"Night Mail" documentary

Earlier this morning, Kevin left a comment on a February blog post I'd written about the W.H. Auden poem "Night Mail." Kevin let me know that the 1936, black and white documentary about the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) mail train from London to Scotland is online at YouTube.

The documentary is in three parts. Part one is here; part two is here; and, part three is here. It's interesting to watch and see how the mail was handled just 70 years ago. If you don't have time to watch the entire 22-minute film, click here and watch just the part with the poem. It's great! It is often recited to the cadence of the train chugging down the tracks.

Thanks to Kevin for pointing it out to me.

Endurance of letters

Earlier in this blog, I wrote of the Vick letters that are transcribed and annotated on RootsWeb.

Jack Landers did quite a bit of research on the letters for the Vick descendants.

From what I understand, the original letters are archived in the Special Collections Department of the University of Virginia's Alderman Memorial Library in the "Papers of Amanda Sarah Boyd" collection.

The particular letter below was written by Mary Caroline Boyd Vick, my great-great-great-grandmother and Amanda Boyd's sister. To read more about the letters, go to the Vick section of RootsWeb.

I think one of the most interesting things is that Mary Caroline realizes that there are some things you just shouldn't put in writing. It seems many people today still haven't learned that lesson.

Here's the letter. Mr. Landers added in some punctuation, which I have included in this copy of the letter to make it a little more readable.

Lexington, Texas
Sept. 18th 1870

Dear Sister,

Your kind letter of the seventh of July was gladly received. We are not all
well here. We have all been sick mostly with colds and fever. Old Mrs.
Vick has been down with congestion of the liver but is better. Thomas's
folks have been sick. Judy has congestion of the stomach and brain - but
she is better. The doctor said there was a great deal of sickness on Santone
Prairie. That is about ten or twelve miles from here. Mrs. Perry has
lost most of her school - there was a teacher come here from Miss. And
they stopped to go to him - he was the President of the male Academy in
Miss. Nelly and Chely Sykes is going to Mrs. Perry. John Valentines
wife has a daughter. I have not been over to see her yet. Joe recieved
a letter from Sister the other day and I was glad to hear from all, but
sorry to hear of so many deaths. Where was old aunt Harriet living at?
Della said tell sister to please answer her letter and you to not answer it
to Vicy. It looks like she gets more letters than anybody and don't
write no more than the rest. I think your dresses is pretty. Mr. and
Mrs. Parker was over to see us Saturday. Her baby is so pretty and
fat. Mr. B. Sykes has bought land joining Johnson Perry's. I have picked
1100 lbs of cotton out of my patch and it is ready to pick again. They
are all over their heads picking cotton. They pick from 100 to 250 lbs.
It opens so fast it looks like they never will get it out. We have
beautiful dry weather to gather it in. The association will commence next
Friday. It is about twelve miles from here. Our garden is sorry. It
burnt up. Our potato patch is sorry but we will have plenty to eat.
The ground is too rich for them. Britton Valentine has been quite sick
, but he is better. I have wrote everything I can think of. If I could
see you I could tell you a heap of things that would not do to write. Tell
sister I wrote to her not long ago and for her not to wait as long as I did.
I must close. Write soon and write about everything and everybody. Is
crops as good as they are every year when they have been worked? We hear
different reports about it. I close. Your devoted sister

M.C. Vick

That letter has been saved and cherished by generations of people for almost 140 years. Can we still write such letters today?

Peaceful Pastime

I don't know about you, but nowadays I often feel overwhelmed with everything that's going on in the world. I'm a journalist, so I'm not blaming the media, but often it's just too much to handle...war, mass murder/suicides, economic woes, salmonella poisoning, and the list goes on and on.

But, last Thursday, our electricity was off at home for almost the entire day. It went off in the middle of our morning rush, after I had fixed breakfast but before I had dried my hair. We lit some candles and finished getting ready. After too many phone calls to the electric company, they finally showed up out on the highway to replace the pole that had broken off at the ground. (Best I can tell, the wildfire the week before had weakened the pole, which was never replaced despite being burned, and then high winds snapped the pole at the ground.)

