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December 09, 2007 |
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Columbus by Bus
FOUND by J. G. White
in Avon Lake, Ohio
A Western Union Telegram found used as a bookmark in a 1932 imprint of "Ya'an Hee See Laughs" by Sax Rohmer. I was lamenting to the wife that I never find anything neat, and she reminded me of this. When I first found it we speculated about the circumstances between Al and Miss Pauline.
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But If I Were February 14, 2006 |
Not Quite a Hallmark May 14, 2006 |
Asleep at the Soundboard July 28, 2007 |
The Rainbow ... December 30, 2007 |
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We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
Very cool, very old, I love it!
Wow.. awesome find. Is there a year on this? I see the Aug 28 date, but year?
I never find stuff this cool.
Lovely. 6:30 AM, however, is an awfully early time for a rendezvous.
Great find. I think it's kind of sad that Western Union doesn't send telegrams anymore.
Weird. This same telegram-type-thing is on postsecret.com (from last Sunday's batch of secrets 12/2) with morse code filling the message space.
Oooh, dirty.
so.... Al and Pauline.. who the heck is Will?
i think they were having a torrid, secret, scandalous affair.
Dinosaur email.
Al likes to spend big on the ladies. He sprung for the extra coin to include the word "Miss."
Will AT (Will arrive today)
The telegram was sent at 11:17 am and arrived at 12:54 pm, seemingly between Chicago and Columbus, Ohio. (could be Columbus, Mississippi tho)
What, nobody liked my Sentimental Trousers yesterday?
Yeah, well, Grammy waited and waited for you, haunting both the Greyhound station and the train depot until she finally lost it & we had to put her away. She died alone in the asylum, still waiting for you, you no-good, two-timing slug. Thanks a bunch
I don't understand it, but it's a very cool find just because it's so old.
I like this find a lot. I like the snapshot in time that it gives you. The world has changed so much since then.
145 years of telegrams and Western Union quit in 2006. Imagine... 145 years of coded, indecipherable messages just because someone was trying to save time and money by being as brief as possible.
BRB, I got a txt-- it's my bff Jill! OMG!
The word "ARRIVE" is missing; it comes right after "WILL." Poor Al paid a huge amount of money to send this--Western Union telegrams were very expensive--and then the company f*ed up the message. Hope Pauline figured it out in time.
I hope Al and Pauline are living happily somewhere about to celebrate 50 years of marriage.
This is an amazing old find. It's like a very brief love letter, with the old romance still lingering on it.
Does Western Union still exist?
It is interesting to magnify this and read the small print:
"This is a full-rate Telegram or Cablegram unless its deferred character is indicated by a suitable symbol above or preceding the address."
Boring.
I've got this song in my head and I wanted to share it with you all. Check out this link of The Five Americans singing their hit "Western Union" some 40 years ago on the Steve Allen Show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJMwxucTJyo
I bet it was Columbus, MS, because of the use of "over" in "over Greyhound" to mean "over at the Greyhound terminal." My father, a Southerner (but definitely not a southern gentleman, nuance), used this sort of shorthand when he spoke. "Be back directly, I'm headed over Curran's" meant "I'll be back soon, I'm going to Curran's house." Or shop, or whatever.
Wow. That's in great condition too. Not as great as a picture of a freaky kid with a dummy or a note blaming PMS for stupidity, but nice.
most likely Columbus, Ohio being that it was found in Ohio. But quite a lot of states have a Columbus...Indiana, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, Wisconsin to name a few
thanks for the link, agent. I like that song.
In case anyone's interested, Sax Rohmer gave us the Fu Manchu novels/movies. He has a website and everything. Ahhhh, the 30's...great cars, great clothes, great fun. The Shadow, the Hornet, Fu Manchu....
Orinoco, yes, I am interested! Sax Rohmer wrote 'Tcheriapin' which has haunted me ever since I read it at a tender age (along with Sheridan LeFanu's 'Green Tea').
And this Find is interesting (and cool) for its period aura, not the actual message.
