Wednesday Walk down memory lane - the art of communication

Can you imagine living in a world without any cell phones; no televisions, no computers and definitely no world wide web!
I will be taking you on a different kind of WednesdayWalk and this one is going down memory lane - all about communicating in days gone by!
Kind of cheeky I know, but I believe @tattoodjay will understand the sentiment behind this!

THE POSTMAN
So how did our parents or grandparents communicate back in the day and who was the bearer of good and bad news?

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The good old postman of course, who also became the brunt of many a joke as some bored housewives would invite them in for more than just a cuppa of tea!

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THE TELEGRAM SOS
Does anyone around here remember the consternation on our parents faces and other times the joy when a telegram arrived, delivered in person by the postman?
Of course I'm not talking about the App now!
It was a form of speedy telecommunication consisting of short messages transmitted over the telegraph wire, and when one of those arrived it either meant very good or very bad news, so it would always be opened very tentatively!

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THE TALKING TELEPHONE
You see, when the telephone was first invented, it was a luxury having one in the home so telegrams were the most affordable way of sending an important message!
I remember how the telephone was revered as we could now talk to family or friends who lived in faraway places!

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THE PUBLIC PHONE BOOTH
We don't see any of these around here anymore, but this often was a lifeline when one would be stuck somewhere and need to call for help. How annoying though when the person using the telephone booth stays on that phone for way too long just to have a chit-chat!

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THE LETTERS
I remember the feeling of expectation walking to the post box, hoping for a letter written just for me! My dear Granny had to cross the waters to take care of my uncle who lived in Paris at the time as he became gravely ill. Gran was really homesick and would regularly write letters, the only way we would communicate as telephoning overseas was really costly; still is here in South Africa!
I have a box full of letters, cards and post cards that I take out when I'm in a sentimental mood.
How wonderful to read the words written by loved ones, means way more than the emails or text messages of today!
These old letters make me shed a tear or two and some give me a real good laugh!
Gran's letters

A letter my nephew wrote to my mom.

Some letters were not as welcome and they were often housed inside brown envelopes - we called them window frames - those were the dreaded accounts!

THE ART OF WRITING
When I left school way back when and joined a firm of land surveyors as a learner draftswoman, one of the first things I had to do was learn to print properly – by hand that is!
Hours was spent practicing the art or printing and although you developed your own style, you had to keep the letters uniform. We had special ink drafting pens, different thickness nibs and different colours of ink were used. Cleaning one’s pens was a constant task and this was something you guarded jealously, not something to be lent out!

Then later on stencils were invented – quite an advancement;)
These were stencils I still have today.

The art of Calligraphy is something you can teach yourself from online tutorials or books; this was quite a sought after skill which was used on Certificates, Diplomas, Greeting cards, Labels and much more!
Nowadays it's so easy to simply choose a font and the computer does it all for you, but it really is so much more satisfying having done it by hand as it will have your own personalised style.

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I hope to share my visit to the southernmost tip of Africa with you all next week, as that is where I will find myself by the time this post is scheduled to be published, but hope you found this walk down memory lane interesting and appreciate how much easier technology has made it for all of us!

One last thought; now that we have all these tools for communicating, just how much are we communicating with our loved ones?
I know what happens in my home - both hubby and I often find ourselves staring at our phones for long periods without really talking to one another, so are we really communicating nowadays?

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Original Content by @lizelle

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