How to Slow Down Time via Postcards and Snail Mail

Connection is so key in our crazy world.

I receive glimpses into the past through my mailbox. They represent a slower time, when folks took pen to paper and corresponded over weeks or months. I am a postcard collector and a snail mail fanatic and have been so since I was 10.

Getting something other than bills and ads in the post is a thrill. For about a dollar or less, one can reach people down the street or around the world. Postcards and letters allow one to experience other lives and also see just how similar we all are.

Through free services like Postcrossing, one is granted access to the whole planet. In my eight years of membership, I’ve swapped cards with folks as far away as the tippy top of Scandinavia and Siberia. I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting postcard enthusiasts in person—the most recent Postcrossing gathering I attended was at the amazing Joshua Tree Retreat Center in February 2025. SoCal carders stamped and traded custom-made materials to be sent to our pals all over the globe, and we enjoyed fantastic cups of coffee at the on-site café and outdoor art gallery.

Connection is so key in our crazy world. Connecting through the mellow means of mail gives us the grace of time. It’s a necessary luxury few choose to or cannot afford in the rapid world of capitalism. As I visited the Arcadia Masonic Center last Saturday for the L.A. County Vintage Postcard & Paper Show, I was whisked away to a place outside of time. It was mostly seniors who were peddling and purchasing, but there were a few millennials like me and even younger people perusing the thousands of precious 3.5" x 5" prizes. It was a treasure hunt where cash was king…which is why I came away with fewer than five cards cos I only had credit and cash apps on me. It was a good kind of overwhelming. Thumbing through the collections, I developed tactile bonds to the past, to the passions of these sellers, to the folks who may have appeared on the cards. They all had stories.

My personal collection of postcards has grown to about 1,500. I mostly aim for countries and American states—the rarer the better. (Via Postcrossing, I’ve amassed SO MANY CARDS from more active nations such as Finland, Germany and China. But every now and then, I’ll be blessed with a French Guyana or a wonderfully bizarre snapshot of the world’s biggest ball of twine. The official Postcrossing mechanism is a glorious crapshoot that’s great for the casual collector or beginner. The real gems can be traded on their forum.)

Let us not forget traditional letter writing as well. I began that hobby around age eight via the United States Postal Service’s Stamper Olympic Pen Pal Club. I can’t remember the details, but I still have the groovy 1990s folder. I believe my first pal was from Mexico. Since that foray into snail mail, I’ve had about 50 different folks I’ve corresponded with the old-fashioned way. I even met some of them in person. (Shout out to Kerry in Canada, whom I’ve kept in touch with since connecting via a friendship book in 1998! Perhaps we’ll delve into the minutia of FBs, swaps, slams, decos and such another time. But thank you to Kris in Philly and Jess in PNW for introducing me to these wonders back in high school. You too can get in on the fun via the USPS’s roundup of modern letter writing services.)

I’ve kept nearly every snail mail letter I’ve received since about 1996. I haven’t reread any since I was a teenager, but these archives represent dozens of lives and our growth, our despair, our journeys. Selfishly, I hope they someday are discovered by future archaeologists and are used as tools of understanding.

Do you partake in postcarding or snail mailing? What got you into it? How many pen pals do you have? What kind of postcards do you collect? Let us know in the comments.