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Remember a few years ago, when we shared the mystery of the Ford Tanus déjà vu? There’s a Vox video about something similar being shared around this week, and it’s just super neat. Have a look!

How cool is that?! Once you see the cloud shaped like a sea creature, it’s hard to “un-see” it! If you’re curious and want to spot a few cloud patterns of your own, you can explore James postcards on his Flickr page — there’s lots of peculiar collections to see.

Only by putting these postcards together side by side can one begin to see the patterns emerge, like noticing the same clouds or the same car parked in a corner of a card. I wonder how many more patterns could postcrossers detect, if they laid all their postcards out like that… Give it a try and let us know if you spot something interesting! 😊

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47 comments so far

Trans_Niqabi, United States of America

That is FASCINATING and something I never noticed until now!!!! Thanks for sharing!

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IrenaCharlotte, Germany

Thank you for this awesome video! Love the research... and to see that other people obviously have the same crazy zeal to collect cool postcards and sort by style as I do! :-)

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Jamesmoore86, United States of America

It seems there are so many things missed. This sure is amazing.

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CardTrekkie, United States of America

Now I know what to look for in these old postcards! Haven’t found this in any of mine so far.

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illbestamped, United States of America

Wow I am from Redlands and never knew this!

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Tinkatutu, Australia

That’s a really interesting story! Thank you.

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Ramya, United States of America

I’m so happy to watch this video- art and postcards mixed with collecting a discovered repetitive image - - - sublime! Thank you for sharing!

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werewegian, United Kingdom

That's very interesting. I feel I must have some somewhere. Unfortunately I have a lazy filing system - I fill a box as I register the cards and when it's full I put it aside, and then start a new one! I may have to rethink...

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Flippie, Canada

Thank you Meladeleite for sharing this story with us. I watched the video from James Brouwer. He lives in the same province as me, British Columbia and his last name sound familiar too. Brouwer is common Dutch name, I'm Dutch too.
I love the story behind the same clouds. I will get trough my postcards for similarities.

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aerobear, United States of America

Did anyone notice around the 7:47 mark that the onlookers are all dressed in red? Maybe that’s another “genre” to collect. 😃

Great story, thanks for sharing! ❤️

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petrini1, United States of America

Fascinating! Now I want to go through my own collection and see if I have any of these.

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sealed4ever, United States of America

Thank you so much for this! It was just fascinating and a beautiful thing to watch

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triplightly, United States of America

Wow! Just wow! How fun to notice this phenomenon. Thanks for sharing

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Mosshumla, Sweden

Fascinating! Don't think I have any of these cloud cards but I of course will look out for them now.
I remember a thread in the old forum about the same tiny church (or was it a barn?) which appeared on postcards with the names of at least three different states on them.

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DavidWong, Singapore

Interesting!!

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julienn, Russia

great!

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DianeM, United States of America

Thanks for sharing this video. Love it!

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wurzelsofie, Germany

This is amazing - thanks for sharing! :-D

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miguel_luna, Mexico

This is so awesome! Thank you for sharing! :)

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Steffi67, Germany

Wow, this is really a great story. So far, I just liked to receive any nice postcard, but I wouldn't have thought of any possible "pattern" like that. I might become addicted to collecting card under that aspect, now. Haha. Really great story, made my day! Thanks for sharing.

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Luziaceleste, Brazil

Surprises are endless with postcards, just a matter of want to see them.

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mysweetlife63, United States of America

Very cool!
Thank you!
d

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PostAddy, United States of America

Wow, so interesting! Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed the story!

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servingHim, United States of America

That was so interesting. I have a lot of old postcards so now I want to check to see if they have the same sky! Thanks for sharing!

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GypsyLena, United States of America

I receive several postcards with the same white horse running. Best I can tell, he has "ran" in more places from all over the world.

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holmil, Czech Republic

Good morning. It is very interesting. I have a suspision that some producer used the some templates for sky for its postcards. :-) I have just looked at the Flickr page. I could only see the postcards from US and Canada. If I am correct. Have a nice day.

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Sasalia, Germany

Wow! This Video really blowed up my mind! Thank you for sharing. ;)

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betslets, United States of America

Once again, I've learned something about my favorite hobby that I might not otherwise (and most likely never) have discovered on my own. Thanks for the great and educational blogs. From now on, I'll be taking even more closer looks as I enjoy going through my postcard albums.

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Anjelikka, United States of America

That is a fantastic story. Now I will look at the postcards I have collected to see if any of the old ones I own have that sky. Thank you for sharing that story. Amazing!

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Demmi, Romania

That’s a really amazing & interesting story! Kudos James Brouwer & Coleman Lowndes
#Congrats for all collections:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/94207108@N02/albums/72157633060241527

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LordDamius, United Kingdom

Awesome.....What a lovely film!

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lyndac, Canada

I did a presentation on Canada's Prairie provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta) for a retirement home. I asked friends to scan and send copies of postcards from their province. Among them I got four cards featuring a field of sunflowers with a farm in the background. The cards were labelled across the front "The Prairies", Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Other than that the cards are identical. Same flowers, same sky, same trees, same barn, same silo, same house and same angle of view.

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alterego, Canada

Leave it to a postcrosser to notice this! And that's why so many of us (postcrossers) are so fascinated by it! What a very cool story and video! Thanks.

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pamilajo, United States of America

I remember finding postcards that had the same two people on the same beach with different city names on them. It was the moment my innocence was lost about postcards. But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy them!

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Sewhappyme, Australia

Omg! I had never noticed that. My first thought was that we actually al in a Matrix, but the real explanation is much more interesting. Thanks for sharing this

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cerres, Estonia

Wow! So interesting!

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rainbowscuba, United States of America

Wow! How fun! I have three postcards with the same women with body art labeled Florida, California, and Hawaii, and two postcards of the same sunset scene with vastly different colorizing. The "same sky" takes much better observational skills! Thank you, I really enjoyed this! (And I'm enjoying the comments about things other people have noticed in their collections!)

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Seashelly, Netherlands

I enjoyed watching this video. I certainly inspired me to go through my postcardcollection in search of the 'same sky'.

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kimmedims, Netherlands

Fascinating! Thank you for sharing this with us!

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tbt924, Mexico

Okay, I'm obsessed. Breaking out all my vintage cards! Thanks so much for sharing this awesome finding.

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marjap17, United States of America

What an interesting video. Makes me look at my postcards in a different way.
Thanks for sharing.

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JJSiquot, United States of America

Great story! Thank you for sharing!!!

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Anactf, Portugal

Wow! Thank you for sharing!

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Pulmu, Finland

What a story!

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waydowneast, United States of America

Such a cool story! Thanks for sharing! I'm going to go through my collection as well. I never even thought of something like this. Wow!

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woods, United States of America

Amor Towles’ fabulous new book “The Lincoln Highway” mentions “same sky “ postcards. I didn’t know what they were talking about until I read this. Finished the book today and read this today. Love when that stuff happens!

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Deevar, Australia

So interesting. I’ll be looking at my old postcards in a whole new light.

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