Postcards from the Past…
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So far, 23 people have completed this assignment.
Find an old archive: letter, postcard, photograph, memo, computer document, e-mail. Then, form a story surrounding the piece. Develop a general, basic narrative or back story and characters. It doesn't have to be super long; it can be a haiku or a novella--your choice. Let the past inspire you!
My example is a postcard from World War I. It was discovered unsent and from an unknown author, and attached to the postcard was a small poppy, addressed to the soldier's love. I wrote a poem in Spanish about the postcard, and you can read the poem and its translation at this link:
http://www.kaileyck.com/ds106/postcards-from-the-past/
Have fun!
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If your blog is not connected to ds106, you can add your example directly.
Submissions So Far
Postcards from the Past…
You and your friends are really excited to see Eddie Murphy’s newest movie, Beverly Hills Cop. While walking toward the movie theatre, you decide to snap this photo. On your way there you noticed a paper that was headlined Mikhail Gorbachev: new ruler of the Soviet Union. You don’t know …
Week 3 – Postcards From The Past…
from https://allthatsinteresting.com/80s-pictures#1
My mom was always weird.
Every time she saw an advertisement on the television, she HAD to get it. It did not matter what it was…bug killer…workout equipment…toys for us kids even if we didn’t want them.
One day the mailman delivered a package for her, and she …
80s Mama
No worries in sight
Huge hair and kid-less
The 80s for Flor
I chose to write a haiku about my mom after I found this picture of her from the 80s, sitting on a gate in Long Beach, California. I feel this picture embodies her rebellious side as a young …
A letter from the 80’s
Since I was a young, my mom would show me pictures and things from not just my past, but also her past. She would show me old letters and photos, etc. I may not be good at history, but I loved it nonetheless. There is power that comes with the …
The Email
She closed the browser window and leaned back in her chair. Years ago she would of had to gotten a piece of paper and pen, and then driven to the post office to ship off her letter, but now, now she was able to send a message to her best …
Writing Assignment 1503
I had a bit of trouble first finding some literature to write this post on because I was searching for legible post cards but once I abandoned that idea and searched for letters I found a plethora of information.
The letter that I chose to write on is pretty amazing …
Friends
Friends in the Fall
A street-scape in a small country town in 1908. Two friends separated by an illness are reunited to say good-bye. A simple postcard sent to the hospital with glad tidings and fond memories. This quite rural street is now a paved thoroughfare through a bustling town …
Voices From the Past
“That’s me, age 12. I know, I know, you’re thinking I should be at school, but I’d rather be selling extras. I go to St. Patrick’s school on 97th in Brooklyn. But the nuns don’t pay cash money and Mr. Oakland over at the Times does.”
“You see, I own …
Postcards From The Past…
4.5 Stars To my sister Sara Sparkle. From Rose Sparkle (her maiden name before she got married and changed her name to Rose King). On the postcard, it reads, “Hey sister, hope you’re having a good time back at home with the family. I’m in Nashville getting ready to …
Post Card Assignment (4 1/2 stars)
So the assignment here was to find an existing post card/card/note and create your own story surrounding it. This card was discovered by this guy who found it in his Grandmothers belongings. It was a cryptic letter that’s taken him 20 years to figure out the pattern. The pattern …
Postcard from Sasha Kellogg
This is an adaptation of the Postcards from the Past writing assignment. The idea is to take a postcard, or some old document, and contextualize it with some narrative writing. I decided to make a fictional postcard, and base it on Kim’s character, Sasha Kellogg. Kellogg’s origin story includes her …
Old Photo
It was to be a happy day for the wedding couple. Being of a time when people worried about every little thing, they tried to make their wedding day special and enjoyable. Unfortunately, the older sister of the bride decided to throw a hissy-fit.
“He was supposed to be mine”, …
From the past!
This image is of Margaret Pinault and Mathieu Gaston in front of their home in France. Mathieu was a millionaire art collector and Margaret was a painter herself. This was at the beginning of their marriage when they just moved into their new home. Margaret looks sad because this was …
Where in the World is Beauregard Dasher?
Cat’s P.O.V.
