By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Long before there were cell phone photos from every possible angle, there were old painted postcards to document where one had been.
For years, Lowell Joerg, 96, collected vintage postcards as a hobby. Now, the retiree dubbed the “Postcard Man,” focuses on getting them back home.
The California man mails the postcards to the places they depict — a hobby he calls his “redistribution of happiness” project.
One of his vintage postcards was recently delivered to Bowling Green.
The pristine 1935 postcard pictures West Wooster Street looking east from Church Street. The buildings that line the downtown street are the same structures, occupied by different businesses. The sign for the police station juts out on the south side, as do a couple striped awnings at businesses on the north side.
West Wooster Street is lined with old cars, and traffic can be seen crossing on Main Street.
“Some years ago I was at an antique store and found this old circa 1935 picture card of your beautiful area. Lots of changes, I bet. How it made its way to California we’ll never know,” Joerg wrote in his letter.
“At any rate, I hope it brightens your day,” he wrote, as he reportedly does with each special delivery.
The vintage postcards have been sent back to museums, libraries, schools, businesses and government buildings. In his accompanying letter, Joerg explained his motivation.
“I said to myself, ‘By golly, I think I’ll send it back home where it can be appreciated.’ Heritage is important. Enlarged and posted up, it will start a nice conversation.”
“I like to call my little hobby a ‘redistribution of happiness.’ Our world sure needs it,” he added.
Joerg also hints that his hobby has expenses – meager as they may be.
“Well, I gave $6 for it, so if you want it for $7 or $8, that would be sincerely appreciated. Toss in a little postage if you feel like it.”
“My dear wife, now passed, used to laugh at me and say, ‘If you hear from those folks, you’ll have to take me to lunch,’” he added in his letter.
Unbeknownst to Joerg, an attorney in the law firm he randomly selected to receive the postcard had a connection to the West Wooster Street location pictured on the card.
Bowling Green Attorney Rob Harms opened the envelope to find the piece of the city’s history and his childhood.
“I was very surprised,” Harms said. “I wrote him a letter telling him that intersection of West Wooster and Church Street was the beginning of my newspaper route, except it headed west from there.”
And yes, Harms sent the requested payment – actually double the amount sought.
And he then sent the postcard to the city’s historic preservation commission.
“I figured that was the best way to let the population know of this,” Harms said.
Bowling Green Planning Director Heather Sayler presented the well-preserved postcard during the BG Historic Preservation Commission meeting last month.
“It’s kind of a neat story,” she said, asking the commission members to approve the donation of the card to the Wood County District Public Library – which they did.
Joerg grew up in the 1930s, when postcards were in their heyday.
“Sending postcards in those days was the thing to do,” he said. “Businesses and buildings were depicted on postcards. Lots of people used to save these postcards in their scrapbooks.”
In the 1980s, Joerg began collecting vintage postcards of “beautiful buildings” in the 1980s when he lived in Minnesota with his wife.
“I have seen lots of changes over the last century. I like to send history,” said Joerg, who now lives in an assisted living facility in Stockton, California.
“I don’t know where all the time went but I’m still going strong, as far as I know.”
He plans to continue more special deliveries from the “Postcard Man,” with the message, “I hope it brightens your day.”
