Or just until all our lovey-dovey emails and jpegs are corrupted? Until the sweet nothings I send you from my iPhone and laptop someday turn into real nothings?

Back in the day, that wasn’t a problem. Postcards like these from a century ago, with little messages penciled on the backs, are apt to last longer than what we email and Twitter and Facebook. These cards came from my Grandma’s antique shop, which she operated in her farmhouse near Rembrandt, Iowa. By way of legacy, I ended up with a stack of postcards, a punchbowl, and some teacups.

And what do these old postcard Valentines say? Here’s what one of them—addressed to Miss Dora Bauder of Fort Plain, New York, c. 1908—had to say. Hold on now, it’s pretty steamy:

Dearest–How are you? Did you get a cold from the party? My, but I did. We all have been sick since then. Everyone that was there has this awful cold. Love, Margaret.