Mailart 365 has moved

This postcard was printed at the end of the 1960s. Over forty years have passed since then and as I walk around this little resort town, I begin to wonder where the stars of this postcard find themselves now. Those kids must be at least 45 years old now. Did they continue through life dressed in the traditional outfits worn by local fishermen and their fishwives, or did they get clever and try to make a living off tourism which is now the biggest earner for the town? It’s reckoned around 0.5 - 1% of Nazare’s population can be categorised as “rich” - they’re the ones in possession of assets and employing some of the poorer locals. Are any of the pescadores (fishermen) in the top-right picture still alive? Is the boat in the bottom-left still in service or broken in pieces which have been thrown out of the ocean somewhere? Life by the Atlantic coast here is still a dangerous activity, despite the water being so bright and inviting...

Remember the faces behind the next tin of tuna you delve into.

Nazare - a poor fishing port until the 1930s and beyond that a thriving resort destination - is surely a town with interesting statistics.

Some Owls sent today to friends.

This one went to a new IUOMA friend living in Italia.

Sent to my friend Lindsay who just moved back to MD from NYC.

Camel O'Rama #149, a photo by CAMEL007 on Flickr.

I have a friend who works as a nurse. Whilst out drinking with friends in a nice English beer garden he told us his take on why we think it's posh for women to wear long gloves.
The European upper classes, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, were very promiscuous. This resulted in the rapid spread of syphilis. At the time there was no well-known cure for it and so these people were covered in a blotchy skin rash, which they would cover by wearing long gloves. Looking on these rather fetching gloves from the sidelines, the lower classes of course followed the fashion and ended up wearing the long gloves on special occasions. No doubt some of them also had to cover the same problem though, I’m guessing.
So there we are, looking good on those posh nights out never really held the same level of romance for me after finding that out...
There’s another part to this story to come later on - another side-effect of syphilis which is perceived as a sign of “good breeding” but will make you see things in a different way.

Usually my mailart revolves around questioning everything, but sometimes one just needs a little break to do something silly.

So here are 3 postcards I'm sending to friends from my holiday. It actually took me roughly 1/3 of the time to make each of these than it does to make a "question everything" postcard (it takes a while to do the thinking, research and concisely write the text for QE) so I count them as #17 collectively.

Wonder what my friends will think of their grocery delivery.

The back of the above postcard:















Postcard 17b
































Postcard 17c

Just because I'm romantic ... for K. and W.

Sent to @janeengland (from swap-bot) in the UK  :-)   

I love arrows.

This went to another 365 member.

Camel O'Rama #148, a photo by CAMEL007 on Flickr.

Streetcar stop on King