Whatever Happened To Hawaiian Nudie Postcards?

When I was a kid a few of my dads friends were surfers.  As surfers tend to do, many visited their promised land of Hawaii.  The highlight for me was when they sent back postcards.

This may be hard for you to believe, but there was a time in America when it was perfectly okay to send a picture of a topless woman in the mail.  Remember, we're talking about postcards here, so there's nothing to keep whoever gets the mail from checking them out. And these weren't obscured by lei's pictures either, these were full on, perky island boobs, nipples, the whole shebang.

Thinking about this brings up all kinds of issues, the first is, the actual practice of sending out Hawaiian nudes was kind of racist.  You wouldn't let them send pictures of topless white women through the mail would you?  No, somehow these exotic beauties were thought of as "jungle people" so the fact that they were topless really didn't matter.

Next though, is the matter of personal responsibility.  My dad would have kicked my ass for grabbing the mail without permission.  Mail was really important and special back then.  Kids just didn't mess with the mail unless it was a specifically assigned chore.

Here's a link to check out some of these cards which now sell for $8 to $18 and up on Ebay.