My friend Gena recently sent me this postcard. I actually got it the day before she returned from Key West. So when I saw her, I held it up and thanked her and said it sounded like she’d had a great trip.
“Not really,” she said and scrunched up her nose.
“You’re kidding.”
“No. I got sick the first night and couldn’t eat anything the whole trip. Plus, look at this.” She rolled up her sleeve and showed me a nasty bruise and road rash. “It’s all up and down my leg, too. We rented motorbikes and I crashed pulling out. I could barely walk.”
“Oh my God, Gena.”
“I know. We spent the whole week in the hotel room. It rained all but one day.”
I was still holding the postcard and saw the brief message again. Fabulous time…lots of sunshine…relaxing. I burst out laughing. The entire postcard was a lie.
Gena laughed along with me and went into more detail about all the things that went wrong. She should have written the true story on the postcard, or at least had the little motorbikers wreck and splatter on the road. But instead she chose to write what she thought people wanted to hear.
I know a lot of you don’t write postcards, but if you did, would you lie? Or would you tell it like it is?
Browsing The Atlas 
I haven’t written a postcard in years but I would write little facts about the place.
I usually do, too. Or write something I want to remember about the trip.
Gena sounds like a hoot! I send postcards all the time but have never lied. If things aren’t going well, one can always go with “thinking of you” or “kisses from —-” or find the one thing that did go well during the day “the french fries were great!”.
You have to save this postcard!
I’ll definitely save it. I have a feeling we’ll laugh about it for a long time. It was just so ridiculous. 🙂
I had to smile at this, Juliann. I think that people often don’t tel the whole truth about their holiday experiences. I tend to focus on the good, but there are often many frustrating experiences too, like the really weird plumbing in the place where I am at present. 😀
So postcard-worthy!! That’s what you should write on the back of a postcard.
Btw- where are you??
You’re right, Juliann. “So postcard worthy” is a bit like writing, “Well, what can I say?!!” I’ve just arrived back in Florida after two weeks in Costa Rica. 🙂
When we used to send postcards we always used to struggle with what to say: having a great time; weather fantastic; food great; people are lovely etc. However I stopped sending postcards when I realised how much money we spending on telling people the same old rubbish, not so much the cards, but the stamps have become so expensive.It costs almost a pound to send a card from the UK now, but then that’s what happens when the government flogs a national treasure to the sharks odf the private sector!
I’ve been shocked at the rising cost of postage, too. I still send postcards (probably because I collect them), but not as many as I used to. It does often cost me a dollar or more to mail one.
I’m not a big sender of postcards, although the kids love them so any time anyone goes away without them, they get sent. No lies, though. Lane and Letizia have good ways of sending truthful cards without being a downer – ours are like that.
No. No lies. I usually send my daughter postcards describing what we’ll do if we go back and visit the place again someday, or what made me think of her there.
That’s really funny! I like your idea of drawing the motorbiking accident into the picture. I think I stopped doing postcards because I couldn’t think of anything to say. 🙂
I’m plugging my ears. I didn’t hear that. You could always do what Gena did– lie. 😉
I take writing postcards as a challenge and try to write something different on each one. Of course the trick is not to write too many! 🙂
Ha! I’m the same way. I usually tailor them to the recipient. My grandmother wants a happy tale. My mom wants the absurd. My son wants to know what’s unusual about a place. My friends want to laugh.
Facetime has done away with postcards mostly 😦 But if i did send one, i wouldn’t lie either.