The Slice: Getting carded

Here’s one more item about postcards.

This summer an elderly man in Stockton, California, sent a lovely vintage postcard to Tara Leininger, mayor of Metaline Falls.

Tinted and colorful, the card shows the Pend Oreille River, with both Metaline and Metaline Falls visible. Originally mailed in 1913, the names of the sender and recipient are impossible to decipher. But Tara said it looks as if it was sent to someone in Tennessee.

The 1913 message reads, “This will give you an idea of the country around here – very hilly. Hope everything is well with you.”

The man who mailed it to Tara this summer found it in a shop in California. He tracked her down after a little online searching.

He thought, because she is the mayor of Metaline Falls, she might like it.

He was right.

His note mentioned that he paid $6 for the card. So if she wanted to send him $7 or $8 to cover his costs and mailing, he would appreciate it. His note went on, “My wife is laughing at me and says if I hear from you I will have to take her to lunch. I am 87 years old and still going strong. I like to call my little hobby a redistribution of happiness.”

Well, Tara sent him a check for $10 (not town funds) and a personal letter.

She said she hopes they used the check to dine out, compliments of their new friend up in in Washington.

He could think of it as a redistribution of happiness.

In the matter of where you might settle if you moved to Canada (discussed prior to the election): “I think it would have to be Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan,” wrote Jim Clanton. “Just telling folks in Southern California that might make putting up with the harsh winters worth it. I actually had a chiropractor from there a few years ago. He liked the warm Spokane winters.”

Bill Dropko said he would pick Calgary, Alberta. “Great football, great hockey, great winter sports, beautiful downtown, friendly people, spring, summer, fall and winter. What the hey! I already have it all in Spokane.”

Mikel Stevenson sang the praises of Prince Edward Island.

Warm-up question: When people describe you as having “gone rogue,” what exactly do they mean?

Today’s Slice question: What’s the secret to making excellent pancakes?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Northwest history: This was the date in 1970 when Oregon officials blew up a rotting sperm whale with an excess of dynamite, resulting in the inadvertent bombing of a nearby coastal village with substantial pieces of the beached leviathan.