Snail Mail Stuff - 02 / Stamps from Sierra Leone / 60's and 70's

From as far back as I can remember, my parents always had the most interesting friends who lived in the most exotic places.

And the really interesting stuff I had as a child - toys, comics, stamps, picture postcards - were all passed on to me by my brother, Ravi.

We actually used to receive real letters all the time with the most lovely stamps stuck on them and he used to soak the letters up and retrieve the stamps - making a big drama about how i could watch only if i stood at least 5 or so feet away.

These magical stamps are real stamps stuck on real letters that we received in the 60's and 70's from Sierra Leone.

Paris Restaurant-Bar Publicity Cards / 1990s (?)

A set of 3 publicity postcards for an "Indian" restaurant-bar in Paris in the 90's...interesting mélange of English terms - "décor cosy", "DJ en live", "world musique" and of course "Happy Hour"! :-)

Little Murali Krishna (Flute Playing Krishna)

Shiva and Parvathi

Indian Beauty smoking a hookah

Some Snail Mail Stuff - 01 / WW I Soldier's Postcard / 1915

I want to share with you some of the snail mail that I have collected over the years.

The first few times that I went to France, I had all the time in the world but very little money.

And every time, of course, Paris was the main item on the agenda.

I had heard so much about the Bouquinistes of Paris that I went looking for them the first time with resignation. I thought I would never be able to afford anything. They were so famous and surely the Japanese and German and American travellers would have bought up everything worthwhile that was for sale.

But....

Look at something that I got on my first foray!

I suspect that the bouquiniste who sold it to me probably shaved something like a 1000% off the asking price. If I remember right I paid 10 Francs for it.

This is the transcription of what is hand written on it:

(The date that is pencilled in at the bottom of the message is 6.5.15. This is a post card from a World War I British soldier to his family in London.)

The Address block says:

on active service

Mr. & Mrs. Hutton
5 Priory Grove
The Boltons
London SW
England

(there is a signature below the address)

The message block says:

6th Infantry Division Base Depot.
British Expeditionary Force.
Arrived safely after good crossing y day. Dont
write to me here as I may move soon.
Shall eventually join our 3rd (the 3rd is underlined) Batt (battalion)
but dont know when at present.
Please say goodbye to Uncle C. for
me  I didnt forget but meant to
go on Tuesday. It is raining hard
here tonight, just came on
before we got to camp which
was hard times. Love to you all.
yrs loving (signature)

On the picture the word "Rouen" has been scratched out, but it is now visible with a magnifying glass beneath the faded ink.