Sending home a postcard of your trip was expected. You had to select a photo of something you had seen on your vacation, then write a few words on the back telling family and friends how much fun you were having. Address the card, put on a 1 or 2 cent stamp and send it on its way. While buying postcards you would also want to look at all the souvenirs for sale which were geared for womenfolk and the kids. You could get a fun set of salt and pepper shakers with the name of the state you were in or a fancy decorated plate to hang on the wall when you got home to show everyone where you had vacationed. Head scarves or handkerchiefs for the ladies stamped with name of the place you were visiting were quite popular. For the kids there were pennants with logos of states or national parks plus lots of inexpensive things like comic books for a dime or candy or gum to liven up the trip.
You had to take a camera along to take photos so you could show them to everyone when you got home and put them in a family scrapbook. A little Kodax box camera was very popular. It was easy to use, just put the film in then “point and shoot.” Roll the film forward or you got a double exposure, then take the next photo. New rolls of film could be bought along the way. When you ran out of film, you put in a new one and saved your exposed film to be developed when you returned home. To make prints of your vacation, you took the exposed roll to a camera or drug store. They sent your exposed film off to Kodak to be developed.
After a week to ten days of being on the road, everyone was usually ready to head home. Refreshed with the change of scenery but missing home and Texas. So it went year after year until the grandkids had grown up and moved away, and Big Momma got older and lost the energy to travel. It would have been fun to visit other places in the world away from America but in those days, air travel wasn’t available. But she did see the U.S.A. and had a wall full of plates with names of states to prove it.
All the treasures you can pick up! They do make great family history stories!
ReplyDeleteI always liked seeing those souvenir throw pillows with the garish colors and fringe - real retro collectors items today!
ReplyDeleteIt used to be so much fun picking out just the right postcard...now it's all text messaging with your cell phone..
ReplyDeleteI still buy souvenir on my travels, usually someting handcrafted in the area I'm visiting. And I Buy postcards to fill in where I'm not allowed to take photos.
ReplyDeletePostcards were big in my family... souvenirs, not so much. I remember paperweights with sand paintings in them, and a couple of pieces of petrified wood... that's about it.
ReplyDeleteI love going through the souvenirs that people have collected at garage sales... they seem to tell such a story. It always makes me sad to see children selling the things their parents have collected, though.