Winter Scene Postcard from about 1910

I’ve had this postcard for a number of years.  I found it on Ebay and it was unused.  I have others with notes to friends while the authors spent some time relaxing in the quiet that is Rowe.  Around the turn of the century Rowe was quite the vacation destination and the people that came to visit really were very fond of this little town.  Poems were written, postcards and letters were sent.  All espousing the virtues of quiet and clean air.  The people that received these cards kept them and years later they made their way onto the market by way of the internet.  I supposed in years past they would have ended up in a tag sale or perhaps in a small antique shop somewhere.  I have to confess to spending hours in local antique shops going through photos and ephemera from local residents long gone.

These messages to friends were sent all up and down the eastern seaboard.  It’s hard to say how long they took to get to their destinations.  I remember sending cards on the first day of a vacation and they’d arrive at their destinations the day we got home.  Most of these cards cost a penny to mail.

In the past couple of weeks I’ve made some new friends on Facebook.  It’s done an interesting thing to what I post and what I’ve been watching and commenting on.  The friendships are from a number of different places both geographically and in my life.  Some from high school, some from photography school, some from the life I’m living right now.  All of them are from the gentlest of people who are seeing the same things I am right now which is the need to slow down and bring everything closer.  We all are seeing a need to build communities of like minded people, mostly to help us maintain our sanity I think.  There is so much craziness around us all the time and we are all trying to build something slow, something sustainable for ourselves in our own space.  At the same time we understand the need for a community of like minded people that let us know we aren’t insane for thinking  this is a possibility and that share their wisdom to help move the dream along.

The real irony in this for me is the fact that I’m using social media and blogging to connect with these people in a way that simply would not happen otherwise.  So the thing that sometimes makes me crazy is also what makes this small community possible.

“The Internet has turned what used to be a controlled, one-way message into a real-time dialogue with millions.” – @daniellesacks