Cumbria – fromsomewherewithlove

Dear Hilary, Ged here in Keswick and believe it or not its sunny for a change. Ta for your letter and postcard from up North. As you can see I’m in Keswick still but I go home on the 6th of September to my new house the address of which is 14 …. I’ve got to work till next Thursday so I’ll write a proper letter then from ….. So I’ll be able to tell you all my news then, tarra for now. Gerard xx P.S Don’t think much of the hotel on the other side. P.S.S. Hope you had a nice holiday! xx

Here’s another postcard being used to update an address change. It’s amazing how often we all did that, back in the day! It is unclear whether Ged is staying in the hotel or working in it – the latter I suspect. Either way he’s obviously not a fan, despite the ‘warm welcome, courtesy and friendliness’ promised in print at the bottom!

Sunshine in Keswick is, of course, worthy of a comment 🙂 My postcard to him was from even further ‘up North’ – our family holiday that year was spent driving and camping round the north coast of Scotland.

Postmarked ‘KESWICK 11.30am 31 AUG 1979 CUMBRIA’, this card was posted exactly 37 years ago today! The other postmark is the old favourite ‘REMEMBER to use the POST CODE!’ which he hasn’t.

The card carries 10p worth of stamps which is approximately 52p today (2016).

This is three years after Ged and I first met and the correspondence was still fairly regular; these were the days long before texts, emails, Whatsapp, Facebook; when there were only 3 channels on UK tv and expensive long distance phone calls were made by special appointment and only with permission of the bill payer (Dad), who was generally sat in the same room listening in! Letter writing was the only option 🙂

Tuesday. Bowness by Bus Dear Hilary, Simon, Tallulah & Gus, Another beautiful day & we’ve come by bus to Bowness. It’s lovely with a busy ‘waterfront’ & we are going back to Ambleside later on a big steamer. Can’t remember when I last went on a steamer – on the Thames I guess. Counting my blessings a lot. Hope all is well with you all. Love A&T xxxx

The picture is of Surprise View, probably the most iconic view of the Lake District and A&T are lucky enough to be enjoying some good weather during their visit to the area.

The card is post marked ‘LANCASHIRE 13 OCT 2015’ and also carries the timely reminder to ‘REMEMBER TO USE THE POSTCODE’ – amazingly this is now four decades after postcodes became mandatory in the UK. Do we really still need reminding?

A&T are my parents, but because the card is to all of us and we all call them different things (mum&dad, A&T, Nan&Grandpa) my Mum has chosen the A&T moniker on this occasion. As a child I enjoyed many family holidays in Cumbria, and this card brings back happy memories: long summer days, camping, sailing, messing about in streams, climbing mountains… As I mentioned last time, I feel very lucky to have both my own parents still alive and my in-laws, healthy and happily married – in both cases for 58 years!