I’m always sincerely thankful for people taking the time to hand Blantyre related items in. Like this collection of postcards for example, which reader Moria Lees recently delivered.
We can forget in this modern world of emails and facetime, how difficult and delayed communication was back in pre WW1 days for the average family. Not everybody had telephones yet and so postcards were a great way to inexpensively communicate as long as you kept in mind it would be several days until the other person read them. They were used not just for sending greetings from holidays, but also used to give family members messages and even in some circumstances, used in business.
Moria’s collection appear to all be Pre WW1, an interesting collection of colourful cards in good condition from between 1906 ane 1914. It’s not just the pictures which are interesting in this collection. Whats on the back, the writing form a picture of the Miller family deeply caring for each other and a real snapshot of Edwardian life, blissfully unaware of what was about to come. Mostly of travel greetings from holidays, they abruptly stop in Summer 1914, which is not hard to imagine why.
Though most don’t feature Blantyre, almost all are between members of the Miller family with the majority of them being sent to their home in Craig Street, Blantyre. The residents of that household, clearly collecting all these cards. Some of the early cards make reference to Slag Road, a former name of Craig Street.
The exchanges are friendly and personal. Not just ‘having a good time’ but asking after the welfare of family members of sometimes just simple messages to say ‘I got home safe’. Mostly from the Valentines series, there’s a few of my favourtie ‘Reliable’ series which i always felt were a little more ornate.
Some of these cards are now 120 years old, so I thank Moria sincerely for her kindness for handing in so many dozens. As with anything arriving at my door, I’ll take good care of them, adding to a collection of Blantyre objects and documents which I hope one day will end up in a little museum.
Not making light of these treasures Paul, but I had to wonder at your second paragraph about today’s communication speeds.
Last week on February 20, we received a Christmas card in the mail from UK post dated December 9. That is a 42 day journey!
Next day, we received another TWO Christmas cards from UK but post marks illegible.
Stamps on all 3 were a whopping £3.40.
We got faster deliveries 40 years ago.
I am not pointing fingers in any direction either side of the Atlantic, but £3.40 seems ridiculous for this “service”.