Nostalgia I

Once again, it is nearing one in the morning, and I find myself blessed...cursed...plagued... by a thousand blogging ideas. It's been one of those days where I've actually left the house. Tomorrow, the Monkey Boy is coming over for some homeschooling. I started a craft project. So many things to share, so little time.

But.

As I was going through my file boxes, looking for postcards for my collage project, I stumbled across a little, white paper bag, containing several old postcards. See, when I went to Australia several years ago, my friend Jen and I went into a little antique shop in Adelaide. At the time, I was hosting writing challenges at a forum I visited, and when I came across these old postcards, I decided to buy them, thinking they would make excellent fodder for a writing challenge.

That never happened, of course. I only like to think that I'm that together. Instead, they got filed away, and I forgot all about them, until tonight. Now, with no one interested in writing about them, I don't really have any reason to keep them. Except...

Ever own something really old and feel like you kind of should keep it to preserve the story? Real people wrote these cards. They took time out of their lives to sit down and compose handwritten notes to people they cared about. Shouldn't someone remember this? Just look at them... 

This one had to have been written by a child. Look at the handwriting.

"Dear Bessie,

I would like you to be hear now you went a way just when the good times came with love from Mary"

Don't you just wonder who Bessie and Mary were? Did Bessie ever get the card? It doesn't look as it was mailed directly. There's no postmark. And what good times was she talking about? And why did Bessie go away?

This one, I think, is much older. A date on the back looks as if it says 1908, but I just can't be sure. As for the writing, your guess is as good as mine. From what I can tell, it says:

"Dear Mim and Will,

Sorry I have not been out to see you before this but shall be out to see you tonight about 8 o'clock or 8.30. I shall be bringing someone to see you, you can guess who. Tell our Nell, as we shall not be able to stop, as we shall have to get back to Brisbington (?),

Yours,

Will"

Aren't you just burning with curiosity? Who is Will bringing? And what kind of a postal service makes it possible to send a letter on the same day that you're planning to visit someone, in time for that letter to warn the people you're visiting of your impending arrival?

Then there's this little beauty.

"Dear Bro,

Don't eat too much of that apple for fear of making you ill, just a little at a time. I expect you have nearly forgotten me. It is nearly 6 months since I saw you last. Good bye XXX, Annie"


Now I, for one, did not realize that the term "bro" was truly so old school. This post card was clearly written some number of years ago. Bro? Really? And the boys today think they're so bad when they say that. If only they knew that they were being downright... Victorian? Yeah, fine, so I may be off a bit when it comes to my time periods. But my point stands.


I have about seven more postcards - three from the same man, written in the 1950s - but I think I'll leave it here tonight. I do, after all, have Monkey Boy Chaos to prepare for. And I'd like to be in bed by two. And my kitchen is a mess. And I still haven't done my laundry.


Maybe Monkey Boy Chaos would like to learn how to do laundry. That's educational. Right?


RIGHT?


*Bobs