REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

Tin Can Mail: I Learned Something New Today

A small box of memorabilia of a late friend (I'll call him S.) was recently given to me and I relished each memento of what was important to him when I went through it. Prior to his death, he had given all his literary stuff to his university archive and sold what had value. So sending me some of his “unimportant stuff” was strictly sentimental. A few times in my life I have been given letters and papers of family and friends who have passed. If there is interest, I see that it goes to a historical museum or appropriate archive. I am a professional archivist myself and I LOVE when "old stuff" comes in to school. But, this was strictly personal. S. was an English professor and poetry from former students comprised most of the box. 

However, S. had apparently been a stamp collector when he was a young man and I gave most of the first issues to a friend who collects. I knew S. only casually and didn't know anything about his childhood or young adulthood. I did keep a 1934 envelope called “Tin Can Mail” by collectors. I had never even heard of this term before, but I was intrigued and began to Google to find out more.

This is what my Tin Can Mail looks like:

A Google search for yourself will provide countless samples of Tin Can Mail, but a woman named Betty Billingham in the U.K. apparently wrote a book about it that several people refer to. For detail, click on the link above.

I’ve excerpted a brief description of Tin Can Mail from Post Crossing that provides the basics.  Don’t you just love it when you learn something new, especially when you’re up in years yourself?  I checked to see if the envelope had value, and found a few less than $20 on the Internet. I will keep it as a memory of a long ago friend--and make copies of it for collages. 

On the remote country of Tonga in the South Pacific, there's a very special island. It's name is Niuafo'ou, but it's most commonly known as Tin Can Island for the way mail was delivered and sent for many years.

The concept of Tin Can Mail started in 1882 in this island when William Travers, a plantation manager, found himself without a way to receive mail from the rest of the world. The island had no harbor and was very steep so ships wouldn't go there. So he came up with the idea that mail could be delivered inside of the ships biscuit tin cans that would be thrown overboard when they were passing by! He proposed this to the Tongan postal authorities and soon mail started to be delivered this way. But, don't think this was an easy feat! With strong sea currents and distances of over a mile, this meant that to retrieve mail they could have to swim up to 6 hours!

Eventually the Tin Can Mail became extremely popular and also a tradition and soon ships started to come with passengers just to watch this incredible way of mail delivery. In 1928, Walter George Quensell produced rubber stamps saying "TIN CAN MAIL" that started being applied to all outgoing letters - over one million and a half, Quensell claimed.

 

 

 

 

Computers: Where My Friends Live

For the past few days, in my "discretionary" time (meaning when I'm not at work), I've been doing the research, writing and editing of my South Bay Macintosh Users Group newsletter. One of our members sent me this cartoon which, unfortunately, is not attributed, but it sure is true about how I feel about you. And, I am including it in the newsletter. 

All of us who use computers find communications with our family members, old friends and cyber friends a lot easier and consequently deeper; at least that's my opinion. Now, if all our friends were just the ones who live in our computers, I guess we would need cyber psychiatrists to sort out why. Health is a question of balance, I've always believed. 

Changing the subject slightly, have you seen the new Microsoft ad featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates? Personally I find it kind of touching, if not totally understandable, but Seinfeld has always been mostly about nothing--and that's why I love him so. You can see the ad on YouTube or any number of other places, and there is a growing group of critics who seem to either love or hate the ad. You might get a kick out of The Baltimore Sun's David Zeiler at the Apple a Day Blog writing about "Truth in advertising: New Microsoft Windows ad about "nothing."

Then you can go to a favorite fun computer site and participate in a poll about the ad that will make you smile. Go to: Geek Culture's Joy of Tech and see where you fare with other poll takers. 

Welcome Joyce to the Blogging World

A few days ago you read Joyce's story about Chloe, her late kitty, in an Animal Writes entry. Joyce, from Massachusetts, came to visit when she was in California visiting recently, and I really encouraged her to start a blog. She is a like-minded soul to several people who read here and she welcomes ideas for her new blog: Joyce's Amberchlopaz.

Here is Joyce with my Cookie who took a real shine to her when she visited.

