Islander's old-timey postcards a window to P.E.I.'s past

Generally, the idea behind postcards is to send them off to distant lands as wish-you-were-here-typemementos, but one Islander has been packing away as many as he can as way to preserve pieces of history.

Mike LeClair, who's originally from Tignish, says he's collected P.E.I. postcards for the past 20 years or so and has recently dugthem out of storage to shareon social media.

"If I see one I pick it up and buy it, I don't care if it's written on or what kind of shape it's in, I just like them," he said.

"It's something you're not going to see anymore and the places are all changed now so it's kind of nice to look back to see what [those places]looked like."

He says he must have hundreds of postcards showing the Island's landscapeand that the collectionisevergrowingwith illustrations not only ofP.E.I. buta "whole bunch from different provinces and different states" too.

"I'm just a collector," he said. "I'm a pack rat I guess they call it. I just love collecting old stuff."

He's been slotting each card in photo albums to keep them intact, but before he does that he's been taking photos of each one and putting them on Facebook.

That way people can look through these little windows intohistory.

Some of the postcards are more recent than others, but many more show scenes from decades ago. LeClair isstill trying to figure out datesor locations for some which he hopespeople online can help with.

Asked which one in the collection is hisfavourite, there wasn't a hesitation:it's titled Stompin' Tom's School.

"I just love it, the one of the old schoolhouse. That's my favourite one."

Among his other favourites include photos of the old ferries as well as one showing what he thinks is Queen Street in Charlottetownwith "all the old cars."

But it's cards like these that can behard to date. "Some do have some dates and some of them don't," he said.

"I can't tell how old some of them are, they could be reprints, I don't know."

So inputting them on social media, he's excited to hear that people are enjoying his posts with dozens of comments for him to sift through every night.

"I can't even keep up with them there's so many," he laughed.

But he alsohopes Islanders keep showing an interest in thephotos so he can get to the storiesbehind the scenery.

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