BORING POSTCARDS

BORING ANSICHTKAARTEN VAN HELEEN (how to learn Dutch, too) Part 3

1 Ik lijk leuk en eerlijk te zijn (I seem to be nice and honest)

BORING ANSICHTKAARTEN VAN HELEEN (how to learn Dutch, too) Part 3

Jij tovert een glimlach op mijn gezicht (You put a smile on my face)

BORING ANSICHTKAARTEN VAN HELEEN (how to learn Dutch, too) Part 200 (I am having trouble loading these!)

Pannenkoeken Restaurant De Duivelsberg (Pancakes Restaurant De Duivelsberg)

That's all.

Eet smakelijk (Eat sell. Bon appetit)

En bedankt, Heleen

Very boring commercial postcard, and yet... My great-aunt was a waitress here in the 60s, which is why I have it, and look lOOk at those elm trees.

INOWROCŁAW - a city in the central part of Poland - "The sculpture of a peacock as a sundial" - a postcard of the 1980s.

Postcard about 2000.

Next cars from CCCP.

Another epically boring postcard from my childhood "collection." But it does have a Beautiful Cocktail lounge and Radio in every room!

AT LAST IMANAGED TO BUY SOME MORE POSTCARDS AT A BOOK FARE LAST WEEKEND!

Here are 5 of them -- all French beach  postcards, all sent to the Saurin family in Vierzon, France, between 1957 & 1972. (More to come)

Can  you identify the cars, Bradford?

FROM OUR NEW MEMBER -- RAY HALEY: WELCOME, RAY!

After joining IUOMA and eventually the "Boring Post Card Group" I began digging through my many collections that began in the mid 1950s. Somehow, I had come across a batch of things I hadn't seen until today February 14, 2022.

Post cards - boring, dull or otherwise; these cards opened a window to my life that goes back to March of 1943. The significance is that my Dad was in the US Army and was only 19. He would first set foot on French soil on his 20th birthday later that year. These post cards are words of wonder and encouragement from his much younger siblings too young to realize the dangers at any real level. They were 6 to 8 years old and many of these cards have no post mark because they were included in letters from my grandfather and Grandma Haley. Other letters I found include tales of policeman's balls, the rationing of sliced bread, and also rationing of gasoline.

I had learned of some of the rationing programs in history class in high school, now I know the impact it had on my family! Grandpa told my Dad about the recalling of all men with a Draft classification of 1-F. Most able bodied young men were 1-A but 1-F was the classification one was given after serving in the armed forces, this recall meant that military veterans were now to be called up to re-serve in WWII. Something I was unaware of.

I cannot thank Valentine Herman enough for accepting my friend request and opening this door. I would encourage all of you to really look at the post cards you hold in your collections. What piece of someone's history do you have and how might you share it - with this group and perhaps the original owner?

PEACE

I see now that my photography skills need improvement! I will do better in the future, PROMISE!

A majority of my post cards are ones I have saved up from family and friends and have only purchased a few in recent years, mostly for old post marks and interesting stamps!

PEACE Ray

From Ray, ...."Other letters I found include tales of policeman's balls, the rationing of sliced bread, and also rationing of gasoline."

Bad joke from Val, "Why do policemen have bigger balls than firefighters?"

"They sell more tickets."

Ha ha, Sorry about that. Now back to the Boring Postcards:

The 'Posterholungsheim' in Haartstorf, Germany'

Sosonowiec - town in south part odf Poland, road crossing. Postcard from 1980.

ONE FROM BELGIUM...WITH A  LITTLE STORY.

Here is a Boring Postcard of the Kliniek St-Blasius in Dendermonde.

It is also a Boring Postcard of the Clinique St-Blaise in Termonde.

It is the same clinic in the same town, in the same country -- Belgium.

Belgium has 2-and-a-bit official languages. The two are Flemish (spoken in Flanders), which is very close to Dutch; and French (spoken in Walloon) , which is very close to French, although the French look down on Walloon French as they look down on Swiss French, Canadian French, etc.

(The 'and-a-bit language' is German which is spoken in a tiny bit of Belgium that borders, er, Germany).

Many of the towns have 2 names that are very different, which can cause problems when you are driving around, and you have a map that doesn't have both (or all) sets of names.

These are the same towns:

Mons and Bergen

Mechelen and Malines

Antwerpen and Anvers

Elsene and Ixelles.

And, of course Brussels and Bruxelles.

So, at last, here is the postcard...

I especially like the boring road intersection.

VEGETARIANS LOOK AWAY! BUT WHO SENT ME THIS? (Not Mrs Adams)

This is from Der Adamshurst Haus: "On US Route 14 near Ellisob Bay, Wisc. Catering to Tourists, business travellers and discriminating diners who want quality without lavish displays. Cozy cocktail loung featuring Danny 'on the ivories'. Open daily noon to midnight."

