Letters As History: 1885

1885 Letter...a peek into the past!

Here is one of the envelopes  that I purchased at Packard's Stamps and Rocks some time back.  It was in my pile of very interesting envelopes . When I got home I realized that  it had a letter in it!  This was written in  a town a couple hours from where I live, Martinsville, VA.  It is nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  The sender is the wife of Mr. Wythe M. Peyton , Esq.  He , the receiver of this pencil written letter is an attorney -at- law, in Martinsville.  Evidently there was some outbreak of infectious disease that claimed an acquaintance's  (Mr. H) children .  Mrs. Peyton, evidently had been continuous contact via the mail by her remarks.  This reminds me of the scene in Jane Austen where Marianne is sending John Willoughby several letters a day in Bath.  

Interestingly, after expressing concern for Mr. Peyton's safety and interest in him returning home as soon as possible, she switches gears to the dress that is not trimmed properly and the missing basque!

Then all the domestic goings on...all in this simple letter!  What a peek into the daily, mundane life of a family in the 1880's.  

For the philately inclined...I loved seeing  these hand canceled stamps...Does anyone see anything else that I am missing?  

These dried flowers were found it the letter...over 130 years ago.

April 4th 1885

April 4^th 1885

My dear Husband:

You can’t imagine my delight when I received your note yesterday evening but I can’t keep from feeling uneasy about you  knowing your great kindness to people who are in distress; Have you been to Mr H’s house?  And where  were his children buried?  I do feel  so sorry for the family but hope you will not expose yourself that you may without danger come to see us soon.  I hope you can come this evening if you think safe as Aunt A  has invited Annie Watkins who is at Mrs Matilda Penns to come here this evening where her sister Jennie will meet her.  Please accept many thanks for the things you sent me; but I could not wear my dress as Lucy forgot to send me the basque and the overshirt is trimmed entirely different from the model we selected and promised to trim exactly like it; please send or bring the basque this evening as tomorrow is Sunday.  The children are well and continue to wish you were here to enjoy the nice things.  Loulie was delighted to get her basket and send you many thanks for sending it.  Preston walked close to me just a minute ago and said “tell Pa  I am very much oblige to him for writing to you , but I want him to come to stay with us.”  Please excuse writing my pencil is so short.  I send  Miss Lucy A the measures for Loulie & Preston.  Aunt S sends many thanks for your messages and says you must come down when you think it is safe for the children.  (With truest love and kisses from Loulie, Preston & Your fond Wife)

G. W. Peyton

I hope you have enjoyed this letter as much as I have.  I am currently trying to reach the historian from Charlotte County Historical Society to see if they can tell me what infectious outbreak was occurring at this time.   Just a bit of detective work!

If you visit any antique stores, poke around in their envelope boxes, and ask them if they have any old letters.  We can learn much from the past.

Write Letters,

Write Often...someday someone might be blogging about your little letter a century later!

Lady Pamela

Letter Writing, Correspondence , Organization 101

Let's Get Organized!

Do you find that it is difficult to keep track of your correspondence?  I have found several letters that I have not replied to, much to my chagrin!  My goal is to find any unanswered letter and get off a good reply, and hopefully be restored to their good graces, before 2015 hits!   But what can I do to keep track of my letter writing and be more responsible?  I am a PAPER person.  Is that any wonder?  I love letter writing, post cards, swaps...I love tangible things.  Sure.  I use my iphone for some items...but I am finding that it JUST DOESN'T WORK for me.  So I decided to go real old school,,, a ledger. Yep, it isn't pretty, but maybe I can pretty it up  sometime.  

Right now I have divided up my ledger into the following categories:  General:  Incoming/Outgoing.  I have devised a rather primitive key...

Lots of incoming on this page...mainly CC (Christmas Cards!)

This is my PostCrossing category.  It is nice to see what cards I have sent and received.  Also helps to see if I have registered the cards.

