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-type mementos, 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 dug them out of storage to share on 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 landscape and that the collection is evergrowing with illustrations not only of P.E.I. but a "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 into history.

Some of the postcards are more recent than others, but many more show scenes from decades ago. LeClair is still trying to figure out dates or locations for some — which he hopes people online can help with.

Asked which one in the collection is his favourite, 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 Charlottetown with "all the old cars."

But it's cards like these that can be hard 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 in putting 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 also hopes Islanders keep showing an interest in the photos so he can get to the stories behind the scenery.

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