. Interestingly and unusually, this card is copyrighted 1968, so it was already 14 years old when sent; many others must have been taken years, if not decades, before our example went anywhere.

 

 

Watershite ahoy! And I have actually been on this not-very-seaworthy old Greek tub, M.V. Jason, though didn't send the card shown. That is at Santorini, aka Thira, where you have to go by small boat to land since the original harbour was all blown up in the Legend of Atlantis. It was on that island that I saw a Greek farmer using an old Kettenkrad, helpfully left by German paratroopers some years earlier, as a pretty good tractor.

 

 

Rapallo, Italy, sent almost exactly 30 years ago on 3 Jan. 1984:

 

We've come here for about 5 days - The flat is OK for two, but unthinkable for three! Weather rather rough so far, but quite mild. We had to drive through fog to get here & it took six hours! But it makes a change - love, Rachel & Umberto

See you in Feb. I hope

 

Don't know if they did see my mother, to whom it was sent, the following month, but they have both now gone somewhere you can't send postcards or even texts from... As you can tell from the name, he was Italian, so probably didn't mind driving in dangerous weather on roads which are dangerous even at the best of times.

 

 

Coutances, France. I like the way the photographer has made sure those bits of autoshite go with the Medieval church. Definitely a 2CV and THAT French roof-rack there. Sent in October '85 with dull message:

 

Many thanks for your card. I hope you had good weather for most of the time in Italy. We have once again come to Valonges and enjoy the change + good fare.

 Our love, Ilid [?]

 

To be continued...

[Squire_Dawson]

Thanks for posting that information on St. Andrews. I've been wracking my brain for ages trying to remember where that childhood holiday was where we went down the undermined castle foundation hole.

 

Those were the days. Hovercraft, underground castle seiges, Capstan Full Strength and hairy cats fed on meat scraps. Incidentally, does anyone remember white dog shit?

[ifc63]

Antique shop?  I  wonder when...  Certainly before and during his Tiswas* years he had a record shop in South Road, Waterloo, just down from the Merseyrail station on the same side.  I never managed to see him in there, but then, I did live in Southport, so it wasn't exactly my neighbourhood.

 

 

*"Tiswas" should really be all-capitals, as strictly speaking it was an acronym: "This Is Saturday, Watch And See."  I only discovered that after watching Sally James for at least a year.  Mmm, time to move to one of the "women" threads I think...

 

He has a candle shop at the Lady Heyes craft place just outside Frodsham :- http://www.carolgeescandles.com/

[Cavcraft]

I was quite probably wrong about it being an antique shop, but that moustachioed MOTHERFLIPPER is defo getting a visit from me. I might introduce to him to our living version of his puppet, the snappily entitled Piss The Dog. Upon command it will (hopefully) urinate his way through shop leaving yellow trademark trails through his gypsy caravan heaven stock. If he complains I'll turn up next week with Shit The Cat, and he really doesn't want to know what kind of delights he can perform. 

[rml2345]

^ MEGALOL!
These postcard threads are indeed ace, please keep these coming. Sometimes the drivel written on the other side is almost as good as whatever picture they're sending back. 

[mercrocker]

Love this thread....I collect old postcards for precisely the kind of  reasons enthused about above.   Unfortunately I haz no skanna otherwise I would share some with you.   Might try crap camera phone...

[Richard]

With compliments...

 

 

We had childhood holidays here around this time, 1972. I well remember the jellyfish in that sort of walled-off swimming area by the castle, and those ruins + the tunnels under said castle which some Medieval besieger had dug through solid rock in an epic failure of an attempt to undermine the place. This was not from me or my parents, though we may well have been there then. It was sent to Mr & Mrs J. Anderson at "the Wild Turkey" (a pub?) in Greengairs nr Airdrie. By contrast with Mary's Booker Prize-winning entry above:

 

Weather not very good, but we are enjoying the break. Trust everyone is well

 Your [sic] aye

 Irene & Billy

 

 

 

 

If I get a chance before I go back to work I'll retake these four shots if anybody is interested. The castle and Abbey haven't changed much, the R&A has a few carbuncles around it now and the pier is much the same, but there is a modern block of flats where that house stood.

