What can a postcard really tell you?
On Postmarked & Tipsy, we explore real vintage postcards from the past — and the stories hidden between the lines.
Each episode starts with a simple message… and quickly turns into something else:
A mystery
A question
Or a story that doesn’t quite add up
With a drink in hand, we dig into the details, the history, and the people behind the postcard — trying to figure out what was really going on.
Tavern Cold Reads Episode 2: Who Is Wanda, and What Happened to Cindy?
One vintage postcard. Four amateur handwriting detectives. Absolutely no context. What could possibly go wrong? 🍺📮
For our second Tavern Cold Reads session, Raina and Richard return to the Tavern, joined by newcomers Dana Laverty of Rhode Island Monthly and Kara's cousin Rebecca.
Their assignment? Decipher a nearly illegible handwritten postcard message without knowing the picture, date, postmark, sender's circumstances or recipient's identity.
The message appears to come from a lonely woman named Wanda, who misses her familiar surroundings, hopes things will improve with the weather and mentions someone named Cindy who may—or may not—be causing trouble.
Naturally, the theories escalate.
Is Cindy a child? A puppy? A relative? Is Wanda trapped in a bad romance novel? And why does murder keep entering the conversation?
But when we reveal the postcard's origins in 1966 Connecticut, the mood takes an unexpectedly emotional turn.
Along the way, we discuss Catholic school penmanship, questionable family burial arrangements, launching ashes into space and our possible futures as bog witches.
Murder. Loneliness. Seasonal affective disorder. We've got it all. 😂
Join us for another round of questionable deductions, historical rabbit holes and confidently wrong conclusions.
And seriously… WHO IS CINDY?!
📮 Tavern Cold Reads is a special Postmarked & Tipsy series where guests attempt to unravel the mysteries of vintage postcards using only their handwritten messages. No Googling. No outside help. Just handwriting, imagination and occasionally outrageous speculation.
Episode Sources:
- The Lutheran Home Southbury website
- Town of Southbury, CT website, including Southbury History by Joyce Hornbecker
9 Oct 2026
Postcards After Dark Episode 3: The Ghost of Hampton Court – Catherine Howard
Centuries after Catherine Howard lost her head, people were still buying postcards claiming to show her ghost.
In 1542, Henry VIII's fifth wife was executed at the Tower of London after a spectacular fall from royal favor. But according to one of Hampton Court Palace's most enduring legends, Catherine never entirely left the palace behind.
Her ghost is said to haunt the gallery associated with the desperate attempt she supposedly made to reach Henry and plead for her life—a story that has become inseparable from Hampton Court's haunted reputation.
Then, in the early 1900s, the story found its way onto postcards.
Visitors could buy eerie images supposedly showing spirits at Hampton Court, including Catherine Howard—part ghost story, part early photographic trickery and exactly the sort of thing that sends Postmarked & Tipsy down a historical rabbit hole.
In this episode of Postcards After Dark, Kara explores Catherine Howard's tragic story, the legend of her ghost, and the wonderfully strange era when supernatural tourism and postcard culture collided.
And this one is a little personal: ten years ago, Kara visited Hampton Court herself—and naturally wandered around the palace wearing one of its green cloaks.
Apparently, there were signs. 😂
🌙📮 Postcards After Dark is a special October series from Postmarked & Tipsy, exploring dark history, haunted places, folklore, true crime and the strange stories surrounding vintage postcards.
Every postcard has a story. Some should probably be read after dark.
9 Oct 2026
Postcards After Dark Episode 2: The Rhode Island Teenage Vampire
In 1892, residents of Exeter, Rhode Island, did something almost unimaginable today: they exhumed the bodies of three women from the same family, looking for evidence that one of the dead might be consuming the life of a surviving relative.
The last coffin they opened belonged to 19-year-old Mercy Brown.
What they found helped turn Mercy into one of New England's most famous so-called “vampires”—and Rhode Island into part of a much larger history of vampire folklore in 19th-century New England.
But beneath the supernatural story was something very real: tuberculosis was devastating the Brown family, medicine had few answers, and frightened people were desperate to save someone they loved.
In this episode of Postcards After Dark, Kara heads into the Rhode Island woods to explore the strange, sad story of Mercy Brown, the New England vampire panic, and what can happen when disease, grief, folklore and fear collide.
And, because this is Postmarked & Tipsy, there's also the minor problem of what Kara found when she went looking for a vintage postcard of Exeter. 😂
🌙📮 Every postcard has a story. Some should probably be read after dark.
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