Those 'disciminating diners' obviously like enormous steaks (without (lavish displays' (of what?) of course

THREE MORE FROM MIKEL UNTZILLA

1. Fuertenventura, Canary Islands, Spain -- a bored camel

2.Hong Kong Live Guard Club

(Should that be 'Life' Guard? And are there any Dead Guards?)

3. Manuscripts from Mont St-Michel, France

'Figures de géométries' from the 12th century 'Traite d'Astronomie'

"Your relatives will envy you for such a pretty sight."

"That's why I chose this postcard."

Włocławek - cocktail bar in a hotel "KUJAWY". Postcard from 1977.

Leszno, school and gliding centre. Postcards from around 1975. City in western part of Poland, between Poznań (Posen) and Wrocław (Breslau). Leszno is the only city to have hosted the Gliding World Championships three times (1958, 1968, 2003). The open space on three sides of the 101-hectare grass airfield and the nearby extensive fields make gliding safe and comfortable.

I love this group! Thank you for starting it, Valentine Michael Herman! Keep 'em coming, y'all.

TWO 'CLASSICS': BORED BURROS (FROM ARIZONA) AND A BORING ROCK POSTCARD (FROM FRANCE)

SPELUNKING (or Caving): BUT WHICH WAY IS UP?

Here is a Boring Postcard from the Grottes (caves)  d'Isturitz et d'Oxocolhaye located 12 km from Hasperen and 20 kms from Carribo in the French Basque region.

It is a 'Basque curtain'. I can't work out if the curtian is pulled or not, or even which way is up (or down), so here are 2 versions of it.

TWO GREEK ONES FROM KATERINA

1. A bridge, ein brucke, un pont from somewhere in Greece

The only (slightly) interesting thing about this is the woman in the white dress, bottom right, who seelms to be washing some red clothes in the river

2. Hotel "Splenid Palace", Salonika

"Buildings along the waterfront Avenue Nikis in 1916," it sayss on the back.

"Thnakyou, Katerina" says Val

A 'PUNNY' CARD FROM RAY HALEY

What can I say?  Well, to begin with I suppose an explanation of 'otter' might be necessary for non-English speakers: it is some sort of pun on 'ought to'.

AlthoughI why the beast should be in Sunday school -- and not say the sea -- is beyond me.  Then the 'Love one another' is baffling as there is only one otter/ought to that seems to be asleep and so has no-one around to love (except in it's dreams).

But if you come from the capital of Canada* you might be able to make more sense of this than I can.

* Ottawa. Another pun: sorry folks, I couldn't resist it

A MIXED BUNCH OF BORING POSTCARDS

1. The Beach and Menhirs (but no Obelisk) at Carnac (Morbihan), France

2. Happy Diners at the Post Office Union Holiday Camp at Esterel, France

3. Crypt at the X1th Century Abbey at Uzerche, France

4; Street scene, Celle, Germany (Bradford can identify the cars)

5. Street scene, Ennistymon, Co Clare, Ireland (Bradford can identify the ladies)

TWO POSTCARDS OF MANHOLE COVERS 'From a series of 12 silkscreens --original size, 65 x 65cms by Paul Baars.

Thanks to Mother Brandow"

CHARWOOD MUSEUM, 10 HIGH ST, LOUGHBOROUGH, ENGLAND -- the backgarden thereof with some funny metalic things on the lawn and in the flowerbeds;

Thanks to Alan Brignull  for this.

Swinoujście (Swinemünde) - basen portowy - post card from 1980. 

Welcome Juanita! I hope you will be an active participant in the Group.  Please send me some Boring Postcards. Thankyou. Val

Welcome Axel! I hope you will be an active participant in the Group. Please send me some Boring Postcards of Barcelona, Catalonia,Spain and anywhere and everywhere else.. Thankyou. Val

Dear Mark, in Poland in 2016 there was published a book by Mikolaj Dlugosz "Summer in the city", which is a selection of 160 frames, from tens of thousands of frames that were taken by many photographers between 1970 and 1989 for the purpose of printing postcards. Photographers sent out into the field were given the same instructions - the criteria according to which the pictures were to be taken. This is why such works are coherent, even though they are the work of dozens of different authors working over a period of 20 years.

Few examples from a book by Mikolaj Dlugosz "Summer in the city".

