My Very First Postcard!

I;ve been going at this for two years now (as I’ve said several times before), and so I guess I’ll commemorate this by posting briefly about the very first postcard I received after signing on to Postcrossing.

Sent to me by alexina

It took this card about a week to get from Nuremburg to me, but it seems like it took forever. I knew Nuremburg from my history studies as the place where all of those Nazi trials took place after World War Two. Since that is what Nuremburg was most famous for, I was surprised that this postcard doesn’t make mention of the history. I guess because that chapter is so bleak that no one wants to receive a postcard about it. I don’t blame them. Isn’t even mentioning Nazis illegal and punishable by a weekend in jail or something?

Still, the card makes Nuremberg look like a pretty tranquil, lower-population city. A city more for the locals than tourists, I guess. And those are the best places to go if you’re like me and want to see everyday life in other places as opposed to just experiencing the tourist towns and landmarks. It does look like an adorable little sleepy town.

The lady’s costume is pretty cool, though I can;t place the era. I want to say she’s dressed as a Hessian because of the tricorn hat. I actually have Hessian ancestry. In the days of the American Revolution, when the Brits were hiring Hessians to aid their side, a lot of second sons took up the call, because back then in Germany, if you weren’t the first-born son, you got nothing from your parents. My ancestor, like many others, got to America and switched sides upon arrival. They figured that fighting for the Patriots would mean they’d be able to stake their claim in the new country and have more opportunity than they would have sweeping up shops as an apprentice in the Old Country. I remember seeing once that Rob Lowe had a similar story.