I recently joined Swap Bot!  I am working on getting a good rating score, so I need to be extra diligent on following through on my swaps.  So far...so good.

Another category I have started is my 50 State Post Card exchange for my Geography class. I have received a few cards, but haven't sent any because I still have not received the list of addresses.  I have contacted the coordinator , but to no avail.  I will persist!  

There are other systems out there, one that Mrs Murphy's Mailbox Magic had that utilized a card file system, but I can not find it on her site anymore,  perhaps you can find it elsewhere.  It might be a system that suits you better than a ledger system. Or computer systems...excel?  Use what works!  I will try to give you an update from time to time.  Of course systems only work , if they are used.  What do you use to keep track of your pen pals, and other letter writing correspondence?

Write Letters,

Write Often....and stay organized! ;-)

Lady Pamela

1/2/15  Update on Mr. Ledger...He got prettied up!  Quite an improvement, wouldn't you say?

Letters As History: Brothers Get Postal

Ok.  I love what I am about to share with you.  About a year ago, my two sons began a letter writing adventure.  I'm not sure who got  the ball rolling...but I believe it was Benji. He was bored one day, and  as any good Snail Mail blogging mother would do, I told him to go write a letter to his older brother!   Now you have to understand  that Benji was only 11 (# 9 child) when he started writing his big brother Zach (who happens to be # 2 child of our 10).  Benji is a bundle of energy, so letter writing would seem to be the LAST thing he would be doing, as it would appear to be so contrary to his nature.

There is a 14 year age difference, so when Zachary moved away to attend college, Benji was only  about 3 years old.  This activity is a great way for my son to get to know his older brother who is a full- time fire fighter,  and paramedic.

 About once a month, they get a letter off in the mail to each other.  I don't know exactly what they discuss, as I haven't been privy to any of the letters, but Benji tells me that they discuss music, what Zach's little boy is up to, and a host of other things.

I asked Zach to share some of his insights  (Johnny is another older brother he refers to):

So often it can be hard to keep in touch with family after you move out of the house. Sure, you can call them up on the phone every once in awhile, but you don't always get the intimate details of every one's lives that way. I started writing Johnny while in college... it was a way we got to keep in touch. You get a chance to share more minute and intimate details in letters because you get a chance to actually sit down and think about what you say before you say them. You also feel more free to say certain things as opposed to in person because you don't feel bad/awkward like you would if you were having the same conversation in person.

From Johnny, I moved on to writing Benji. I saved everyone of Johnny's letters and I save everyone of Benji's too. I like looking back on what we talked about, to see how things have changed since the time of the letter. It's funny and sad and weird how some things change over time. We talk about everything... work, school, friends, family, chores. One major common theme from Johnny and Benji is that they both love talking about music. So every letter ends with swapping song recommendations. We will write a list of songs we are enjoying at the time and share these, and then comment on the other person's recommendations.  I like to share uplifting and encouraging songs. I also share secular selections, but I think that this is important as well because they are catchy, fun enjoyable songs but they aren't dirty or trashy.

I love getting and writing letters to Benji. I feel just a little more connected not just to him but the family by doing so.

Thanks, Zachary for sharing your letter writing relationship with your kid brother.  I hope this will encourage young men or young ladies to take an interest in another young person in their lives.  It could make all the difference in this journey of life.

One thing I observed and was surprised with is the fact that they each save their letters!  I find this fascinating and wonderful!  Yay!  One day their children may end up reading these letters...because these writers thought to: first, write a letter and secondly, to save it~ the two key elements to making Letters As History.

