Introduction
Have you ever come across a box of letters saved by your parents? I just did. I am not sure what to do with these letters. Do you have suggestions. This is only the start of what I need to go through for my parents. This does not cover everything I have saved. Moving often has its benefits. But we have moved here since 1988 and added to our “stash” when my parents passed away in 2002. I do not look at these items too often, but they bring back many memories when I do. First of all, the first box with letters:
The letters are divided into various categories.
Government Envelopes
These envelopes are from United States Government sources. Notice the values of the stamps. Most government envelopes have preprinted stamps.
My father retired as a Captain in the Army at the end of World War II. He was also a lead scientist at the Naval Las Vegas Nuclear test site, so he had correspondence with the Department of the Army after the tests were completed.
Members of Congress receiving franking privileges. This envelope was sent to my father by Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas. All the envelope needed was Lloyd Bentsen’s name to be stamped on the envelope for it to be delivered to the specified address.
This is the third type of government envelop sold by the United States Post Office. For thirteen cents, the purchaser received the envelope and the postage to send it (assuming the weight was one ounce or less).
Aerogrammes (Via Airmail or Par Avion)
Sending letters via airmail used to be relatively more expensive than it is today. Most countries provided 0.5 ounce envelops that could be easily used, then folded and mailed. To have one language for postal services throughout the world, French was the chosen language. Par Avion was required to be printed on every air mail envelope. Most countries usually had their language also. France thought that the same should be done for all aviation, but Boeing, Lockhead, and McDonald-Douglas refused to put all of their instrumentation in French. Thus, English became the default language for flight training and instrumentation. The envelop has two sides.
The envelope is designed to be processed quickly. The “second fold” is the top of the back of the envelope when folded. The last section is folded inside the other two sections. Some people write on this last section, since it is inside the envelope. You can see the three flaps folded onto the first section so that the letter can be more easily processed without part of it catching on the machinery and being torn. The message is written on the inside of the envelope, thus keeping it a bit more private than our emails are today. I used to enjoy writing and receiving letters. Living on Guam for four years, I used these envelopes quite a bit. Most people on the island did not have phones, and phoning the “states” was really expensive. I will include the message part of this letter. Everyone wrote cursive then. You may or may not have the content interesting. It is messages between friends.
It was hard putting everything within such a small format. I think most people have been “Twitter-sized” and would probably have a hard time filling up this much space.