Saturday, February 6, 2010

Telegram

I decided, after starting to color this one,
that I wanted to publish it in black and white.









15 comments:

ana said...

I love this. Of course without technology I wouldn't have the chance to enjoy your work.

In 1970 I volunteered teaching in PNG. The letter was my only means of communication. It was a real immersion experience! My laboriously typed weekly letters to my family provide a fascinating record of a most unusual year in my life. Irreplaceable with mod tech?

ooglebloops said...

As my handwriting deteriorates with age, I appreciate being able to type and email. But, the art of letter writing is becoming a lost one. I used to be a prolific letter writer-now a prolific emailer/blogger!!!
Nothing can beat getting a letter the old fashioned way!
Love your little book!!! B&W suits it!!!

Anne said...

Thanks for the blast back to the past. I remember my college days and anxiously awaiting the mail delivery, hoping you got a letter from home. Back then we had so much more available time, because we weren't always connected to the internet, etc.

Elaine Fine said...

I remember making phone calls (one call once every couple of weeks) from the post office in my little Austrian town. It was a big deal, and the calls meant a lot. Everybody in the post office thought it was a big deal that I was calling America (and this was 1980)!

And I remember blue airmail paper-envelopes and telegrams (one especially announcing the birth of my baby brother). I didn't get mail in my apartment--it was all delivered to my music school.

Through instant communication we can so easily miss the magic of correspondence: perhaps part of the beauty of pre-email communication is in the delayed gratification, and then the glorious repetition of reading a letter again.

Then again, in the 1980s the idea that a letter could cross the Atlantic in a week was amazing. During Mozart's lifetime, and even Beethoven's lifetime, letters had to be delivered by hand, and a cross-continental letter would have to wait for a cross-continental traveler to deliver it.

Margaret Benbow said...

You were probably very worried when you were running to get the telegram, because they sometimes announced tragedies--and it turned out to be a HAPPY surprise! What a good memory.
You're right about modern technology being a missed blessing. I saved many letters which my mother wrote to me, and her characteristic handwriting, expressing the way she looked at the world, is so precious to me now.

annechung said...

How sweet.

Deepti said...

Your stories are lovely and your drawings wonderful! I look forward to your weekly posts :)

bobbie said...

...or three or four.

But ana is right. It brings us your work.

I like this in black and white. Very appropriate.

Letters are still very special. When I send one to someone who doesn't usually get them, they are so delighted.

Michael Leddy said...

A great story. It made me miss the online service Retro-Grams (faux telegrams, on paper or as PDFs) all over again.

Barbara Anne said...

Oh, yes! The simple pleasure and delight of a letter to devour has been all but lost.

When I was a child in the 1950s in Memphis, TN, there really and truly were two mail deliveries daily in December because so many people sent Christmas cards. It was past delicious and past wonderful to have two mail deliveries a day. Bliss!

We were on a party-line and I still listen briefly before I dial. It's a deep seeded childhood lesson to make sure someone isn't already on the line to someone else. Remember that?

The internet has it's good side, but oh,the joys of being without it.

Hugs!

Four Seasons in a Life said...

Dear Caroline,

This one I wish we would have children read in class and then respond by telling us what exactly we are missing.

There are things I have treasured over the years, like letters, handwritten letters and there envelops with beautiful stamps and though emails offer speed, we are now unable to see the handwriting or being able to read between the lines by studying the pen marks.

THank you for a wonderful post that is magnificently illustrated.

Warmest regards,
Egmont

Kirstin said...

Oh this is so nice and brings back fond memories of my 6 months study abroad in France in 1986. Phone calls were rarely made as it involved hiking to a pay phone at weird hours in order to catch someone at home and awake. I typically wrote and received letters but never a telegram. That must have been scary/exciting and then fun when you found out what it was. Very lovely story.

Lana Gramlich said...

I hear this, but I also note that the more access we have to information & each other, it seems the less we bother with it. I'm kind of flabbergasted by that, actually. Some years ago I had friends invite me to join Facebook (which meant they already HAVE my e-mail address & I know that most of them had my phone # too.) When I finally caved in & joined (expecting that maybe they'd keep in touch more,) they didn't bother contacting me there, either. I eventually cancelled the account & I just don't get it.

coolwaterworks said...

Perhaps it did...

I remember the time when I look forward to every letter being sent to me. I miss the thrill and the excitement of anticipation and waiting... And of course, back then, almost everything had a personal touch.... :)

Jacky said...

Life was much simpler back then...how quickly we become dependent on the new technologies available. Who would have believed how many people would have a computer in their home, how many adults and children would have mobile phones.
Some of the advances are great, but many a time I yearn for that simpler life.

Jacky xox