A Chain of Tears Around the World
Surely, you must wonder, why would the sender of this card place the stamp and the address (on a sticker which I removed from the lower right corner) on the front, instead of on the back? Well, it turns out that the back was full:
This is my first “chain” postcard! Unlike a chain letter, a postcard is sent to someone, who sends that very postcard to someone else, who sends it to someone else, until it ultimately makes its way back to the original sender. Each sender covers up their own address with stamps and stickers, and forwards it along.
In exchange for this forwarding, I forwarded along cards from other members of the chain so that each card makes the same trip around the world. This card had quite the journey, starting from beautiful downtown Gainesville, Georgia, USA on 11 May 2011:
| Destination | Arrived | Time | Distance (km) | Distance (mi) |
| Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China | 27 May 2011 | 16 Days | 11,751 km | 7,302 mi |
| Bangkok, Thailand | 7 June 2011 | 11 Days | 3,011 km | 1,871 mi |
| Moscow, Russian Federation | 8 July 2011 | 31 Days | 7,021 km | 4,367 mi |
| Beograd, Serbia | 22 July 2011 | 14 Days | 1,703 km | 1,058 mi |
| Lille, France | 30 July 2011 | 8 Days | 1,448 km | 900 mi |
| Gainesville, Georgia, USA | 8 August 2011 | 9 Days | 6,932 km | 4,307 mi |
| Total | 89 Days | 31,866 km | 19,805 mi |
Many, many thanks to the other members of the chain who sent my card along. My second chain postcard is sitting in a mailbox in Hawaii, waiting for Lauren to get back from vacation and return to her serious responsibilities of forwarding my mail.
I’ve seen the threads on the forum about chain postcards and I’m constantly amazed that they actually seem to work. I half expect the various post offices to get fed up searching for the address, it just seems so messy. Clearly they are more conscientious than I would be.
Interesting presentation!