Saturday, February 5, 2011

Boring postcards

An oddball book we came upon in a bookshop in Europe was this one, a collection of comically dull British postcards of the 1950s-1970s.   It presents 155 postcards of places, from airport terminals to caravan sites, bus stations, motorways and housing estates with only the original caption.

Usually postcards are intended to be things that people send to their friends and relatives to indicate the great views where they are; it is very hard to imagine any of these having such an effect! Two companion volumes of similar postcards from Germany and the USA were also published.
A GDR postcard from Langweilige Postkarten, the sign says: "Power station Karl Liebknecht Bitterfeld Children's Holiday Camp" - an exciting postcard for the kids to send to their parents.

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