We visit a really wonderful estate sale in Alameda on Sunday. The deceased survived the Nazis and outlived two husbands. The below messages were from her first’s passing. Besides the content of the notes, what fascinated me the most is their construction. The messages are like a ticker tape, cut and glued down. I had never seen one before, I guess I assumed the messages were typed directly onto the telegram sheets.
6 comments
Comment by Mom
Mom February 19, 2013 at 2:52 pm
I’ve never seen/gotten a Western Union telegram.
Comment by whatsinmybutt
whatsinmybutt February 19, 2013 at 3:11 pm
I was reading somewhere over the weekend, that telegrams ceased operations only last year. Something like 200,000 were sent at $10 each in 2012.
Comment by cwb
cwb February 19, 2013 at 11:55 pm
I’ve never seen a telegram either. Guess it makes sense to use ticker tape as that would recreate how to the letters were coming over the line to the operator — just a stream that they then have to piece together into a sentence and paragraph… interesting.
Comment by Mom
Mom February 22, 2013 at 12:40 am
Interesting. I had no idea.
Comment by lovergirl
lovergirl February 23, 2013 at 12:06 am
these look so good…and in context so thoughtful, nice departure, but still keeping close to subject mater you care about. well done.
Comment by whatsinmybutt
whatsinmybutt February 23, 2013 at 3:45 pm
thank you.