The Joy of Collecting Postcards

This hobby began about 25 years ago. One fine day, I found myself in Europe. Since I was a virgin visitor there, everything looked beautiful to me. From buildings to little children, they all projected a sense of wonder.
I had my trusty camera with me and I took pictures. But back in those days when digital camera was not even a phrase yet, the ordinary point-and-shoot roll-of-film camera was THE thing.
Among our tour group was a couple who were always buying postcards. Once a while, I told myself why did this couple waste their money on postcards when they had a camera.
It was only when I returned home that I found out that there were a lot of places or objects of interest that I had either forgotten to photograph or I just ran out of film at that time, or worse, my camera exposures were very much less than desirable.
That was when it hit me - postcards! Yes, postcards was a quick remedy for an afterthought, or a post-bad picture situation. Then, I discovered the wisdom of buying and collecting postcards on holidays.
The next time I went on vacation overseas I did not make the same mistake again. That was then. Now two decades later, I have a very nice collection of postcards. Yes, I still lug my camera around but postcards cover another aspect of my vacation that could not be filled by my camera.
I have since acquired a postcard album which was bought at a post office in London. It seems my own country does not sell postcard albums. Anyway, I got mine at last, and it came in handy for all those nice postcards which I bought brand new or acquired from flea markets overseas.
Some of my best postcards are the old ones. Those that have been sent from my country Malaysia to good old England. Some of them are more than 100 years old. It was another era and the writing on the postcards stirred memories of a time long past but had a charm of its own.
I love postcards like that. They conjured images of people from the Victorian time when their forebears came to colonised countries like Malaya, now Malaysia, to earn a living. These Brits from the days of the Raj, so to speak, built mansions reminiscent of those found in those own country in different parts of Malaya.
In Penang, Malacca, Kuala Lumpur (cities in my country), there are still standing those old colonial buildings left behind by the English gentlemen who used to call Malaya their home back about 100 years ago.
This is one of the reasons why I love and collect postcards. Postcards are like history lessons. They contain images of charming incidents that only our grandparents knew about.
Sometimes, when I am bored or have nothing better to do, I will extract my postcard album and look at all the pictures that hold special memories for me. The exercise is like a slideshow to me. Every image will kickstart a certain block in my memory blank and produce a chain of visual imagery that delights me no end.
Postcards, I love them. Still do.