Special delivery: 72 years late

An Illinois teen’s postcard from NYC just reached him—seven decades and one cross-country move after he sent it. ✈️

Let’s rewind: Back in June 1953, 16-year-old Alan Ball left Illinois for his first big adventure: a summer in Puerto Rico. On the way, he stopped in New York City, toured the brand-new United Nations HQ, and mailed a quick postcard home. The cost of this dispatch? Two cents.

But the postcard never made it to Ottawa, Illinois

...until now.

Last month, the note suddenly surfaced at the local post office—stamped, dated, and undelivered after 72 years. Genealogists then tracked down Ball, an 88-year-old retired ER doctor who now lives 1,700+ miles away in Sandpoint, Idaho.

“That 2 cents did a lot of work,” he chuckled (per the NY Times). “Who gets their mail returned after 72 years?”

The postcard feels like a 1950s version of a quick update via text: Alan told his parents he still hadn’t bought his flight ticket, reassured them after a telegram, and signed off: “Love to all.”

• Though the New York details are fuzzy, Ball remembers Puerto Rico vividly: the roar of the propeller plane, tasting coffee for the first time, and realizing the horses understood Spanish better than he did.

Now he plans to frame the faded card: “I like the unexpected,” Ball told the NYT. “And this had both.”