My brother flew from UK to USA for his first job in about 1969. He sent a telegram to say he'd arrived, and it was supposed to end 'LETTERS FOLLOWING LOVE TONY' so we were very mystified by 'PETTERS FOLLOWINV LOVE HONY'. Not a foolproof mode of communication then.
The worst thing now is you can't send wedding or birthday telegrams any more.
I even used to have excitable girlfriends who would send a telegram if they thought something was VERY important.
On the other hand, imagine that ring at the door if your husband was away fighting overseas...
Telegrams were like today's text messages in a way, yes?
Assuming this is Columbus, Ohio, if you google map the address you'll see it's just a paved parking lot near Juvy and the court house. How sad. The greyhound station, just a few blocks from the address, is pretty disgusting too. Not the nicest sights of the city.
Jonathan, is 'Tcheriapin' pronounced like "Terrapin"? That's haunted me ever since Oakland, 1993.
I guess the only thing you can send Western Union nowdays is money.
I wonder who Will is.
I would LOVE to receive a telegram telling me that my lover was coming home. Alas. I will never know the joy.
I really like this find. It's simple, sweet, exciting, makes me dream of first kisses and all those kisses after.
i like stories where people connect. I feel a little brighter for having read this.
So cool to be the find of the day!
The book was found as "dressing" in an antique bookcase in an antique store around Hocking Hills, Ohio. It wasn't technically for sale, it was just there to spiff up the merchandise. Being a Rohmer fan, I talked them into selling me the book.
Buckeye, cool info, I never thought to check out the address on Google.
J.G., what year did you find this? Do you have a guess as to what year it was sent?
This is the kind of find that sparks the imagination. There's more than meets the eye. Thanks for sharing it with us. 8-)
My birthday is August 28 - I wonder what year this was sent? It's cool to think that this happened a certain number of years before the same day in 1984 when I was born.
Also, sad to think that this woman's residence is now a parking lot. In my hometown of Newark, Delaware, a veeeery decrepit old house was recently torn down to make room for a... Commerce Bank. Criminal.
Sarasara, the receipt of a telegramme re: a military husband meant he was coming home all right--in a coffin. They just sent the living home by regular transport, with no notification. The telegramme meant your soldier had been killed. Therefore more than one woman's heart has skipped a beat at the announcement of a telegramme...but not in a good way.
I once sent my mother a telegramme to announce a change in my arriving flight, without realising I had probably just scared her to death...she got married just before WW2 broke out. My cable was in the early 80's, but still.
Dear Nightingale and Deanna, August 28 fell on a Thursday in 1930 and not again for a long time. Special thanks to Stan the Toothpaste Man for translating "AT" (arrive today), to Buckeye for the update on the location, to Nightingale for "dinosaur email," and to J. G. for the find.
And for Jonathan,
"In Victorian England, one of the most important battles happened in South Africa – the siege of Mafeking. It was one of the first battles in which the telegram was used. Telegrams flew from Mafeking to London and from London to Mafeking. The first one read: 'All well, Four Hours Bombardment. One dog killed.' Things didn’t stay so easy. Lady Sarah Wilson sent a telegram from the city saying: 'Breakfast: horse sausages. Lunch: minced mule. Well, Sarah.'
You know I've been looking for a proper donkey tie-in for weeks!
Thank you for the info, Crisis. I wouldn't have thought of finding the date that way. You're so smart!
Welcome back! Let's play Pin the Tail on the Donkey! 8-)
Crisis, you're a genius! Welcome back.
Oh, and my brother's telegram ended a sentence with 'SHOP' instead of 'STOP' which was most confusing.
Chrome T, I always assumed with a French accent so '-pan' as in Chopin. But I might have been wrong. Rohmer must have been thinking of the Russian composer Tcherepnin (and/or the bass Chaliapin), although in his story the character is a diabolic violinist evidently based on Paganini.
'It was... The Black Mass!' *shudder*
Love it!! Really like how it names the President, Chairman of the Board, and the First Vice-President at the top. Very, antiqey. I'd frame it.