"The one good thing about not seeing you is that I can write you letters."

~~~Svetlana Allilyeva

Write Letters,

Write Often,

Lady Pamela

Postcard Romance...1907 style!

Letters as History:  Vintage Postcards

Treasure Hunt...Vintage Postcards... and what they said!

These boxes were mentioned in my vacation post. http://lostartrevived.blogspot.com/2014/09/snail-mail-and-little-things.html Oh, if I had only had time to go through both shoe boxes... but  I was hopelessly being rushed.

The postcard covers were all of  such a wide variety (airlines, businesses, travel destinations... educational institutions, etc.)  Oh!  So much history on these photo postcards.

Ahhh....but the "B" side...or the Back side!  Oh what a world of epistolary mystery!  Each little postcard contains just a snippet of the poster's world.  Several of the postcards had the stamps placed upside down.  Now in the Language of Stamps that would mean...don't write me.  However, I don't believe these folks were following the Victorian stamp language.  Probably just absent mindedness,  But , then again...maybe...

This card was a  an interesting airline photo...but whoa!  Look at the back!!!

This message is such a hoot!  Do you think that Evelyn heeded  the advice given to her by Joseph?  So curt, short...sort of scary!  Yikes!

This was a super romantic card.  Just look at that picture...doesn't it just ooze love and romance?  Alice must have been some gal!

Look at the beautiful penmanship.  I love the use of a fountain pen here...or maybe this one was made with a dipping pen.  Either way... very romantic.. 

Oh....this just moves my heart.  

Dearest Alice,

I haven't forgotten you--much to the contrary.  Trust it is likewise with you.  Oh if you only were here, especially  in a night as shown on the reverse side of the card.  See you Monday, dear.

Ron (or is it Don?)

I for one haven't done very much with postcards.  First, they are difficult to find and usually only available  at tourist locations.  I have started to get into the habit of purchasing them when I am out of town, but then I get railroaded when I don't know where the local post office is located.  Therefore, my cards never get sent when  I am on holiday.  I was discussing this with a pen friend who just recently  sent me  a postcard from Vermont, I believe .  I told her that I would probably  just start sending them out from my home...they are still interesting, even if not dispatched from the location of origin.  What do you think?  Do you send postcards?   Why not do as I have just done and make a visit over to the Post Crossing site   http://www.postcrossing.com/ and join  it   like I did to make a little postcard history yourself?   Who knows...maybe one of our postcards will wind up in a shoe box in a thrift store  100 years from now...and cause  amazement, wonder, and magic  in someone else's life!

Watch out Germany!  My first 5 postcards are to you!

Write Letters,

Write Often!

Lady Pamela

Letters as History: Baby Mail

LETTERS AS HISTORY

My mother recently unearthed this most unusual letter... written to her father,  my grandfather.

My mother was  (and still is) a great letter writer, but she seemed to be a bit surprised that she had written this letter to my grandfather!  

But the news was just too great not to pen a letter...she wanted my grandfather to hear it straight from her about the surprise birth of  her TWIN girls...This was written 4 days after the momentous event...I suppose she had finally recovered from the shock of having 2 as opposed to 1 baby.

She had lots to say about these amazing twins...

Did you notice that she used the word "perfect" in describing the twins?  Oh and yes, we were a bit large for twins  as well...

There is a funny story about this picture.  My parents took us on a visit to Memphis when we were about 5 weeks old to visit my grandparents.  She  had my grandmother helping her when she took us to the photography studio (I might add,our one- and- only time after this experience!).  She needed 4 hands, that is easy enough  to understand .  But what they didn't anticipate (and neither did the photographer!) was that we (the perfect twins)  were unable to hold our wobbly heads up for more than a moment at a time...and of course we would flop our heads alternately so as to almost drive the photographer  batty!  He almost despaired in getting a decent shot of us.  I'm sure when the opportune shot finally arrived, he was glad to shooo the four of us out of his studio, wringing his hands and muttering under his breath, "never, never doing twin babies again!" 

