Monday, January 23, 2012

Raymond And The Perambulating Cat


It is some time since we last had a postcard so I am dipping back into the postcard box. This is a fine example of a magnificently uninspiring picture postcard, and I am sure that the photographer could have found a more visually pleasing image, even within the Army Service Corps barracks. The reverse is a little more interesting.


Birmingham, Tuesday. Dear G, Are you any better? If not, why not! Much love, Raymond. The postscript says: I have made a friend of a pussy here, who has been wanting to walk on the table while I am writing"

I suppose I could check out the address in Sheffield or look through census records to discover who Miss Marsh was. I could research Army Service Corps barracks in the Birmingham area. But I think I prefer to leave it as a snapshot of an unknown life, captured at a particular moment in time when G is ill and Raymond is taken up with a perambulating cat.

16 comments:

  1. I tried to make out the date on the postmark... you never know, I might have been able to recognise the grounds or at least know of them. However, I think the card was sent even before MY time.

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  2. It struck me while reading this, how very similar blogging is to the postcard, which I believe you've posted about previously. Maybe even a tad more like twitter or facebook, our leaving brief messages of little consequence, but it's fun anyway. It's also interesting how words take on new connotations that once were commonplace.... kind of like gay.

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  3. Val : I tried too, but eventually decided to just let it become an unknown snapshot of a brief moment in time. More mysterious that way.

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  4. Teresa : You are right about postcards and blogging/twitter/ Facebook etc. I suspect that blogging is more akin to the letter writing of 100 years ago whereas postcards were the Facebook and Twitter of their times. As far as the change in the meaning of words is concerned - what can I say!

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  5. You must have one heck of a collection of postcards!

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  6. I almost thought I saw a paw print on the front.

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  7. I wonder what the 'You' at the top was intended to say and why it didn't get finished... that darned cat distracted him perhaps? As to the photo, I wonder why all that foreground? Perhaps they really wanted the wide-angle view.

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  8. Looking at your postcards and photos on this blog, I start to think I should be digging out some of my own family pics. There's a lot of fun to be had out of it.

    And, actualy I rather LIKED that postcard and didn't think it boring at all!

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  9. Gertrude Marsh born 1894, living with her Aunt and Uncle Mary and John Lee at 122 William Street, Sheffield, on both 1901 and 1911 census returns.

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  10. Hello Alan:
    Yes, we agree, the fascination of this postcard is the moment captured in time and the fragment of a conversation between two people. Such fun to imagine what was the relationship between the two and what the future had in store for them and the cat!!

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  11. That postcard photo would be much better cropped to a wide landscape view. I guess that he was struggling to get all of the men into the picture and didn't have the means to crop out the uninteresting sky or parade ground.

    The cat is a lovely touch though :)

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  12. Gertrude and Raymond took their vows in Broomhill Parish Church, 1896. Check it out!

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  13. Yo make excellent use of pictures for promoting thinking on a topic. As a teacher I often used pictures to get kids started on a writing topic.

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  14. I wish they taught handwriting at school again.

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  15. Reminds me of my days as a young RAF Apprentice in the early 60s at Halton; how many parades have I stood out on like these guys; seems a long time ago.

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  16. That’s just begging for a story or a poem, with the title you chose. I can see it in print now!

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