Who would have thought a crinkled piece of paper would be such a gem of a treasure. In the midst of this intense war, it’s at least a brief relief to see this ink across the page as proof of the beat of his heart.
Beau can never …
Postcards from the Past
Dearest Melody Bay Kennish Ahn,
I have yet to hear word of your work being moved to a gallery and which can only mean you are still giving away your highly sought after paintings for free. What a shame such talent must go to waste. I also request the baby …
A love letter writing assignment?
I decided to do the “Postcards from the Past” writing assignment as the one that I will focus around the character that I created Lawrence Spitler. I found this old love letter and since there is no name on it, it will work perfectly for my story! If you have …
Postcards From the Past…
I’m relating this assignment to my character, John Brown.
This photo is from John Brown’s mother. This was taken when he was 14, when John and his mother were going to market to buy some food. She looked at this whenever she felt sorry for his son and miss him. …
A Photograph
We only had right now
And right now was all we needed.
There was no past, no future, no war.
I had him and he had me.
How long this would last I have no idea
But I pray that it will last for the rest of my life,
For …
Postcard From The Past
The letter that I chose was from a World War II marine who died in a special mission against the nazi’s. This letter shows his true fears of this upcoming assignment and that he is practically saying goodbye to his mother and family and saying sorry to them for this. …
Writing Assignment: Postcards from the Past (4 pts.)- “Honorable Discharge”
Honorable Discharge
Sebastian sat alone in the kitchen the day he got the letter. Tapping his pencil on the wooden table, his mind was racing as to what to put on the blank lined paper before him. His Thursday assignment from the university was to write about someone they deeply …
PostCards from the past
This assignment is worth 4 stars. This was my favorite assignment I have created for my final so far. It is a post card from Commander Magic to Selene about her new assignment and how everything is going according to the new plan. To create this piece I used this …
Postcards from the Hedge
This is “Postcards from the Past” for a writing assignment to further the story for my character this semester. My re-imagined Bubbles is a retired pole dancer who used to work at Orlando’s Gentleman’s club in Baltimore. She began working as a confidential informant for Kima Greggs, a detective on …
postcards from the past.
Based off of a final project I had in Spanish class, this assignment I’ve created involves history and some form of artistic creativity–preferably writing, but I won’t limit you to just that medium!
Find an old archive: letter, postcard, photograph, memo, computer document, e-mail. Then, form a story surrounding the …
Postcards from the Past…
You and your friends are really excited to see Eddie Murphy’s newest movie, Beverly Hills Cop. While walking toward the movie theatre, you decide to snap this photo. On your way there you noticed a paper that was headlined Mikhail Gorbachev: new ruler of the Soviet Union. You don’t know …
Week 3 – Postcards From The Past…
from https://allthatsinteresting.com/80s-pictures#1
My mom was always weird.
Every time she saw an advertisement on the television, she HAD to get it. It did not matter what it was…bug killer…workout equipment…toys for us kids even if we didn’t want them.
One day the mailman delivered a package for her, and she …
80s Mama
No worries in sight
Huge hair and kid-less
The 80s for Flor
I chose to write a haiku about my mom after I found this picture of her from the 80s, sitting on a gate in Long Beach, California. I feel this picture embodies her rebellious side as a young …
A letter from the 80’s
Since I was a young, my mom would show me pictures and things from not just my past, but also her past. She would show me old letters and photos, etc. I may not be good at history, but I loved it nonetheless. There is power that comes with the …
The Email
She closed the browser window and leaned back in her chair. Years ago she would of had to gotten a piece of paper and pen, and then driven to the post office to ship off her letter, but now, now she was able to send a message to her best …
Writing Assignment 1503
I had a bit of trouble first finding some literature to write this post on because I was searching for legible post cards but once I abandoned that idea and searched for letters I found a plethora of information.
The letter that I chose to write on is pretty amazing …
Friends
Friends in the Fall
A street-scape in a small country town in 1908. Two friends separated by an illness are reunited to say good-bye. A simple postcard sent to the hospital with glad tidings and fond memories. This quite rural street is now a paved thoroughfare through a bustling town …
Voices From the Past
“That’s me, age 12. I know, I know, you’re thinking I should be at school, but I’d rather be selling extras. I go to St. Patrick’s school on 97th in Brooklyn. But the nuns don’t pay cash money and Mr. Oakland over at the Times does.”
