History in letters, well half of them in this case are 'Blueys' the free to send lightweight letters for Army use.
I was doing a final check through my Mum's document files ready for delivering them back to the bungalow with all the documents that relate to it ready for my brother. When I came across all the correspondence that my eldest son, Simon sent to his grandparents during his time in the army.
They start during his basic training days, and then go on to chart his history of deployments, and continue when he was on the frontline. The final couple are when he was serving his last weeks in the army as a sentry at Catterick barracks, before heading home. I've kept them all to hand back to him next time we see each other, as they will match up nicely with the letters that Mum and Dad sent to him.
I obviously have all the ones he sent to me, and he has the ones that I sent to him, maybe one day we will match them together as well. It seems a lifetime ago that I wrote to him twice a week, and sent him a weekly 'goodies' parcel through the free parcel service the Post Office offers for military personnel serving overseas.
It's also been a busy week for sorting in other areas. I sold a selection of Kilner jars on Facebook Marketplace that I no longer had any use or space for.
The sale paid for this weeks little shopping top up.
Oh, and just before the weather turned really atrocious I managed to get the garden virtually put to bed for the Winter. There are just a few pots left to tip into the compost bin, or throw away.
The white curtain pole is on top of the mesh so that Ginger and his feline friends can see it's not safe to jump down off the fence there. It looks a mess but it does the job.
Finally ...
It's most definitely reading and tv watching weather at the moment.
Stay cosy everyone.
Sue xx
I remember the airmail letters. I used to write to my now husband and it was always a thrill to receive his replies. Most disappeared over the years and the moves, but I still have a few from his expedition days.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to have some to cherish isn't it. 🙂
DeleteOh those blue airmail letters with the little foldable sticky flaps that secured them closed. When you’d used up all the space sometimes you resorted to little tidbits in the margins and hoped they didn’t get ‘shredded when the receiver sliced down the folds to ‘open’ the letter.
ReplyDeleteBack in the 1970s here in Australia they were ‘the’ way to keep in touch with friends and family overseas. Much cheaper than a proper letter…..even using the flimsy airmail paper and envelopes.
Lots of memories. 🙂
DeleteThat brought back memories, I had a couple of pen friends and used that paper for a while.
ReplyDeleteI seem to have a love hate relationship with Kilner jars, one day they're all festering in the garage then the next I'm bringing them in, giving them a good scrub and filling them up again! Very useful to buy groceries with your proceeds from the sale.
Alison in Devon x
I've been struggling to fit things in my cupboards so I needed to have a good reorganisation under the sink. They had to go. 😄
DeleteBought some of those Proper chips yesterday-they are my favourite crisps. My Mum used to write to her cousin in Australia for many years on the airmail paper and I wrote to my daughter when she was working in the States about 30 years ago for the summer. Teeming with rain here now and garden plans abandoned. Catriona
ReplyDeleteThey are tasty aren't they. 😀Airmail paper quickly changed to machine sealed heavy duty paper once he was in war zones. I was always amazed that post and parcels reached him. Nothing went missing ... though lots of things melted. 😄
DeleteI used those prepaid airmail (supplied by my mother) for weekly letters from boarding school to Indonesia. Memory lane again...
ReplyDeleteI used to have lots of penpals and used Airmail paper/envelopes. They don't make it any more and would rather rob you blind for postage! Still have Keith's letters home from being in the Army, and his mum's to him too.
ReplyDeleteWill anyone in future find a shoebox of letters tied with blue ribbon when going up to the attic in a house they have newly moved into? June
ReplyDelete