Social History

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With love from Pafos, Cyprus (2005)

with love from Paphos

Friday, Dear S,H,T,S,J&G. Just come out of the pool in Bob & Chris’s villa. They have a lovely house and are showing us the sights of Cyprus. Today we went inland & had spectacular views of the countryside. Last night we did quite well in the local quiz – home from home. It’s lovely to relax after our busy schedule – hope all are well. Much love, Mum & Dad

My in-laws are visiting friends who’ve recently moved to Cyprus – they are big quiz fans! Although the card features Pafos (Paphos), it is not clear if this where they are staying.

Interesting to see that the postmark here also reminds us (in English) to use the postcode. The postmark date is 16.05.05 and the stamps are the Refugee Stamp, which continues to be obligatory on all mail, together with a 25 cent stamp from the Jewellery definitive set issued in 2000

An earlier card from Simon’s parents.

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With love from Brisbane (1988)

with love from Brisbane

Dear H & S, Glad postal strike is over at last. Sue and I have just arrived here after 18 hour bus journey from Townsville. We’ve just been to the koala park and had our photos taken cuddling koalas – how touristy!!  John will be here in a couple of days and by then hopefully I will have found the airport. Falling desperately in love with Australia and travelling – just have to hope John does too.  Lots of love Marion x

This card is postmarked 30 Sept 1988 and it would appear that there had been a postal strike in Australia, which must have been very frustrating (this was before electronic communication was universally accessible).

The stamp is from the set of 29 different cartoons depicting aspects of Australian life, issued in 1988

Marion has travelled to Brisbane, home of World Expo 88

Marion is waiting for my brother to arrive for their road trip. Reading this now, with the benefit of hindsight and life experience, I cannot believe I did not notice that Marion is clearly not ready to settle down to married life. She made the strong decision to cancel the wedding and follow her own path. Heartbreaking as it was at the time, for all of us, it was the right choice for her.

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With love from Berlin (2017)

with love from Berlin

Berlin, 30.05.17  Hallo Hilary! This is the Revival postcard from Berlin :)!! 30 years later I’m now able to walk through Brandenburg Gate – it’s still a marvel!! I hope we won’t start building new walls in the future! Love Claudia

A status update from earlier this year, in which Claudia refers to the other card she sent me, 37 years ago 🙂 Berlin is now much more of a tourist destination than it was in the 80’s

Claudia and I continue to exchange news and views 🙂

 

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With love from Malia, Greece (c1987)

with love from Malia

Sunday.  so far so good, chickens and deckchairs aside. Having lots of fun – loads of swimming, snorkelling (have seen some great fish!), sunbathing etc Food – dirt cheap & the beer. We’re hiring scooters to see ruins of Heraklion tomorrow then a jeep to visit Vai (of bounty advert fame) & some other places. Have 2 trips planned too; a cretan evening with apt food & entertainment in scenic spot & an approx 10 mile walk along biggest gorge in Europe (apparently) + desparately needed boat ride! Loads of banana trees about. Malia‘s a pleasant combination of old traditional & new touristy. Hope to see you soon (after 25th) love Sara, Simon x

There seems to be an entire ‘rough guide’ to Crete contained in this message! Sara and Simon are certainly making the most of their trip.

Unfortunately, the card carries no postmark, so I am guessing this was sent around 1987

The 32 drachma stamp is from the Greek Gods series issued in 1986

Sara and I have been friends since school and continue to see each other regularly – I’m not sure if she still uses my nickname from way back, Hiral… that’s the thing about nicknames, you don’t notice them after a while!

 

 

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With love from Algarve, Portugal (1986)

with love from Portugal

Dear Hilary & Simon, Weather lovely Having a good time I suffered losing a stone for my holiday I will put 25 stone on the food is fab Love Auntie Laura

A short and sweet note featuring our favourite topics of the weather and food!

The card is postmarked ’25-VI 1986 Armacao‘ and carries a selection of stamps, two of which are from the Traditional Portugal Architecture series and one from the Development of Technology series, issued in 1978

Auntie Laura was my great aunt, she was married to my Nan’s brother. We saw them regularly at family gatherings when I was young, and they were fun to be around. Auntie Laura was a rock within her own immediate family; she died some years ago.

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With love from Yorkshire (1989)

with-love-from-yorkshire

21/7/89 Dear Simon & Hilary, We are enjoying an excellent week in the Yorkshire Dales, not very far from Grassington.  The weather has been superb and we have been on numerous walks in umpteen places.  We are planning a week in Blaenau following a week at home.  Hope you are enjoying a holiday yourselves, much love Uncle Don & Auntie Morfudd

Look at the cars in this picture – they really date the card!  The picture is of Grassington, a popular base from which to explore the Yorkshire Dales, and on this occasion the good weather has obviously helped.

