Month: September 2015

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with love from Oakham, Leicestershire (1977)

With love from Oakham

Dear Hilary, hope you’re having a nice holiday – I am! At the moment we are in Rutland and we go home on Friday, hope to see you soon BYE!! Love Ida xx

Post marked ‘Oakham 5.30pm 17 Aug 1977 Leics’ as well as with the old favourite ‘Remember to use the Post Code’ and carrying the 7p stamp which was the cost of posting a small (40g) postcard in 1977

Leicestershire is a county in the middle of the UK with some beautiful market towns of which Oakham is one; close to Rutland Water and about eleven miles from the more famous Melton Mowbray.

The text is a one line status update offering no context, other than it is obviously a trip taken during school summer holidays.

 

This is another card from from Ida, my friend from early school days; I am not in electronic contact with her so I don’t think she has seen the blog yet; I have written her a couple of cards and messages, but it’ll probably be Christmas when I hear back from her – positively I hope!

 

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with love from Paris (1981)

With love from Paris

Tuesday  Dear Hilary, Yesterday we went on a boat trip down the Seine which showed many of the famous sights. Later we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower and then onto Les Invalides. Today we went to Versailles to see the palace, we’re having a great time and the weather couldn’t be better. See you soon Sue + Chris

Post marked ‘Paris 21H 7-7-1981 Gare St Lazare’ and carrying a 1 franc 20 centime stamp, this is another 1981 card featuring the Sacré-Coeur  together with its funiculars.

There is plenty being updated here – Paris and the weather combining to offer the proverbial ‘great time’.

 

Sue is a very popular name amongst my peers and I was at school with several – unfortunately I cannot be sure which Sue has written, and the accompanying Chris is a confusion… I have lost touch with this Sue!

 

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with love from Pertisau am Achensee, Austria (1976)

With love from Pertisau am Achensee

Dear Hilary,  I am having a great time I haven’t fallen over once yet. I hope you are having a great time as well. The weather is beautiful and so is the view from our bedroom window. By the way Clive is behaving. We went to the glass place at Kufstein and we saw them carving things on glasses see you sometime love Jackie xx

 

Another card posted from Austria (almost 40 years ago!) and postmarked ‘Pertisau 3-2-1976 6213’

The picture of Pertisau am Achensee is similarly repeated in the other post mark, so must be the ‘classic’ view of the town.

The ‘glass place’ mentioned is the world famous Riedel glass factory.

 

Jackie posted this from a school ski trip – she still went on the trip even though she had left our school and moved out of the area (with her family) some months earlier. I went away skiing with my family the same week – my parents figured that there would be lots of kids who’d missed lessons and had to catch up. This was, of course, back in the days when trips and holidays could be taken in UK term time without any hassles or fines! Clive, was the boy I fancied at the time – I probably spent much of my own week away imagining him and the others getting up to all sorts of fun without me…  

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with love from Budapest, Hungary (2015)

with love from Budapest

To Mum, Dad, Stormé, Gus, Belchior & probably a few dogs. Hope you are all having a good day 🙂 I have been exploring Budapest today – went in the Parliament Building & actually listened to some facts Mum – be proud! 96m high with 691 rooms! wow! This pic shows the Buda castle which was also very beautiful – loving all the architecture! Off to Sziget festival tomo to see Avicci & Kasabian play 🙂 Then onto Vienna & Italy! Hope trainings going well Gus, M&D having some QCT & Stormé have fun with Jake! Lots of love Jas xxxx

A recent delivery; postmarked ’19 08 15 Wien’ this carries a ‘Standard Europa’ Austrian stamp, as finding both a stamp and post box in Budapest apparently proved too difficult!

In the light of the recent problems in Budapest this description from a few weeks earlier hardly seems like the same city.

Much exciting status update info is contained in the text and note the modern usage of ‘text speak‘ abbreviations, plus plenty of exclamation marks and smiley faces – all very 21st century – compared with the writing of the 1970’s and 80’s.

Jas is my daughter who, this summer, went inter-railing in Europe. Belchior is a foreign student who is staying with us at the moment; I also offer a dog sitting service; the house can be quite hectic at times! M&D is (obviously) short for ‘Mum & Dad’, and QCT stands for ‘quality couple time’; as opposed to QFT, ‘quality family time’, both of which are slightly tongue in cheek (family) references to the importance of spending (quality) time together. Like all daughters Jas is beautiful; I love her unconditionally and I am very proud of her.

 

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with love from Lynmouth (1979)

with love from Lynmouth

Friday 24th August. Dear Hilary, Enjoying my holiday weather is very bad guest house and surrounding countryside are very nice though. We will be moving on to South Devon on Sunday, then we will go home on Wednesday We are off visiting friends tonight. Will write when I get home Love Helen

Postmarked ‘North Devon  7.00pm 28 August 1979’

A later card from Helen who, despite the ‘bad’ weather, appears to be enjoying another holiday in Devon with her family.

Lynmouth and Lynton are tucked away on the North Devon Coast (UK) and continue to be a popular destination ‘away from it all’ – not much has changed in 40 years.

 

Helen and I were friends in primary school; she emigrated, with her family, to New Zealand for a while, but they later came back. This card was written five years after I had moved away from my early childhood home. Sadly, I did not maintain contact with Helen and, as yet, I have been unable to trace her through the wonder of the internet.