#Microblog Monday 341: Locked Letters
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CNN had a piece last week about virtually opening locked letters. I was less intrigued by the software digitally unfolding the letters and more the concept of locked letters in general. It’s “a technique called letter locking — intricately folding a flat sheet of paper to become its own envelope.” The letter is sealed shut, and the person knows if the message has been read if the seal is broken. Just like a normal letter, except in this case, the letter is like a complex aerogramme.
(Aside: Did you ever send an aerogramme? I sent them all the time through the college years when email started to get popular.)
(Second aside: I didn’t realize until today that the post office stopped selling them.)
While it’s a clever way to ensure your words are only read by the receiver, the reality of sealed letters were they alway ripped strangely. And then you had to figure out what the ripped words said. And sometimes you had to remind a certain friend over and over again to stop writing right up to the edge.
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6 comments
I Googled and saw the aerogramme. I know it. In India, we used to call them Inland Letter. Maybe I should go find out if the post office still sells them. I haven’t used them but I know my parents did and we even received many in those days. Gosh – feels like such a long time ago, Mel.
I am joining today after a long time today always happy to be here!
I remember aerogrammes! although I’m not sure I ever sent one. I was way too wordy to cram everything I wanted to say onto one piece of paper, lol. I do remember using special lighter-weight paper for airmail for letters to my overseas penpals, when I was a teenager in the 1970s. (It was always light blue, for some reason.) And something called “international reply coupons.” You couldn’t send a self-addressed stamped envelope to get something back from overseas, but you could buy & enclose an IRC for the same purpose. They were more expensive than stamps, though. Kids today will never know…!
Those locked letters are beautiful!
I loved aerogrammes. It’s how I communicated with friends and family when I was an exchange student back in … gulp … 1980-81, because international phone calls were too expensive. (I made two to my parents in the entire year.) There was something about an aerogramme having a specific space to fill up, or to limit myself to. (I’m lol-ing at Loribeth’s disgust at being limited! I also remember the very thin airmail paper she mentioned.)
And I think I was very careful opening them with a knife or letter opener – something else I guess kids today wouldn’t understand – so as not to lose any of those precious words.
I remember seeing those! Like Loribeth, I don’t think I ever sent one. Postcards were hard for the same reason, ha ha. I love the idea, though, and the locked letters. That x-ray unfolding was NUTS! It reminds me in a way of those specially folded notes I used to pass with my friends in school. I still have some of those! It was an effective way to keep whatever was inside secret. You know, I never see kids passing notes anymore! I should re-introduce it to my students, ha.
I remember my dad would send/receive similar light blue airmail letters to/from Europe.
Yes! I sent them quite regularly–even recently. I have a whole bunch of them still. Like literally 100’s of sheets of the stationery. I have the airmail ones too!