I only have one postcard of Glasgow and remarkably it is totally 'on trend' for Alan's Sepia Saturday prompt. Crowds, Glasgow and a tram coming down the line. The post office on the corner is still there but the trams, once part of the largest urban system in Europe, went just over fifty years ago. From a maximum of more than 1,200 trams in 1947 the system was gradually wound down, its survival, in comparison with other cities in Britain, was the fact that the trams (and hence spare parts), were designed locally. Many of these trams still survive today in museums.
The photo looks as like it was taken on a summer's day from the two ladies with parasols on the post office corner and that was the time of my only visit to Glasgow. Well I say visit, but really it was only a view of the station as I changed trains, running down the platform to get the connection to journey on to the Isle of Arran. A beautiful warm summer fortnight of hills and white sandy beaches, and the occasional company of midges.
I reluctantly turn my mind away from summer back to the present roll upon roll of Atlantic storms sweeping the country. The storms with a wind behind at high tide them are as fascinating to people now as
they were in August 1920 when this card was sent from Morecambe, Lancashire. The crowds look to be well wrapped up against the weather while enjoy the bracing day at the seaside.
The card says "
Dear Aunt and Uncle and Beatrice, We are having a real good
time here but the weather is cold and now it is very rare we see the sun
but that doesn't bother us. We have nearly been everywhere. We went for
a long landau ride yesterday.
Yours Charlie". Then upside down at the top is a cryptic message "
You want to see my ma's nose - its it. Heaps of love from Nora" Maybe its red with the cold, the 'summer' of 1920 was the coldest of the entire 20th Century.
An entry to Sepia Saturday Number 215 showing the crowds in Jamaica Street, Glasgow. For more crowds
join the Sepians here
10 comments:
Good pick up of theme, and then a bit of a spread to the current weather conditions, which aren't all that great in SE US either...but you had a postcard to talk about it. Thanks.
Lucky you have that perfect postcard!!
Well done on being spot on with that first postcard. What a strange message about the nose. I did click on lightbox to read the message myself, but it wouldn’t enlarge. I was interested in the neat handwriting, so similar to my grandparents; from a time when children were taught to practise cursive script until they had perfected it.
Good choice for this week's theme. I didn't think I had any postcards of Glasgow, but the plaid border on your card reminded me that I had a couple of cards with tartan borders. When I checked them, I found that they had Glasgow scenes!
We have a name for waves like the one on the second card--sneaker waves. Do you call them that too?
I love the Glasgow card with trams.
It's so interesting this week to see the family postcards coming out. An interesting post.
A couple of very appropriate street and crowd photographs. I've only been to Glasgow a couple of times, and once like you we were just waiting to catch a bus to somewhere else, but I do remember it as being a frenetically busy place.
Two very appropriate cards; one to get us to Glasgow and one matching recent weather conditions. As I was at University in Scotland I visited Glasgow many times for sporting fixtures. On another occasion I got lost in a car driving through to Faslane.
In the first card, the road seems to curve to the right just like in the prompt. The second looks just as cold as the writer described.
Definitely the perfect match. Holidays have always been about weather, and the best stories are when it is the worst.
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