'Just noticed that the postcards arrived from Greece,Val :-)

EDESSA is the name of the place and the river: Edesseos..

which flows through the town and becomes a high waterfall, famous in the Balkans, and a place to visit to see this wonder (which, if you have seen Niagara falls...this is a bit "boring")

Thanks Raphael, I will try and get this book to add to my collection, and hope that it's available. It's not available from Amazon Poland, France or the UK, but I'll keep on looking for it. Regards, Val

Wieluń, a fragment of a contemporary housing estate. Postcard sent in 1967. This town is located in central Poland, near Lodz. The city is sometimes called "Polish Guernica" due to the bestiality of the Luftwaffe towards civilians during the bombing raids on September 1, 1939. The raids began at 4.40 a.m., before Hitler declared war on Poland. The city was destroyed in about 70-75% - from the buildings of the market square only the former Piarist college survived. The complex of buildings of the All Saints' Hospital (the main building from 1840) and the synagogue from 1842 were also completely destroyed. The 14th century church of St. Michael was also seriously damaged, and after being robbed of its valuable monuments, it was blown up by the Germans in the spring of 1940. Now the same thing is happening in Ukraine.

Wieruszów - town in central part of Poland. Postcard from around 1975. Captivating is the airplane - cafe. The plane was brought in 1968 to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the city. The Lisunov Li-2P passenger plane, serial number 234 448 04, is a Soviet license Douglas DC3. The machine was removed from the LOT fleet list on November 4, 1968. Inside the plane there was a cafeteria of GS, which made the "non-light" one of the main tourist attractions of the city, and what's more, its business card. The café no longer exists.

I got a very boring postcard from Latvia.  Goggle translator says the words say -  New Community. 

THIS IS A SPECIAL BORING POSTCARD!!

It is the 100th Boring Postcard received from Mikel Untzilla, to whom I owe a 100 thanks.

It's an old postcard from the Soviet Union. I can't make out what it says.

Altogether I reckon that there are about 720 Boring Postcards here.

Mikel has sent me the most, followed by Mim with 93 (and soon to join the 100 Club) and Katerina with 65.

Thanks to one and all....and keep sending me them, please!

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: "POSTCARDS FROM THE PAST", by Tom Jackson

Our Group focusses on the front of Boring Postcards. In his book "Postcards from the Past", Tom Jackson looks at both the front of Postcards (many of which are Boring), and the messages on the back -- many of which are hilarious. The latter, he says, are "part of a ghost story, odd messages from the past breaking through to speak to us years later."

Here are some of Jackson's Boring Postcards and Ghosts:

some boring BLUE on the way to Sigean :-)

TWO MORE FROM MIKEL UNTZILLA -- Nos 101 & 102

Fuerteventura, the Canary Islands

Not much happening on this beach, or on this Boring Postcard

Grand Trianon, Versailles Palace, France

TWO BLUE ONES FROM KATERINA

1. Avila Beach California

"Year-round seacoast playground, yacht harbour, ideal sailing and water skiing, deep sea and pier fishing. California's Safest Beach"

You can't see much, if any of the beach! None of the boats have any people on them. No wonder it's safe;

2.Nikiti, Halkidiki, Greece

Another empty boat

THREE MORE FROM MIKEL

1. Betencuria, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain

2. Le Basin du Doubs, Les Brenets, France

An old sepia cum b/w Boring Postcard showing...not very much

3. Changdeog Palace, Seoul, Korea

"Baby, it's cold outside."

Przysucha - lagoon Topornia. A place of rest for residents of Radom, a big city located about 100 km south of Warsaw. Postcard sent in 1969.

Boguszów-Gorce (Boguszów: German: Gottesberg; Gorce: German: Rothenbach) - a town in the Sudety Mountains, in Lower Silesia, in the southern part of the Lower Silesian region. Postcard sent around 1980, shows the market square, the monument and a general view of the town.

RUSSIAN BORING POSTCARD FROM EDVARD EGOROV

Thanks, Edvard!

I don't know where this is from cos I don't understand Russian.

I've recently become aware that Russia and the former Iron Curtain countries used postcards as a propaganda tool. This postcard is one of them --a clean building; lots of greenery; 2 vehicles in good condition; and not a single person in sight.

FROM GWENDOLYN HOLBROW -- lA FONTAINE HOTEL, GRAND CAYMAN, BRITISH WEST INDIES

Gwendolyn was kind enough to 'decode' the tiny writing on the back of the Postcard. It reads:

"Dear Barby, Have stamps and coins for you. No teenagers here! You would love shopping in Lincoln Mall in Miami. So many shops and so much nice stuff that it would take 2 days to see it all. The ocean swimming is wonderful. The ocean and sky would be beautiful to paint. I got 3 Viewmasters to  (??)  it. You can find big (huge?) conch shells here, but they smell so bad for several days! The coral is beautiful but deadly and sea sponges are abundant. Our beach is all sandy. You would really like the jet flight. See you soon: Love Dad and Mum (December 16, 1971)

Thanks Gwendolyn!

RUSSIAN BORING POSTCARD FROM EDVARD EGOROV.

 The building bears the red letters "Вперед к коммунизму " 
as a slogan calling for the fight for communism
 "Forward to Communism!" It is therefore partly a postcard 
with propaganda significance.