In April 1959, Marian Trone mailed a postcard depicting a Native American wrestling an alligator that she bought during a trip to the Everglades in Florida. She and her 4-year-old son, Jerry, mailed it to her other son, 9-year-old Dale, who was staying behind with his grandparents in Hanover, Pa., because he had to go to school. Trone mailed the card to “Master Dale Trone” in care of his grandfather, R.G. Trone.

Poor Dale never got it. Well, almost never.

Marian Trone said the York post office found the postcard in July while cleaning and sent it to the Hanover post office. Someone in Hanover sent the postcard to R.C. Trone, Marion’s brother-in-law. In turn, he sent it to Dale’s half-brother, Hank Trone, who mailed it to Dale.

Dale Trone, 60, a retired IT professional from Proctor & Gamble who lives in Lakewood, Colo., received it in August — 50 years and four months after his mother mailed it.

The message on the card talks about his mother and brother going on a boat cruise and seeing alligator wrestling. “She probably chewed me out for not thanking her for the postcard,” he said. “The work to get it to me was surprising.”

The postcard had a 3-cent stamp on it, but Hank mailed it to him via Priority Mail. “So it cost him $5 to get me a 3-cent stamp,” Dale said.