Disleelandia

I usually like to collect vintage postcards that have not been written on, while my sometime contributor, Nick, always liked his to contain a story. So we had to agree to disagree! So it may seem strange that it is I who am presenting a vintage Walt Disney World postcard featuring the Country Bear Jamboree… with writing on it. The horror!

Recently my wife and I visited her parents and stayed in her childhood bedroom. And we found this old postcard that was sent to young Miss Freeman by her Aunt and Uncle:

I already have several copies of this postcard in better condition, but it was the fact that this one had two canceled stamps (with postmark) and a message from said relations that caught my attention.

I love a mystery. So when was this postcard sent? The message is no help so we are left with only the stamps and the postmark to work with to solve it. According to the all-knowing Internet, this stamp was issued in 1966. I found another example that was cancel postmarked 1982. So we have at least a 17-year span where this postcard could have been sent, or later. My wife was born in 1969, so that rules out the 60s and likely the 70s. Or does it?

It appears that the Space Shuttle postmark was used starting in 1981, but I don’t know for how long, or when it was retired. But the plot thickens as I can just about make out a date of (possibly) April 7th, 1979 in the circular postmark below. But how is that possible if the NASA square postmark wasn’t used until 1981??? The last clue is found in the trademark of the card itself, which is ‘Walt Disney Productions’. This trademark was retired in 1987.

So we know that it must have been sent between 1979 and 1987. I’m calling it: Adding my wife’s recollections, she favors the postmark of 1979 as being accurate. So she was 10 when she received this postcard. Mystery… solved! But that NASA thing is still weird.

In any case, her Aunt and Uncle were having fun in Florida getting sunburned and visiting Walt Disney World for just one day. Just one day? This is understandable when you remember that the ‘World’ was just The Magic Kingdom in 1979-1981. It wouldn’t be until 1982 that EPCOT would be built to expand the Resort.

To see how postcards change while staying close to the same (?) please check out A Look Back at some vintage Walt Disney World character postcards.

FUN FACTS: The study and collecting of postcards is termed deltiology (from Greek deltion, small writing tablet, and English -logy, the study of). So now I’m a Deltiologist! Do I get to put letters after my name? Nah! They wouldn’t let a postcard guy have anything to do with letters.