Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving via Western Union

Those who know me (Clayton), know that I am a history buff, especially when it comes to United States history. So as a "blast from the past" allow me to offer you a Thanksgiving greeting in the style of a 19th Century Western Union Telegram.

Three things to note.
(1) In the original days of Morse Code, there were no symbols to differentiate between upper and lower case letters. Thus telegrams were printed in ALL CAPS.
(2) The original form of Morse Code did not have any symbols for punctuation. A period was indicated by the word STOP. Punctuation symbols like apostrophes, commas, and hyphens were omitted. The end of a message was indicated by the word END.
(3) The cost of sending a telegram was calculated by the number of words, thus it was common place to use short incomplete sentences to communicate your message.

So let's step into the "Way Back Machine" to the year 1875 or so....

WISHING YOU HAPPY THANKSGIVING STOP SAFE TRAVELS STOP DONT EAT TOO MUCH STOP GOD BLESS THE PEAKS END

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