Joyce's "About Me" blurb says, "I am 56 years old (how on earth did that happen?). I work as a psychiatric social worker in a hospital, where I have worked for 37 years! (How did that happen?) I love animals. I recently lost a beloved cat, and am now down to one cat. I also dearly love dogs, and horses, and lambs and pretty much every other kind of animal. For this reason, I am a vegetarian. I practice yoga once a week, and I am in school studying psychoanalysis, mostly for the experience of it all. I recently took a train trip from MA to CA, to visit my brother and my niece and I had a wonderful time. Hope to go again next year!"

Way to go, Joyce. I'm not familiar with the Blogger software, but any of us will offer what advice we can while you get up to speed on your blogging learning curve. I look forward to hearing your stories. You are interested in a lot of things that I am.

Change Your Brain, Change Your Life

After writing last night that I don't enjoy eating at restaurants all that much, I joined my couple friends Rick and Orma and David and Virginia at Hank's Pizza tonight. I know the importance of eating in community and I'll admit it was great having yet another night of camraderie with special people.

I never heard of Dr. Daniel G. Amen before; have you? Anyhow, Dr. Amen, a psychiatrist, had recently appeared on public television during the fund-raising period and presented a talk from his new book, "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life."

After dinner, we went to Rick and Orma's to watch Dr. Amen's presentation which they had tivo'd. It was informative, fun and the good doc had a great sense of humor. Below are excerpts from YouTube's presentation by Dr. Amen. Though I didn't really learn anything I didn't already know, he definitely reinforced the importance of brain health and I highly recommend watching his talk. It was life affirming.

Dr. Amen also has a blog with lots of practical information. Let me know what you think.

Blaugustine Explores Topic of Older Female Geeks

Do you read artist, writer and multi-media maven Natalie d’Arbeloff’s alter-ego blog Blaugustine? This is Natalie, drawn by Natalie, as Blaugustine, taken from her website. She is an amazing woman, funny as hell, and I have gotten a lot of inspiration from her. She has a lot of her cartoons, movies, and everything else under the sun at her blog.

She was a guest editor for the UK Guardian this past week and she wrote an article about “Where are all the older female geeks?”  It’s really well written and moi is quoted there.

I’m so honored to have been included with the following bloggers: Finnish-Canadian Marja-Leena, Penelope in Spain at Granny P., Rain in Oregon at Rainy Day Thoughts ,  Tamar, New Jersey at Mining Nuggets, and Beth in Montreal's, Cassandra Pages

As for me claiming the title of geek; not quite, but I am a wanna-be-geek in the respect that I'd like to have the knowledge, but use my knowledge to help others learn in more user friendly language than classic geeks generally have. And also to learn more applications, becoming more savvy on the Internet, and to spice up my blog. I’ve used computers since the early 1980s but began to use Macs in 1990. I use both platforms, but I really prefer Mac. Once you are in the Internet, there’s not a lot of difference, however.

Why does someone my age want to continue learning and learning about computers and applications? I guess because I can. Like that old question about why a climber wants to climb Mt. Everest; because it’s there. I’ve long been comfortable in word processing and some publishing programs and have been on the Internet and listservs since the early ‘90s. This is my fourth year blogging. Yes, I do get really frustrated sometimes when I am trying to learn new things, but along with Cookie, my computer has become a glorious challenge and a way of even extending my community more. Many of my older friends will use e-mail but refuse to go any further, but using e-mail is a really cool thing for people of all ages. I just love to encourage older people to give computers and the Internet a try.

Let’s hear it for all the older women—and men—who find such joy with computers. Do you fit in this category?

You've Got Male

I have been so busy at my paid work and my volunteer activities lately that I haven't had much time to spend at the blog. At the moment I am preparing to write, edit and produce my first newsletter for the South Bay Macintosh Users Group and trying to understand our new wiki well enough that I can write about it without sounding stupid. 

When I was teaching journalism, there was always a cartoon in every issue of the student newspaper. I want to incorporate one in my newsletter so I found several for upcoming issues. This one really fit where I am in my life right now because my newest grandson is due within the next 30 days--and his doc dad is a computer guy. He's sure not an AOL guy, however. 

Only a few more weeks of work before I have my summer hiatus--yay! But, I'll structure my time to spend more of it on my community volunteer projects. I'm on two Boards of the Peninsula Friends of the Library, active in my Mac group, and I'm trying to produce a digital art portrait for the Redondo Beach Art Group's Power of Art Show in October. 

You can teach an old dog new tricks. I am just so grateful that on the whole I am healthy and energetic and that I do have such diverse interests. I continue to make more and more really fascinating new friends.