 

This is the tunnel under the castle that was mentioned.

 

 

This is the "counter-mine" dug by the people inside to try and head off the invaders.

 

 

And this is where they met and a fracas ensued.

 

[Karmann Ghiaman]

Thanks for those pictures of the mines & counter-mines, Richard. I have often wondered if the public were still allowed in. They seem to have cleaned it up and put lighting in, it was much more dangerous and spooky in the 1970s. Several outings were made every week in St Andrews holidays holidays to places where various people, like bishops and husbands/lovers of Mary Queen of Scots, had been murdered in Scottish history...

 

mercrocker! Scanners going cheap all over 'Austerity', 'Recession-hit' Britain at this very moment! Please get one and share your hideous cards with us.

 

Anyway, here's a few more from me:

 

 

Granny sent this to Mother on 1st Dec 1988, though IRONICALLY it went from Tring, Hertforshire TO Oxford. Quite boring text really:

 

Darling Frances

Looking forward to seeing you next Monday.I was just about to write this card when you 'phoned. Hope the weather will stay mild. See you at lunch time. Will Eddy be coming? He is very welcome! 

 Lots of love from Mummy

 

Of course if you knew the people involved, even the most innocent-looking words have layer upon layer of hidden subtext. Basically that is a very affectionate card to an ungrateful and jealous daughter who never returned her love! But you don't have a clue from the card, do you?

 

 

Granny may have got a bit of revenge by going to Oxford and buying all the most revolting postcards available, then simply sending them back there. This is dated 16.11. '88 and suggests that Mother visited her more often than I remembered:

 

Darling Frances,

It was lovely having you here y'day. I hope that you did not have any trouble with mist [My mother always thought that Granny wanted her to have an accident somewhere between Oxford and Tring] I'm so glad you got yourself that red coat! You look stunning in it! [seems unlikely to me]

 I spoke to [my aunt] Josie on the 'phone and she was pleased to hear that you're agreeable about coming to London at Christmas. She'll talk about the details with you. Thanks for all the tasty titbits you spoilt me with ("with which" I should have said!) Lots of Love also to Eddy from Mummy

 

(Being Dutch she was apparently very worried about English grammar.) Granny lived to 99 and died in 2003. Mother is threatening to do the same now which will give her till 2030... Aaaahg!

 

 

Putting family skeletons back in their closets we proceed to this nice, unsent picture of The Spittal of Glenshee Hotel and Ben Gulabin, Perthshire. Wasn't Ben Gulabin an Israeli politician? Lovely coach.

 

 

Good shiteparking there.

 

Weather fine - nearest McDonalds twenty miles away. Surviving so far. Looking on the bright sight side - at least tomatoes should be happy Best wishes Mary Bob Thomas

 

Make of that what you will, it seems to be some sort of secret code. Sent to Mother in '93, and if Mary is the one I'm thinking of, may show early signs of the Alzheimers from which she's now suffering. Don't know if they were glad or sad to be so far from McDonalds; presumably the former?

 

 

I feel rather guilty that we're here on our second holiday this year. we find that there's more + more of France we want to see - we've never been anywhere near the part you were in, for instance. We have a most pleasant gite near this small town Questembert, near Vannes. It's in remote country + perfectly peaceful. We go out on excursions to the sea, to the odd chateau, to walk, or to eat in one of the small restaurants. Otherwise we read, R works + we indulge in goodies from the supermarket. Most pleasant! Love A x

 

But you're missing Corrie and 'Stenders! The French card maker tells us that this covered market thing was built in 1675, but nothing about the classic scooters using it as a shelter the day they took the picture.

 

 

I know the Tay Bridge is always popular, though unfortunately this card was never sent and is blank on the back. Excellent crud parked in Camperdown Park which dates this to the mid '60s.

 

Not finished yet...