“You see, I own …
Postcards From The Past…
4.5 Stars To my sister Sara Sparkle. From Rose Sparkle (her maiden name before she got married and changed her name to Rose King). On the postcard, it reads, “Hey sister, hope you’re having a good time back at home with the family. I’m in Nashville getting ready to …
Post Card Assignment (4 1/2 stars)
So the assignment here was to find an existing post card/card/note and create your own story surrounding it. This card was discovered by this guy who found it in his Grandmothers belongings. It was a cryptic letter that’s taken him 20 years to figure out the pattern. The pattern …
Postcard from Sasha Kellogg
This is an adaptation of the Postcards from the Past writing assignment. The idea is to take a postcard, or some old document, and contextualize it with some narrative writing. I decided to make a fictional postcard, and base it on Kim’s character, Sasha Kellogg. Kellogg’s origin story includes her …
Old Photo
It was to be a happy day for the wedding couple. Being of a time when people worried about every little thing, they tried to make their wedding day special and enjoyable. Unfortunately, the older sister of the bride decided to throw a hissy-fit.
“He was supposed to be mine”, …
From the past!
This image is of Margaret Pinault and Mathieu Gaston in front of their home in France. Mathieu was a millionaire art collector and Margaret was a painter herself. This was at the beginning of their marriage when they just moved into their new home. Margaret looks sad because this was …
Where in the World is Beauregard Dasher?
Cat’s P.O.V.
Who would have thought a crinkled piece of paper would be such a gem of a treasure. In the midst of this intense war, it’s at least a brief relief to see this ink across the page as proof of the beat of his heart.
Beau can never …
Postcards from the Past
Dearest Melody Bay Kennish Ahn,
I have yet to hear word of your work being moved to a gallery and which can only mean you are still giving away your highly sought after paintings for free. What a shame such talent must go to waste. I also request the baby …
A love letter writing assignment?
I decided to do the “Postcards from the Past” writing assignment as the one that I will focus around the character that I created Lawrence Spitler. I found this old love letter and since there is no name on it, it will work perfectly for my story! If you have …
Postcards From the Past…
I’m relating this assignment to my character, John Brown.
This photo is from John Brown’s mother. This was taken when he was 14, when John and his mother were going to market to buy some food. She looked at this whenever she felt sorry for his son and miss him. …
A Photograph
We only had right now
And right now was all we needed.
There was no past, no future, no war.
I had him and he had me.
How long this would last I have no idea
But I pray that it will last for the rest of my life,
For …
Postcard From The Past
The letter that I chose was from a World War II marine who died in a special mission against the nazi’s. This letter shows his true fears of this upcoming assignment and that he is practically saying goodbye to his mother and family and saying sorry to them for this. …
Writing Assignment: Postcards from the Past (4 pts.)- “Honorable Discharge”
Honorable Discharge
Sebastian sat alone in the kitchen the day he got the letter. Tapping his pencil on the wooden table, his mind was racing as to what to put on the blank lined paper before him. His Thursday assignment from the university was to write about someone they deeply …
PostCards from the past
This assignment is worth 4 stars. This was my favorite assignment I have created for my final so far. It is a post card from Commander Magic to Selene about her new assignment and how everything is going according to the new plan. To create this piece I used this …
Postcards from the Hedge
This is “Postcards from the Past” for a writing assignment to further the story for my character this semester. My re-imagined Bubbles is a retired pole dancer who used to work at Orlando’s Gentleman’s club in Baltimore. She began working as a confidential informant for Kima Greggs, a detective on …
postcards from the past.
Based off of a final project I had in Spanish class, this assignment I’ve created involves history and some form of artistic creativity–preferably writing, but I won’t limit you to just that medium!
Find an old archive: letter, postcard, photograph, memo, computer document, e-mail. Then, form a story surrounding the …
Help Someone Else Do this Assignment
If you create a tutorial for this assignment, share it! To have your tutorials appear below, make sure your posts are showing up on the main DS106 site and that you use the following tags (or labels on Blogger) when writing the post on your own blog (You must use BOTH !):