Recieved from Jon Foster, USA--Found Art (where the heck is this place?)

[Bifidus Jones]

I have the same question Jon has: Why wasn't this location identified on the card? Do any of you know where this is? And why two views? What's up with the big white stripe? The only info on the card was the printer's name so I actually googled Curteichcolor and discovered that the Curt Teich Company (morphed to Curteich?) printed a significant amount of postcards in the U.S. from around 1900 to 1980, most of them as engaging as sawdust: hotels, hospitals, freeways, lakes, etc, but nonetheless, the scenery was always identified. WHY NOT THIS CARD? The CK.414 code on the left side supposedly stands for when it was printed. The C is to indicate the 1950s and the K means it was done in Curteichcolor, which is a chrome postcard printing process. Were the employees so enamored by this process they didn't believe the location of this scene would matter to the sender or receiver? I think it was the highway itself that, at that time, was such a modern wonder to behold its name/location must have been instantly recognizable to any citizen of the day. The post card was celebrating progress. I like Jon's found mail art because of what it is: a small bleep somewhere on the planet, a (sort of) blast from the past, which he found and sent to me. Thanks, Jon!

[jon foster]

When I saw this card (at a antique store with thousands) I asked myself, "Why would any company used to print this?" There's no way that I could have been the buyer they had in mind thirty or forty years later.

[Valentine Mark Herman]

I save Boring Postcards. They are not Boring to find.

Still Boring Val

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Hi! There's a series of books -- at least 3 i) UK, ii) USA, iii) Germany -- called 'Boring Postcards': and believe me they are boring. The US one has many motorway scenes in like this. The US volule has neither an author nor an ISBN no, but it's called 'Boring Postcards' and is published by Phaidon, and Mr Amazon probably has details of it.

Boring Val

[Bifidus Jones]

FluXus Scranton is hilarious. Wish I had this pic when studying American Lit and the alienated hero who must leave or perish. Huck Finn used the river, we get this highway.

[De Villo Sloan]

Sharp you are Skybridge. I completely buy the idea it's a blank for banner insertion. Perhaps someone can rework and put IUOMA in the slot, of FluXus Scranton or something.

[De Villo Sloan]

Bifidus & wackystuff, if I had to hazard a guess I would say in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US too: Pennsylvania, Virginia, etc. Jon is in North Carolina and that highway could definitely pass for NC too. The white strip through the center (like a highway) does make this more interesting - unintentional Da Da. Love this 1. I wonder if the government promoted these things to make people feel better about their tax dollars.

[De Villo Sloan]

Bifidus, this Jon Foster piece is just priceless, what a sense of humor. I have no idea where it is but feel like I have been there 1000x. Haven't we all in the U.S. - those highways? If memory of history serves me at all, and assuming you are correct that it was taken in the 1950s, I believe there was a huge highway construction program during that era. What you have written seems accurate. Super highways probably seemed ultra modern, a great step forward. That might have been reflected in postcards. Thanks to you and Jon for brightening the evening.