STOCKTON (AP) — A nearly 100-year-old postcard of Bismarck High School found its way home thanks to a good-humored California antique store patron.
Bismarck Public Schools Superintendent Tamara Uselman plans to share the card with the school board at its Monday meeting, the Bismarck Tribune reported. Eighty-seven-year-old Stockton, California, resident Lowell Joerg purchased the card at an antique shop for $6 and mailed it to Uselman.
Boniface Morris, a Bismarck resident, sent the card to a friend in Oregon in September 1920. Joerg has made a hobby of sending historic postcards of churches and schools to the buildings about once or twice a month.
Occasionally, Joerg said, he hears back.
“Some people toss it in the garbage, naturally,” he said. “Other people pay attention to it.”
Uselman said she hadn’t seen an early picture of Bismarck High School without additions until she received the postcard. In a letter sent with the postcard, Joerg joked that he promised to take his wife to lunch if Uselman writes back with a few dollars for the card and for postage.
Joerg calls the postcards a “redistribution of happiness.” Uselman said she has a response typed up and said she hopes to “redistribute” the happiness the letter brought her.
“When you have that chance to make a connection with a complete stranger, why not?” Uselman said. “I want to share the joy he gave me.”