When the lights went out, instead of creating panic or mayhem in our household, the sudden quietness enveloped our lives in a gentle peace.

Except for our voices, there was total quietness. No TV blaring out the tragic news of the day or the upcoming weather. No radio screeching the latest hits or telling me what they decided at the recent city commissioners' meeting. No hum from the computers. No rumbling or buzzing from the dryer. Things we never realize make noise (coffee pot, lights, etc.) were quiet.

The lack of things to compete with brought down our own level of chaos. No need to yell in order to be heard. No need to rush...there was much less to do. I couldn't dry my hair with the hair dryer; a quick brush would have to do — it would dry on the way to work. I couldn't check e-mail or the blog. Those would have to wait till later. There was no choice.

Letter writing can produce a similar sense of peacefulness. Writing a letter doesn't require electricity, Internet service or much of anything else. All you need is a writing utensil, some paper (sometimes, that's not really necessary -- you can mail a coconut with a message written/carved on it or a wooden postcard), an envelope (again, not really needed -- any piece of paper can be folded into an envelope or self-mailer), a postage stamp, and access to postal service.

Stamps can be ordered by mail (ask at your post office for a form). Depending on where you live, you should be able to drop your letter in a nearby mail box for the postal employee to pick up. Obviously, some places don't have door-to-door mail delivery (see this earlier blog entry), but I think most do.

I'm recommending that you take a few minutes, maybe more, today to sit down, relax and write a letter. Turn off the TV. Turn off the radio. Turn off the (yikes!) computer. If it's still daylight and nice weather at your house, take your pen and paper and sit outside to write a letter. Enjoy the peacefulness of reconnecting with an old friend, introducing yourself to a new friend or catching up with family.

Postal Service cutbacks

A story on NPR yesterday details how the U.S. Postal Service is cutting airstrip service — the only type available — to a remote area of Idaho.

Both sides of the story are presented in Howard Berkes' story, and some interesting points are made in the "Comments" section of the story.

I think we all understand budget problems, fewer postal customers, etc., but I think most of us just assume mail service is guaranteed. The story quotes a resident of the area, Doug Tims as saying, "(It's) always been rain, snow, sleet and dark of night,mail (still) goes through."

I hope they can come up with a better solution.

Life Lessons from Letter Writing

I suppose there are quite a few things we can learn from writing letters...how to communicate in writing, proper format for different types of letters, improved penmanship, etc. But, one thing I find myself learning as I progress on this letter-writing project is patience.

In this day of e-mail, Instant Message, Text Message and Twitter, we have learned to expect instant replies to the messages we send out into the world. We send out an e-mail, and in a matter of minutes, sometimes only seconds, a reply is back in our inbox.

It's been hard for me to remember how to think differently with the letter writing. I'll write a letter, seal it up in the envelope and drop it in the mailbox. Then, I'm already waiting for a reply; I'm used to my recipient receiving my messages instantly. I've had to get used to (again) realizing that the recipient won't know what I said for days. And, then, I'll have to wait until they have time to write back and send me a letter in the mail.

I grew up before e-mail, so I have plenty of experience with mailing letters, but I've been corresponding electronically for almost 20 years now. Instant communication gratification has become the norm.

There's something simply satisfying, though, about connecting with friends and family with an old-fashioned letter. It's just as thrilling to drop an envelope in the mailbox as it is to take one out of the mailbox at home.

Make someone's day...write a letter today and mail it!

I heard it on the radio

"Oh yes, wait a minute, Mr. Postman. Wait, Mr. Postman. Please Mr. Postman, look and see, is there a letter, a letter for me?"

So sang The Marvelettes, the Carpenters, The Beatles, and probably other groups. For many generations, it may be the most well-known song about mail.

But, I remember several others...

In 1980, George Jones released "He Stopped Loving Her Today," with the lyrics, "...kept some letters by his bed, dated 1962. He had underlined in red every single 'I love you.'"

