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Do you know anybody, historically even, who sent/received a TELEGRAM

2

Comments

  • #32
    Mr. FoggPatches
    Closed Accounts Posts: 681 ✭✭✭Mr. FoggPatches


    A mate sent me one. Thought I was being arrested until the dance started. He's tremendous fun.


  • #33
    Grayson
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,795 ✭✭✭✭Grayson


    But has anyone received a candygram?



  • #34
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 94,998 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    mariaalice wrote: »
    My mother worked as telephonist in An Post in the 1950s and learned Morse code all her life she could remember the dots and dashes code.
    Just like her father she only did it 'cos her dada did it.


  • #35
    buried
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,970 ✭✭✭buried


    Seen Al Swearengen reading one out loud before in Deadwood. Had something to do with some squaw-f**kin liar pi$$ing away all his money

    Bullet The Blue Shirts



  • #36
    JupiterKid
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 13,577 Mod ✭✭✭✭JupiterKid


    I think my parents received telegrams when they were married in the late 1960s. But personally I never sent or received one. I was born in the era of telex and grew up in the era of the fax machine.


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  • #37
    feargale
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,636 ✭✭✭feargale


    Shannon757 wrote: »
    What's a telegram?

    You must find short pants uncomfortable at this time of year.


  • #38
    Del.Monte
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,363 ✭✭✭✭Del.Monte


    I sent the bould Ivan (Yates) a telegram in 1981 congratulating him on his election to the Dail. I still have his reply letter somewhere amongst the collected flotsam of 57 years above ground. :D

    ****



  • #39
    Rubberlegs
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,073 ✭✭✭Rubberlegs


    My aunty sent one to my parents when I was born.


  • #40
    Teyla Emmagan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,641 ✭✭✭Teyla Emmagan


    Granny sent loads of them. Because she worked in Post and Telegraphs or whatever is was back then. She's 95 now, but I wouldn't call her "historic".


  • #41
    cml387
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,893 ✭✭✭cml387


    I can just remember when the telegram took over from the pony express.
    That was one happy pony.


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  • #42
    gipi
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,294 ✭✭✭gipi


    I received a few telegrams back in the late 70s.

    I worked for Dept of Posts and Telegraphs at the time, and received a telegram if my shift changed when I was on leave - the tekegram told me when I was due in work.

    We had no housephone (look it up, kids!), so telegram was the only way to contact me.

    I also sent one to a relative in Oz, to let him know of a family bereavement.


  • #43
    Peregrine
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 26,403 Mod ✭✭✭✭Peregrine


    Yes, my parents and practically everyone from their generation. My dad found out about my granddad's death via telegram.


  • #44
    Ted111
    Closed Accounts Posts: 990 ✭✭✭Ted111


    Del.Monte wrote: »
    I sent the bould Ivan (Yates) a telegram in 1981 congratulating him on his election to the Dail. I still have his reply letter somewhere amongst the collected flotsam of 57 years above ground. :D


    I remember when I used to work in the bookies I sent Yates a telegram, said 'where's my wages you b@stard'?


  • #45
    Irish Guitarist
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,736 ✭✭✭Irish Guitarist


    I'm fairly certain my mother sent my aunt one to tell her my father had died. This was in 2000 but my aunt lived on a farm in Wicklow with no phone.


  • #46
    deisemum
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,728 ✭✭✭deisemum


    I got a couple of congratulation telegrams at my wedding.


  • #47
    Stheno
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 51,690 Mod ✭✭✭✭Stheno


    My oh got one back in the day


  • #48
    SouthernBelle
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,043 ✭✭✭SouthernBelle


    Got quite a few on my wedding day in 1993.


  • #49
    Stigura
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,613 ✭✭✭Stigura


    They were always considered terrifying, in my day. Probably a throw back to the dreaded war time ones.

    Cost of the bloody things was pretty terrifying too! Charged, appreciably, by the character. People didn't rattle them off, just because.

