Telegrams no more. Stop. India to send world’s last message July 14
144 years after Samuel Morse sent the first telegram in Washington, the world’s final telegram will be sent in India on July 14, 2013.
Telegraph services ended in the United States seven years ago, but in India, the century-and-a-half old communication medium is still widely used to send messages.
In the Boy Scouts, we had to learn Morse Code (…—…/Save Our Shit ;-}) Merit Badge you know.
And now my favorite telegram story.
Reporter was assigned to write a story on the famous actor, Cary Grant (on the occasion of his latest marriage or something). He wanted to mention the actors age in the context of the story but couldn’t locate the information (Pre-Google, kiddies!).
So he sent Cary Grant a telegram, being cheap (telegrams were priced by the word) he tersely wrote “How Old Cary Grant. Stop.” and sent it. Later that day he got his reply,”Old Cary Grant fine, how you?”.
On the North River 
Reblogged this on Leftover Bits and commented:
Telegrams will then become a fading thing of the past, almost a myth if you will, especially for younger generations. Those of us in our 40s now should feel privileged to have witnessed such an end of an era.
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When words cost more we were more careful about what we did with them.
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