You Can't Get Anything at Alice's Restaurant
7 hours ago
Sunday, October 22, 2017
Old School Tweet
A friend of mine has starting sending me old school tweets. That's what he calls sending a postcard. He got to thinking that a post card was the original short form communication. His postcards are works of art, literally. One side has original art work. The other has a short message. Unlike something like an e-mail, these are getting saved.
Another friend just had his father's quality fountain pen restored. He actually uses it to write letters. What amazed me is that there still are people out there who restore fountain pens. There must be enough demand.
Some people restore and use old typewriters. It's not just hipsters either.
As for myself I was one of the holdouts for rotary dial phones. There was a real classic in my office. The old Ma Bell phones a sound quality that newer phones just don't have. When I went to an Internet based service the old phone was no longer compatible. It was hard to let it go. To be honest, if I had a lot of calls to make, I'd use a push button phone. Dialing with a rotary got pretty tedious.
We've had long distance communication for some time. However, back in the old days everything was written down and physically carried from place to place. Imagine how tough that was when writing was cuneiform on clay tablets. The switch to light weight paper must have felt like a great leap forward.
Now communication is fast, inexpensive, and all too often trivial. In the old days if you were going to write a letter, you put some thought into it. That's why it's so nice to get original postcards from a friend.
-Sixbears
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Letter-writing itself used to be an art. Now, most folks have trouble composing a grocery list.
ReplyDeleteCursive might as well be a secret code.
DeleteHeck, most younger people can't even write. A young man wanted to open an account at the local bank. When he was asked to sign his name he didn't know how and had to print it. I write letters to some people. I like receiving letters. Wish they still taught penmanship in school.
ReplyDeleteLike I pointed out to Gorges, they can't even read cursive, never mind write it. Signing your name is pretty basic.
DeleteMy MIL is 90 and I have always had a pretty good Christmas present for her each year. But she's 90. While I hope that she lives a much longer life reality is reality. So back to what to get her 90 year old self that really doesn't NEED anything this year. As it turns out back in the mid 1970's-80's she collected turn of the (that) century yellow rose postcards. This summer she put several out for display in front of her door at her retirement center (they all seem to have a small display table to show off small items). Ah HA! So for Christmas she is going to get vintage, turn of previous century cards. Well, Thanksgiving postcards in her Thanksgiving card and Christmas postcards in her Christmas card as her main present. Truthfully, these things are collector items so some of them can get pretty pricey. :) Bonus, they take up so little space for her to store from year to year!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful gift! It takes some real thought to find something so meaningful.
DeleteWe learned to print in first grade and then second grade we had "penmanship." I loved the fountain pens and the blue ink, but what a mess for second graders. My main problem was being left handed, so I smeared everything I wrote.
ReplyDeleteI loved your post today as so much of my life was taking up with communication. Old Remington, Olivetti typewriters, etc. with the little bell remind you to "carriage return." Shorthand is obsolete. People can't spell or punctuate now either, and it doesn't seem to matter because they don't know the difference.
Funny. I was proofing and somehow hit the wrong key and it published. Ah, to be computer literate.
ReplyDeleteI've done the same thing, just yesterday in fact.
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