A Postcard Of Happiness

An 89-year-old California man, who took the time to send an early 20th Century postcard of Glenwood’s “Lake and City Park” to the staff at Glenwood City Hall, is getting a surprise package in the mail in appreciation of his thoughtfulness.

In late March, the postcard arrived with a letter sent to Glenwood City Hall from Lowell Joerg, who resides in an assisted living facility in Stockton, Calif. His letter read:

“Good morning,

I hope this letter brightens your day. I was at an antique store here and found this old circa 1910 picture card of your beautiful City Park area.

It’s an old-time classic for sure, so I said to myself, ‘By golly, I think I’ll send it home where it can be appreciated.’ Our heritage is important to us and should be preserved. Lots of changes, I suppose, too. Enlarged and posted up, it will cause some nice conversation.

“Well, I gave $3 for it, so if you want it for $4 or $5 or so, why that’s sure OK. Throw in a little postage if you want, too.
‘My wife is laughing at me and says if I hear from you, I will have to take her out to lunch. I am 89 years old and still going strong.

“I like to call my little hobby a “redistribution of happiness.” Our world sure needs it.

“Thank you. Godspeed and have a super 2018.”

Lowell Joerg,
Stockton, Calif.

Hopefully Mr. Joerg is prepared to take his wife out for lunch because not only is he hearing back from Glenwood, Iowa, he’s getting an all-things-Glenwood care package, courtesy of City Administrator Angie Winquist, City Clerk Amber Farnan and Tana Saddler of the Glenwood Area Chamber of Commerce.

“Tana, Amber and I decided to send him a care package to share with him a little bit of Glenwood,” Winquist said. “We bought a state basketball T-shirt and sent the O-T article; and then some flyers on Glenwood; with a few chamber gifts; and of course had to send him some popcorn. We also included a letter from the mayor.”

An Internet search quickly revealed that Glenwood isn’t the first community Mr. Joerg has sent a postcard to. Communities across the country - from Pennsylvania and Michigan to North Dakota and Minnesota - have all been beneficiaries of his “redistribution of happiness” campaign.

Winquist said she’s hopeful the care package from Glenwood will send some of that happiness and thoughtfulness back to Mr. Joerg.