    Telegrams? Christ, I remember hand writing letters to people. With a pen. Sticking it in an envelope. Writing their address on that. Taking the f**ker to the post office. Queuing up, to buy a stamp. Then sticking it in the post box.

    If I was lucky, I'd be delighted to get a reply from them that same week! More usually though, one would expect it some time in the next week.

    Imagine that, today?! F**k me; If we were posh, we'd even ring a building and ask if our intended was in it! :D




    Just editing to say; Bloody hell! My 1000th post! Just happened to notice that!


  • #50
    feargale
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,636 ✭✭✭feargale


    Stigura wrote: »

    Just editing to say; Bloody hell! My 1000th post! Just happened to notice that!

    Congratulations. We would send you a congratulatory telegram if we could. :)


  • #51
    Junkyard Tom
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,116 ✭✭✭✭Junkyard Tom


    Sending messages undersea via cables is so 19th Century.


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  • #52
    smurfjed
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,671 ✭✭✭✭smurfjed


    We had to learn to send and receive Morse Code in the 90's as part of Commercial Pilot exams :)
    In the airline world today, they are using the modern form of telegrams called SITATEX, text only messages printed out on machines as soon as they are received, limited functionality and sent to addresses linked to CITY / AIRLINE / DEPARTMENT. Like DUBEIOO.


  • #53
    Senna
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,800 ✭✭✭Senna


    Good story on QI that Arthur Conan Doyle sent telegrams to five close friends reading simply "We are discovered. Flee now." to see how they would react. One of the friends disappeared and never came back.

    There's a similar story about a bishop sending the same to 5 priests who he wanted rid of, they all fled in that story.


  • #54
    Grayson
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,795 ✭✭✭✭Grayson


    apparently An Post only stopped sending them in 2013.

    http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/last-telegram-sent-stop-replaced-by-text-messages-stop-29364053.html


  • #55
    Del.Monte
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,363 ✭✭✭✭Del.Monte


    Grayson wrote: »
    apparently An Post only stopped sending them in 2013.

    http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/last-telegram-sent-stop-replaced-by-text-messages-stop-29364053.html

    Late 1980s according to that article.

    ****



  • #56
    CINCLANTFLT
    Closed Accounts Posts: 781 ✭✭✭CINCLANTFLT


    https://youtu.be/CZhdfoisBf0


  • #57
    fancy pigeon
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,866 ✭✭✭fancy pigeon


    Grandparents got a few in the 1970's


  • #58
    Speedsie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,347 ✭✭✭Speedsie
    ¡arriba, arriba! ¡andale, andale!


    feargale wrote: »
    Congratulations. We would send you a congratulatory telegram if we could. :)

    Could send one via https://telegram.org might need Stigura's mobile though.


  • #59
    housetypeb
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,197 ✭✭✭housetypeb


    Senna wrote: »
    Good story on QI that Arthur Conan Doyle sent telegrams to five close friends reading simply "We are discovered. Flee now." to see how they would react. One of the friends disappeared and never came back.

    There's a similar story about a bishop sending the same to 5 priests who he wanted rid of, they all fled in that story.

    Reminds me of Niall Toibin ,who had a joke about a doctor who received a telegram from a client that said
    "Mother-in-law on deaths doorstep. Can you pull her through?"


  • #60
    HensVassal
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,569 ✭✭✭HensVassal


    Grayson wrote: »
    My parents did back in the 80's. They also sent/received telex's.


    "Telex, the biscuit bar
    Smooth on the outside
    Crunchy message inside,

    Get the message?

    Yeah!"


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  • #61
    HensVassal
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,569 ✭✭✭HensVassal


    cajonlardo wrote: »
    i went for a job interview in 1986.

    I was told immediately that I was not successful. I lived in a flat back then but the next day a telegram was sent out to my parents house asking to comeback and that they wanted to offer me an alternative role. It was all very exciting stuff back then and I was sooooooooooo important :) That and the wedding ones ( '87)

    They couldn't telephone your parents? In 1986???

    I was actually using email in 1986.......but only to about 3 people in the world


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