Like Jones' song, many songs about letters are sad. "Travelin' Soldier," written by Bruce Robison and recorded by the Dixie Chicks tells of a young man going off to war and seeking someone he can send letters back to: "He said I bet you got a boyfriend but I don't care, I got no one to send a letter to. Would you mind if I sent one back here to you?"

Conway Twitty's "Joanie" says, "Joanie wrote me a note one day, and this is what she had to say, 'Jimmy please say you'll wait for me; I'll grow up some day, you'll see.'"

Several songs have the title "Dear John" or "Dear John Letter," including one recorded by Hank Williams. R.B. Greaves sang "Take a Letter Maria," and The Box Tops (and many others) sang, "Give me a ticket for an aeroplane, Ain't got time to take a fast train.
Lonely days are gone, I'm a-goin' home, 'Cause my baby done wrote me a letter," in the song "The Letter."

From the 1930s came "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter," recorded by Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Fats Waller, Billy Williams, Nat King Cole, Barry Manilow and many others. And, in 1962, Elvis Presley released "Return to Sender": "I gave a letter to the postman, He put it his sack. Bright and early next morning, He brought my letter back. She wrote upon it: Return to sender, address unknown. No such number, no such zone."

More recently, Brad Paisley sings about writing a letter and sending it back in time to his 17-year-old self, reassuring himself that everything will be OK.

What songs about letters do you know? I'm sure there are more!

Help save our mail delivery!

Yesterday, the U.S. Postmaster General John E. Potter addressed a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate and asked to change the rules that require that the mail be delivered six days a week here, in order to save money. For details, click here.

I'm hoping that doesn't happen. The U.S. postal service has been a part of our country from the very beginning. In fact, Benjamin Franklin was appointed as the first Postmaster General by the Continental Congress in 1775. I think we need to hang on to this part of our country and to the "daily delivery" tradition.

According to "The United States Postal Service: An American History, 1775-2006," a booklet you can view or download at www.usps.gov (or www.usps.com), "Originally, letter carriers worked 52 weeks a year, typically 9 to 11 hours a day from Monday through Saturday, and if necessary, part of Sunday." Additionally, many homes received mail twice a day, and businesses had mail delivered up to four times a day.

So, six-day-a-week mail delivery has a long history in our country.

If you'd like to see U.S. Mail continue to be delivered six days a week, I think the first step is to contact the senators on the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security. That's who the postmaster general talked to yesterday. Those subcommittee members are Thomas R. Carper (chairman, D-Del), John McCain (R-Ariz), Carl Levin (D-Mich), Tom Coburn (R-Okla), Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio) and Jon Tester (D-Mont).

The subcommittee is part of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs. Other members of that committee are Joseph Lieberman (chairman, Conn), Susan M. Collins (Maine), Mark L. Pryor (Ark), John Ensign (Nev), Mary Landrieu (La), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Claire McCaskill (Mo), Roland Burris (Ill.) and Michael Bennett (Colo).

According to the committee's Web page, you can contact the members by mail at 340 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510. There also are phone numbers and fax numbers listed on the site. And, you can find links to all of the senators at the Senate Web site. It might be a good idea to also contact your senator and let him/her know how you feel about the situation.

You might also want to contact the postmaster general John "Jack" Potter at 475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Washington DC 20260-0010. Or, you can send an e-mail to the USPS via this link.

Of course, one of the best ways to support the U.S. Postal Service is to write letters and mail them. Within the United States, it only costs 42 cents to mail a letter that weighs 1 ounce or less. That's several sheets of paper and an envelope. Forty-two cents. You can mail a letter from anywhere in the U.S. to anywhere else in the U.S. for less than the cost of a candy bar, less than a cup of coffee, less than almost anything. And, if you'd rather send a short note on a postcard, that costs just 27 cents! You can even send a 1-ounce or lighter letter anywhere in the world, from the U.S., for less than $1!

So, it's a good deal. And, we may lose part of the convenience of the deal if we no longer have daily (except for Sunday) delivery and pick-up of mail.

Let's do what we can to save our postal service!