Sunday postcard splurge in York New Salem

After church today, Joan and I went to the one-of-a-kind antiques store in York New Salem. Its primary trade is in small antiques and furniture. But what keeps drawing me back is that the tight aisles are filled with box after box of ephemera — magazines, envelopes, playbills, advertising, brochures, photographs...

And postcards.

Zillions of postcards.

I went a little overboard on the postcards today.

Came home with about 75 of them.¹

(Hey, at least they're way lighter than books. And they take up way less space than books. Joan, looking sternly around the Book & Ephemera Room in the basement today, was telling me that I have too much stuff. Which is true. But at least I keep setting my sights on smaller and smaller collectibles. I've downsized from books to postcards. I figure stamps will be next. After that, maybe I'll just collect electrons or neutrinos. Especially neutrinos from 19th century Europe. Those would be really cool. Yes, I'm losing my bleeding mind.)

Anyway, one type of recurring postcard today was the moonlight illustration.



Another theme was cats.²



Finally, I think it's neat that I came across an old postcard of Mont Saint-Michel (and sheep). Roger Ebert's final review was published posthumously today, and it discusses Terrence Malick’s “To the Wonder." An excerpt:

"The movie stars Ben Affleck and Olga Kurylenko as a couple who fall deeply, tenderly, transcendently in love in France. Malick opens as they visit Mont St. Michel, the cathedral perched on a spire of rock off the French coast, and moves to the banks of the Seine, but really, its landscape is the terrain is these two bodies, and the worshipful ways in which Neil and Marina approach each other. Snatches of dialogue, laughter, shared thoughts, drift past us. Nothing is punched up for dramatic effect."

Look for these postcards, and many more, to be featured in the coming months here on the blog. If Joan doesn't draw the line. In which case you'll have to settle for reading about old Pomeranian subatomic particles.

Footnotes
1. I need to make sure I'm properly stocked up for this summer's Postcard Blogging Marathon, which I first mentioned in January.
2. Big cat tangent: I learned for the first time yesterday of the Lujan Zoo in Argentina, where you can hold, pet and interact with lions and tigers and bears. This has always been a dream of mine. But I'm a bit torn about how enthusiastic I should be about this zoo, as there are some questions about how they raise the animals and keep them from biting people's heads off, which would, of course, deter business.