POSTCARD N.233 - USA

Postcard sent on the 25th May; received on the 5th June 2026

Postcard image:  Boston skyline from the sky...

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There are images I will keep forever in my cerebral photobook... 

Boston, Massachusetts... that's where they were going to.... whole families, by the end of the summer, after visiting relatives,  in their nicest clothes,  nervously waiting for the boarding call at the airport terminal, with the father always taking with him a couple of bottles bound together, artistically covered in some sort of intertwined plastic straw that would create  patterns on the cover (red and white, being the colours I vividly remember). Binoculars, we called them... inside the glass bottles, the aguardente that their families had been producing for ages.... for a special occasion... a birthday, a christening, a marriage... a bit of liquid island to wear off the saudades (they say the word can't be translated, but it means a deep longing, missing something very much).

"Charlie, come here", said the mother to the  little kid running and jumping as kids do, between the rows of the seats of the airport terminal (in those days there was no specific boarding room, just a general pre-flight area, where passengers and general public could be together).

"Charlie, ... come here" said the mother, this time a bit louder and with more assertivness, but Charlie, did not seem to hear, or couldn't care less.

"Charlie, don't you hear me, Come here!", shouted mother... same result

"Eh Carlinhs, nan tás aouvi? vencá!" Charlie , as if hit by lightning, froze and immediately  calmed down and went to join mother at the end of the room...

Massachusetts ranks as the second most important Azorean emigration destination, after California, so flights to Boston were the best transportation option for those that would later regain their communities in Fall River or New Bedford.

Carlinhos should be 5 or 6 years younger than me... In his American home, I wonder if he still keeps  father's binoculars as a souvenir of days gone....

Ravi used a "Forever Global" self-adhesive stamp issued on 24Jan2025, illustrated with a 1794 Compass Rose that was drawn in 1794 by "...Lucia Wadsworth — the aunt of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow — in her school geography notebook...", according to Wikipedia.

Postmark from Boston, the Capital of the State of Massachussets.

Bohoma sthuthi, Ravi, for another great postcard and the opportunity to rememeber happy days....