At the time though, I was sending postcards home to my family, but after three weeks or so I realized they were probably just starting to get my postcards from three weeks ago and might want to know that I'm still OK in a more immediate way. That's the kind of considerate daughter I am. But I was in Romania, and in that post wall transition time, the country was still caught between the closed Soviet regime and the newer open western free for all. Regular people didn't have telephones, and the phones available in the officially sanctioned western style hotels set up by the previous government to fleece wealthy businessman were out of my price range and had notoriously bad international connections anyway, according to my guide book.
The Lonely Planet guide recommended a telegram, and I loved that idea. It just seemed so World War Two and romantic somehow. As if I was a character in a Humphrey Bogart movie. So I went to the post office and sent my mother a telegram. It said:
In Romania [stop] No phones here [stop] Having a wonderful time [stop] Go Hungary tonight. [end]
On second reading, I decided to change Hungary to Budapest, because I didn't want my mother to think I was starving in Romania like all those one-armed orphans she was seeing on TV at the time. That's the kind of considerate daughter I am.
She told me later that she received it by phone at first, and then got a paper copy in her mailbox the next day. I was disappointed by this because I had pictured her answering the door to a messenger on a bicycle wearing a bell boy hat.
I think telegrams have a romantic appeal that other forms of communication don't. I'm sure it comes from watching too many black and white Warner Bros movies when I was a teenager. And when I worked in theatre, I was always little disappointed on opening nights that well wishes from friends came over the FAX machine instead of by telegram, as they had in those movies. So when my friend Sharon got a part in a play at the Fredericton Playhouse, I thought it would be a hoot to send her a telegram on opening night.
Can you even still send a telegram anymore?
It turns out you can. Telegrams Canada will send a telegram for you anywhere in Canada. They use the Western Union network. I can't imagine they are very busy. The base price for a telegram is about $15 plus $1 for every word. When I filled out the form, I realized that the address was part of the word count. A simple break a leg message to my friend was 25 words long, making the cost for this little joke $40 plus tax. Ouch.
That's when I decided I would FAX my friend instead. Sorry Sharon. Break a Leg.Incidentally, if anyone is in the Fredericton area tonight through Saturday afternoon, check out Theatre New Brunswick's production of Skin Flick.
1 comment:
Very educational. I had no idea it was still possible to send a telegram. Who on earth would ever send one at that price, though?
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