Posted by Peter Ceresole on June 23, 2004 at 10:09:10 from 80.177.22.49 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: Signals - the Royal Mail posted by Laurence Monkhouse on June 23, 2004 at 08:17:18:
We may have mobile phones - a very mixed blessing - but other things have got worse.
I'd say rather that they had got different. The letter service used to be very good, especially in a local area and in large centres, although it was less wonderful outside those limits. But what killed it- long before the mobile- was the ordinary telephone. Everything became easier. You had your response not later that day, but that very second. You could work things out interactively. And the phone call was much cheaper. The fast letter service never stood a chance. Letters were relegated to items which could wait- or which needed a different kind of response. Telegrams went the same way. Paradoxically the function of both, of course, is now being recreated by email.
At the time, telegrams and letters were relatively rather expensive. Remember that in the '30s £2 a week was good pay for a worker. Cheaper to use a mobile now.
The thing is that the stories are so good, and we love them so much, that we idealise the period in which they are set. The Thirties were a truly wonderful time for arts and sciences, probably the most creative period of the 20th century. Maybe less good for economics and the welfare of peoples. But in the Lakes the sun shone on our explorers- and it it didn't, that was an exciting element in the story- and all was well with the world.