[Squire_Dawson]

Fantastic.

[George-Roper]

Where no parking mean "No f*cking parking"

[Karmann Ghiaman]

That was bad luck with that cactus. They don't look that heavy, but clearly weighs a ton...

 

Anyway, happy new year and a great 2014 to everyone. Here's the promised hovercraft to greet the New Age dawning:

 

 

Watershite par excellence. Not sent, but one of J. Arthur Dixon's finest and it says: SRN 2 Hovercraft The 27-ton Westland SRN 2 Hovercraft, here seen operating in the Solent carries sixty passengers at 80 knots (Extremely quick & sick, if true, as the fastest ship can only manage about 25 kts.)

 

 

Belgian interlude. Very nice 1920s? card I found in a shoebox at an antiques/tat emporium recently. Can't read the date, but this has got to be nearly a hundred years ago:

 

Dull all the way Calm crossing Arrived in Brussels 10'15 went out for stroll had coffee at Cafe with X on tother side! Having breakfast & just off to catch 10'15 train to Heidelberg both OK. dears - Love Mother -

 

Watch out for Michael Portillo with his wretched Bradshaw, Mother.

 

 

This is a trick card and somehow the crowd doesn't look right for the Far East so you're immediately suspicious. It's the Thailand Pavillion at the Brussels World Fair 1958! It must have been the talk of all the Low Countries! The old geezer at right was clearly disappointed not to find any Ladyboys parading about in there, though thanks to Progress his grandson can jet off to the real Bangkok at the click of a mouse... Card not sent unfortunately.

 

 

Everybody's favourite place abroad on superbly nasty card. Sealink ferry nailed this one for me, again never sent.

 

 

You can see that same building, which the burghers of Ostend are obviously proud of, in this one, which I'm glad to report WAS sent:

 

Dear Jean,

 We are having a very nice time as there is such a lot to see [What?!? In Ostend? Get real, Woman.] & the weather is very kind to us, Paul is paddling in the part of the sea you can see on this P. Card Have you already got this stamp? Hope you have a nice holiday. send me a P.C. Love Aunty Joyce xxxx

 

It went to Bolsover, Derbyshire, but the stamp in question has indeed been removed for Jean's collection, so can't tell the exact date. Probably 1960s or early '70s. It does say Kursaal in Belgian, which I think means 'Town hall'?

 

 

A slightly more interesting place in Belgium, Bruges. That's a good film with those two Irishmen there, isn't it? In Bruges - see it if you haven't already. Great '70s shite driving by in this card, + girls with nice legs on the left (though they may turn out to be BOBFOCs on closer inspection).

 

 

Not to be outdone for bizarre postcards and crunky cars, neighbouring Holland gives us this disturbing image.

 

 

Good old Amsterdam, Parked-up-shite Paradise of the planet as Michiel often proves with his glorious pictures online. Some of it (probably still there) can be seen in this card.

 

Having a lovely time.

 Gaynor.

 

Date illegible, early '60s? 6 Cents to post.

 

 

(Being half Dutch I have to be careful here as these might be relatives.) You can see what a sexy race we are...

 

 

Here's a picture of another little Dutch girl, Doutzen to make up for that and give you lot a happier New Year in case you've never seen her before:

 

 

Then it's back to cheese in sunny Alkmaar:

 

[chaseracer]

 

Not to be outdone for bizarre postcards and crunky cars, neighbouring Holland gives us this disturbing image.

 

 

Been there, crossed that, stopped for the obligatory photos!  About nine cars up, you'll see the faithful Blingo, Berlin-bound in 2010...

 

[Karmann Ghiaman]

I should imagine it might get quite blowy at times. Bet they occasionally have to stop high-sided trucks crossing.

 

Three rather creepy ones I got from Peronist Argentina:

 

 

 

 

Fascinating Anglo-American shite to be seen, as you'd expect. The buses will be taking political prisoners off to Futbal Stadio Evita to be shot. These were nos. 226, 242 and 230 in a series, REPRODUCCION PROHIBIDA!