Just a thought here about letters as history.  What IF my mother had not taken the time to write this letter?  There is much written here that is of interest.... particularly to me, my twin sister, my children and my grand children...etc. etc!  But in order to preserve history...it needs to be written down.  So why not make some history today by writing a letter about some family news.  Then, hopefully the recipients will  SAVE these letters.... tada...History made!  Thank you mom...for saving all of the letters that you have saved.

"Letters ought to be like babies...plump!"  (one of my favorite letter writing quotes!)

Write letters,
Write often,

Lady Pamela

Letters as History...

Treasures In My Mother's Cedar Chest

About a year and a half ago my twin sister and I were visiting my widowed mother who lives in Texas. One morning while eating our breakfast, out of the blue, my twin sister says..."mom, what's in that cedar chest  in your bedroom?  Can we take a look?" As a child the only memories I had of the contents of my mother's chest was of her wedding veil that she took out from time to time to let us inspect.   My mother, always indulging the "Twins" in their escapades, willingly obliged my twin's request.  So we all got up and walked into her bedroom and proceeded on a lovely adventure...

My lovely mother standing by the "mysterious" cedar chest.

There were some photos and other memorabilia from her high school days... but underneath all of that were piles and piles of...

my parent's year of love letters!  Oh...my heart started to pound with excitement! Epistolary Paradise!

Don't you just love the way these dear, sweet letters are bundled together?  I just love the rick rack! I just can't seem to envision printed emails being bundled together would have the same effect.  Do you?

The vast majority of the letters were from my father...a few survived that were written by my mother.

I would say that there were about 6 months of letters that were written when my father was stationed in the navy at Point Mugu in California after they were engaged...  He wrote EVERY day!

Here is some of the cool Navy stationery that he bought for his letter writing endeavors.  He made reference to the stationery...he would ask..."Do you like it?"  He was very concerned about  pleasing her even down to the details of the paper he wrote on.  My father (a south paw...a lefty) had beautiful cursive penmanship.

Here is the happy couple...He was a handsome sailor and a Yankee from Illinois... and she was (and still is) a beautiful southern belle from Memphis Tennessee (17 years old, mind you!).

The letters were a crucial aspect to securing affections even when separated by distance. Would an email or a text have had the same result?  Think of it.  These letters were carefully crafted, lovingly poured over in thoughts, passions, and hoping and praying that they "pleased" her down to the paper he selected! They were written (not typed) and therefore had a more intimate feel.  When received, she held in her hands something HE had held in his hands...it was tangible, physical, something to excite the senses.  Who knows, maybe they even had a faint odor of his Old Spice aftershave lingering on them. Can you save your texts or emails?  Do they have a sweet , lingering smell of your beloved?  Oh, I suppose you can print them off and save them...but is it the same?  Texts and emails by comparison are cold and impersonal, and do not seem to represent the intimacy of a passionate relationship.  No, my friends...letters...love letters are in a totally different category, a completely different league.

Here is an iconic photo of my mother after she had their first baby...my older sister.  She was back home living with her parents because my father was stationed in Hawaii.  Military regulations made my mother stay behind until my sister was old enough to travel by ship.  Again...they are separated by distance and continuing their love letters.  

Here is moi,enjoying myself immensely along with my mother and my twin sister sitting at the breakfast table enjoying  a walk down  memory lane (for my mother) and learning a whole new side about my father for me.   This scene would  never have  happened if  letters had not been written and exchanged.  This scene would not have happened if those letters had  not been treasured and saved for the future.  Folks, we are depriving future generations of personal history by not writing letters, long, thoughtful, insightful , and  sometimes funny letters. My parent's history is my history. Would my children or their children ever know this love-sick sailor, their grandfather, if he had not taken the time to write my mother?  Sadly no.   Someone has said,  "Oh what a lot we have lost when we stopped writing letters!!!!" 

Let's not forget letters are history, family history.  Why not start some family history today?  Write your mom or grandmother, sister, brother or cousin.  Ask questions about their lives,memories and dreams.  You will be glad you did...and subsequent generations will be glad as well.

Write letters.

Write often.

Lady Pamela