Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor 93 years misplaced...

[bull]

Christmas card arrives 93 years late

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071215/ap_on_fe_st/odd_long_lost_card

OBERLIN, Kan. - A postcard featuring a color drawing of Santa Claus and a young girl was mailed in 1914, but its journey was slower than Christmas. It just arrived in northwest Kansas.

The Christmas card was dated Dec. 23, 1914, and mailed to Ethel Martin of Oberlin, apparently from her cousins in Alma, Neb.

It's a mystery where it spent most of the last century, Oberlin Postmaster Steve Schultz said. "It's surprising that it never got thrown away," he said. "How someone found it, I don't know."

Ethel Martin is deceased, but Schultz said the post office wanted to get the card to a relative.

That's how the 93-year-old relic ended up with Bernice Martin, Ethel's sister-in-law. She said she believed the card had been found somewhere in Illinois.

"That's all we know," she said. "But it is kind of curious. We'd like to know how it got down there."

The card was placed inside another envelope with modern postage for the trip to Oberlin — the one-cent postage of the early 20th century wouldn't have covered it, Martin said.

"We don't know much about it," she said. "But wherever they kept it, it was in perfect shape."

[Old Moparz]

I've heard a few similar stories like that, always interesting too. 

I'm wondering now that since the stamp on the postcard wasn't actually used, is it worth anything? Would be cool to see it.

[TK73]

(old joke):

You know why they are raising the postage again?   Storage...

[RD]

Oberlin is the town my wife grew up in.  I will ask her parents if they know Bernice.  Cool story, thanks for sharing.

[histoy]

On December 12th my Mother called to tell me she received my Christmas card.   I was confused because her card is on one of her packages under our Christmas tree.   She went on to explain that the card she received was last year's.   I asked her where it was post marked and the date?  She said it was post marked Palatine IL, and dated 12/12/06, exactly 1 year earlier from the date she received it.