[pompei]

Brilliant selection and commentary! 

[londonm]

More please, got any from wartime Germany? Having a lovely time in Dresden, though the firestorm was bad last night etc....

[Karmann Ghiaman]

Think I have got some from Nazi Berlin somewhere, + a Mussolini Fascist Italy/crap Empire or two, but they are rather innocuous and just show that for most people life went on at its petty pace despite living through events of Earth-shattering magnitude. I believe I have previously posted the one from neutral Holland, sent in May 1940, saying he'd got the carpet swatches and would return to England in a day or two. Next day the Germans invaded. The card got to London (via Switzerland), but presumably the chap who went for the samples didn't make it back till 1945 if at all.

 

 

August 26 1963 (8pm collection), sent to Morriston, Swansea, S. Wales:

 

Dear Gu

 I am having a lovely time here. The weather is really nice and it is a lovely place

 I hope you are well,

love Moina

 

Can't say fairer than that; a rare instance of finding decent weather on a British holiday. I would be inclined to stop for that zebra, but still.

 

 

Another 'Pump' Room, fnaar, fnaar. Old Betjeman would've liked this card with his scary Death in Leamington...

 

Dear Mrs Latus,

 Spending a lovely holiday here. Weather lovely. We have been to Stratford on Avon today. The Theatre is very beautiful, see you next week. Love Betty & Bob (J.) xx

 

It was indeed posted in Stratford-on-Avon, catching the 1.45 collection on 22 June 1959. It is quite interesting to reflect upon a world in which the Post Office could deal in quarters of an hour like that... Her opinion of the Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford is a minority one.

 

 

This one caught the 12.30 collection from Crewe on July 7 1910, so it is definitely the oldest with a green Edward VII ha'penny stamp:

 

My Dear Children

Hoping you are all well so sorry it is so wet hope you are good Children Your Grandmother and Granddad do miss you They asked one last night about you and now my Dears you must both come back on Friday Night by the 20 minutes to 8 o'clock from Uttoxeter gets to Crewe just before 9 'oclock With love to all your loving xxxxxx Mother and Dad

 

Upside down at the top the cryptic, disturbing:

 

Lizzie must come with Lucy she knows what her Dad said

 

This was a time when postcards were such a new idea that she seems to have started off thinking of it as a proper letter. It then turns into the 'text message equivalent' about train times, a very common use of cards in the first 80 years of the 20th Century when you could reply on them to get there within hours. The mad statue must have been pretty new then.

 

 

Posted from Southend for a purple thruppence (which the Edwardians would have thought a fortune) in 1963:

 

Dear Minnie & George It's a lovely day today & we are enjoying it at the seaside. Must make the most of our old age.

 Love Cath & Bill x x

 

Nice one.

 

 

I got this in Derby a year or two ago. Picture of old church: boring. Picture of old church with van unloading and people walking by with plastic shopping bags: endlessly fascinating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Karmann Ghiaman]

Another Tay Bridge Disaster, this time with nasty flowerbeds, litter bins, despairing pensioners and speeding shite:

 

 

Beauty posted to the Family Hoeg in Fakenham, Norfolk from Winchester, Hampshire on 10 August 1976:

 

 

Another sticker for your kitchen wall Chris! I hope you had - will have! - a good holiday. I've seen lots of friends and lots of places! Off to Winchester tomorrow. Done quite a bit of walking, it's so dry and dusty. Walked all round all iron age fort. See you. Ug.

 

Well, it looks like 'Ug', though apart from the signature he has some of the most exquisite handwriting I've ever seen. That was, of course, the summer of the so-called Drought, hence dry & dusty walking in deepest Hants. Six and a half pee blue to send.

 

 

Excellent carcrap including white Moggie on handbrake test, Co-op, Boots and Post Office signs abounding in this one sent in 1998:

 

Christopher Good's cottage in Suffolk was available so I took Jean there for a few days. Foul weather - East Anglia at its flattest - but it made a change for her, as they say. (Who?) Now in Dorset to collect Jessie - I'm looking after her for a few days while J & A on their package to Rome. Lyme showing off to Suffolk - today it's all blue & shining! See you soon - the Suffolk visit sudden & spur of moment.