The card carries a 19p first class stamp.

Uncle Don & Auntie Mor are Simon’s aunt & uncle.  Don is the younger brother of Simon’s mum, and he has always shown a great interest in Simon and his brother, Paul.

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With love from Niagara Falls (1982)

with-love-from-niagara

3-2-82  Dear Hilary, Having a great time at Niagara. We’re staying here over night and returning to Toronto tomorrow. Haven’t seen any mounties yet, but there’s plenty of time, and I’m just finishing my training programme so I can catch one! Lumberjacks are in short supply too, would you settle for an Italian! You ought to consider driving a truck out here, they’re immense, + so are the roads – anyway write soon. Love Amanda

Although signed Amanda, I’m fairly convinced that this is another of Mand‘s jokey status updates – she has reverted to her full name and has helpfully dated the message.

The stamps are from a 1977 definitive set of five stamps featuring trees of Canada.

A wide angle lens has captured most of the falls, but it is hard to get a sense of scale from this image.  Better scale on this one, but it loses the vastness…

When we were at school we loved the whole Monty Python lumberjack thing 🙂  I’m not sure what the Italian reference is.  Back in the day, my main career ambition was to become a truck (HGV) driver – slightly influenced by adverts for Yorkie bars (‘good, rich and thick’!), and undoubtedly encouraged by the irritation it provoked in parents and teachers alike, ha!

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With love from Berlin (1980)

with-love-from-berlin

Hello Hilary! Here is my postcard from Berlin. It is very nice here although the weather is quite cold. Yesterday evening we went on to the top platform of the sky-scraper which you can see on the card. From there we had a wonderful view over the whole city. But next time I’ll write more Many greetings Claudia

So here’s a card from 1980’s Berlin some 9 years before the wall came down. It carries a 50 pfennig stamp from the castles and palaces series. At the top of this stamp you can see that it was issued by the Federal Post Berlin.

‘sky-scraper’ is a phrase of the era! The building is known as the Europa-Center.

The card is postmarked ‘BERLIN 5.11.80’ and carries a second postmark, the rough translation of which is ‘keep connected with mail’ – a great sentiment!

Claudia is another prolific communicator who is also widely travelled 🙂

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With love from Banbury (1980)

with-love-from-banbury

6/10/80 Dear Hilary, Just a quickie from me, while on holiday on the Oxford Canals. It is really good fun. We go to all the pubs en route and have had parties on the barge!! The weather has not been brilliant but we enjoying it so that’s all that matters! Today we are at Banbury. It is a really nice country town. I hope you are getting on OK at college. Bye for now Jan xx

A cheery status update from Janet,  who appears to have enjoyed at least two canal holidays in 1980!  As usual she is making the best of things, despite the inclement British weather.

The card is post marked is ‘BANBURY 1.15pm 7 OCT 1980 OXON’ and also carries the old favourite ‘Be properly addressed POSTCODE IT’.

In the UK we all hear about Banbury Cross from a young age thanks to a traditional nursery rhyme – although I suspect few of us have ever visited and some may not even realise the connection!

As I continue this reflection of my life through the postcards I’ve received, I am amazed at just how many messages some people have sent to me – Janet is one of the most prolific correspondents 🙂

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With love from London (2017)

with-love-from-museum-of-london

13th February 2017 go, it’s free! before they relocate to Smithfield Mkt. Hilary, I saw this exhibition today (for free!) and obviously thought about our recent Charminster Chapter conversation. This permanent exhibition of suffragette/suffragist (we know the difference!) memorabilia has even inspired the gift shop’s souvenirs – Emmeline Pankhurst key rings & fridge magnets. The video footage + hearing their speeches on sound recordings was haunting, brave women Sally xxxx

This dropped through the door the other day, in an envelope, as there’s not enough space on the card for a message and an address.  The post mark is Mount Pleasant, one of the largest postal sorting offices.

Charminster Chapter is the name of the book group that I meet with. We recently read ‘A History of Britain in 21 Women‘ by Jenni Murray, which everyone enjoyed much more than they thought they would!  It is written in a conversational style that encouraged us to really engage and identify with the women featured, one of them being Emmeline Pankhurst.  We learned how all these women have helped to shape our country and we bemoaned the fact that we never learned enough, if anything, about them in school.

It is a testament to the book that we continue to discuss, get excited about and even add to the list of women included.

Sally‘s enthusiasm for the Museum of London is very apparent in her message, seems like I’ll have to pay a visit myself 🙂