Apr. 20, 2007 - 10:38 MDT

PUTTEES

Funny things come to mind when one is in the process of waking up groggily. This morning as I became somewhat sentient the word Puttees came to my mind. Then the mental picture of what were called puttees by my Dad.

My Dad was at a young age a Western Union Messenger Boy. And they had uniforms, which they still did when I was growing up. An object of my admiration of course was the uniform, especially those curved leather calf adornments that he called puttees. Which in essence imitated boots I guess.

Which led me to Google about a bit and find out that originally puttees were nine foot strips of serge wound from ankle to calf by British Military.

But the messenger boys had to keep their puttees shined as well as their shoes, they were snazzy looking to this lad. All those pockets on their somewhat olive drab blouses (Jackets ?) can't remember for sure whether there were shirts worn underneath or not. I do remember that one of them sure looked imposing and very professional in a neat and clean uniform.

Both my Mom and Dad worked for the Western Union, Mom eventually as a branch manager for them. Which entails a bit of memory delving on my part . . . . . seems like they had branch offices near business and industrial areas in order to provide messenger service quickly from a nearby office. I remember that there was a call box in Mom's office that would periodically come to life, Mom would read the tape and send the messenger to that business to pick up a message. Not too sure but think the codes were dashes and dots, she could read it, I sure couldn't. Typewriters, "mills" were mostly the open frame Underwoods.

Bicycling messenger boys in a way kept me from having a bicycle for quite a few years (Young years) Mom and Dad would visit messenger boys who had been hurt in traffic, and Mom wouldn't think of me having one because of that.

By the time I was old enough to hang around her office they had the Simplex Machine, a two way instrument that would accept messages from her office to the main office for transmission typed into her keyboard. The machine would receive messages and print them out on paper tape (Just a bit wider than the print) with glue on it which when fed through a device containing water and a wick would wet the glue as Mom strung the tape on a telegram form.

Messenger boys on bicycles were quite young usually, there were several motor messengers who were older and had cars and went to outlying areas. Some messenger boys delivered singing telegrams, I once got a birthday one.

There was one other telegraph company here in Denver, Postal Telegraph. Those messengers were about the same age, bicyclers and also uniformed. Their uniforms were blue though.

That was a period in time that I thought would last forever, but it was not to be. Quoting from a portion of History wired by the Smithsonian Institution in a paper called History of the Telegraph,

"Throughout the remainder of the 1800s, the telegraph became one of the most important factors in the development of social and commercial life of America. IN SPITE OF IMPROVEMENTS TO THE TELEGRAPH, HOWEVER, two new inventions - the telephone (1800s) and the radio (1900s)- eventually replaced the telegraph as the leaders of the communication revolution for most Americans."

Modern miracles like e-mail and faxes nowadays take the place of those antiquated things. Messages and messenger boys and the Western Union had its ups and downs, the telephone company's Teletype with machines in the offices of businesses was a big blow to telegraphy as it was known, I do remember that. Seems that I remember my Dad talking about Western Union fighting at law trying to force the telephone company to not use Teletype, citing the argument that Telephone service should be voice only and Telegraph should by by printed, delivered messages.

Sending and receiving money orders was a thriving part of Western Union business, and as near as I know Western Union is doing that still -- (unless they have been bought out recently).

I got to see close up how a branch office manager worked and the things one had to handle. In some respects they were an encyclopedic information desk, seemed like people who were lost would gravitate to one of the offices and ask directions, and many of the people who worked nearby would drop in to chat and spend idle time there. Mom was quite a diplomat who could allow a conversation to go on and still handle her business affairs.

I remember Dad talking about MUX that was upstairs in the main office building The Railway Exchange building. MUX - short for multiplex - enabled the company to handle multiple messages simultaneously over the same wire. Dad also told me that there were girls on roller skates upstairs somewhere transferring various bits of paper - need for rapidity was great I guess.

Then there were "Singing Telegrams," I got one for a birthday once.

One very grave use of Western Union was the transmission and delivery of "Death Messages," from what I recall from something Dad said, that the messenger who delivered those was a man, picked for courtesy and diplomacy. I remember that the company also handled distribution of various things for other companies, Dad was in charge of that for a time.

Things change rapidly and the older I get the harder it is for me to try to keep up with what is new - this present five minutes. But I woke up with shined leather in mind and the word PUTTEES . . . . . . . . .

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