 Much love S x x

 

A slight feeling of guilt apparent at all the holidays and having to justify them there, but this was a widowed friend of my mother's; Jessie her granddaughter, so she was doing family duty down in Dorset.

 

 

Hideous depths of Koala-on-Kanga depravity reached in this kiddy kard, apparently sent ironically also in '98:

 

Well - I got here - a bit late & They were all at the Airport. Great! - lovely to be with all my Aussies again. I'll send you a more elegant card later on! Do hope you are O.K. - keeping my fingers crossed. Sue's new homwe is still being built on to - it's going to be great - At least there is a loo already!! Love, Barbara

 

But that is a veritable Sistine Chapel compared with this All-Time Winning entry of Bad Taste from the Emerald Isle:

 

 

This MR. LIAM LEPRECHAUN Tableau is designed and made in the Republic of Ireland [No, really? I thought it was from Guatemala]

 

FROM AN ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH

 

POST CARD

 

Having a nice time in Dublin. The weather is nice.

best wishes

 

"...a MIghty Man Is He"

 

Fiona

 

To Miss Gipsso

n.

 

 

[Cavcraft]

I can see this rivalling eBay tat as the best thread on here. Brilliant stuff, keep them coming please.

[Richard]

Another Tay Bridge Disaster, this time with nasty flowerbeds, litter bins, despairing pensioners and speeding shite:

 

 

 

Absolutely everything on the land here has gone- ramps, roads, flowerbeds, buildings, tollbooths, trees with Jif lemons tied to them, the lot. I've never managed to read what their proposals are because the bullshit content makes me too angry, but basically they are planning to make some kind of amenity that you can neither walk nor drive to. If they even bother to finish it, which they won't, it'll be a cone-ridden building site until long after I am dead.

 

I think somebody realised Dundee was quite an acceptable place to drive in, which put its city status in jeopardy. Thanks to this and other recent works Dundee can hold its head high alongside Edinburgh, Glasgow and even Newcastle.

[Karmann Ghiaman]

Non-PC PCs

 

Since londonm asked, I have had a rummage through the shitty card collection and come up with a few choice fascist, imperialist and generally politically dubious ones...

 

 

From Nazi Germany and not a swazzie in sight. The Olympic rings can, however, be seen between the towers. Of course I would like it say:

 

Darling Wiggybum, Having a super time with the Stormtroopers, we got frightfully drunk on Schnapps last night & beat up some horrid little Hebrew Reds. Went to this Reich sports stadium today & watched sveldt-thighed Aryan girls tossing javelins. It's all too, too divine.

 Ciao for now, Heil Hitler! Unity xxx

 

...but sadly, it was never sent. Here's one from young Adolf's Vienna:

 

 

A pity it's not BY Hitler. He could have drawn the building (Sudbahnhof) quite well, but his human figures were always crap. He used to buy (or steal) postcards, then make rather sad copies which he tried to sell. Again, not sent.

 

 

A shoe-in for Fascist Italy. Don't know what's happened to this, but should imagine that the Raff or USAAF pulverised it to rubble. Someone seems to be bowing down in front there, but I expect he's just spotted 5 Lira on the ground, rather than being overawed by the sheer brutalism of it all. So unlike our own naval monuments (expect maybe Nelson's Great Big Thing in Trafalgar Square?)

 

 

One way to keep cats out of the garden. Not a clue as to where this was, though it says 'Post Card' and 'Stamp Here' on the back, so I'm going for Malysia or Burma? (You need to get that George Orwell in to deal with the elephants.)

 

 

 

Two from the prewar International Settlement in Shanghai. NO DOGS. NO CHINESE.

 

 

French Algiers... but not for long, mes Amis. Au revoir! BOOM BOOM