Do you remember aerogrammes?

[Dilbertian]

Those sheets of thin, pale blue paper, which folded in on themselves, sealed by three gummed flaps which you had to lick and fold down. They had red and blue diagonal stripes around edges on the address side. They were prepaid so did not need stamps, and had the Air Mail logo at top left.

We're immigrants, and I remember my mum writing several aerogrammes to her family every week. She'd fill all four panels, edge to edge, her writing half its normal size. Sometimes she'd write a letter all in one sitting, sometimes over 2-3 days.

These days we chat on the phone every few days, and dm asks about the children. But there's nothing to tell! Nothing's changed since we last spoke. How did she find so much to fill all those aerogrammes?

Bluies! Used to use them when my husband was away with the army and yes, remember filling every spare inch. Will still have a box of them somewhere.

I still have mine from my mum. I used to love getting them.

They were full of day to day stuff - the minutiae of life that you'd get if you were in the same room. I loved it

Yes & have loads saved from my childhood/teens. 💕

I miss having those letters rather than just phone calls/WhatsApp. My memory usnt very good, so having the letters to re read was perfect.

Yes from my papa who was often working abroad.

A Bluey was a thing to treasure. My brothers used to send me them and I sent ones to them.

@Dilbertian yesss i remember my Gran would write to my Mum. We still have them ❤😊

I don't know anybody younger than 50s who remembers them. (Obviously my siblings do.) I never heard them called blueys. It makes sense. Is it a British term?

Oh, and 'onion skin' paper for when you ran out of aerogrammes. It was incredibly thin, but you could still write in fountain pen on it.

Talking of blueys, those formal event invites, you know the ones with chamfered edges, sometimes gilded, we called them stiffies.

yes
i think my dm bought some to write to my dd
she said she bought airmail paper as it was lighter and cheaper to post.

I remember them well and the excitement when my mum got one from far away :)

I’m 47, I used to send them to penpals in my early teens.

I was marvelling over the Par Avion stickers on a postcard just last night.

I am 49 and two weeks so just under the 50 cut off point for knowing about aerogrammes but I do indeed remember them . They were so exciting to receive.

I’m 40 and remember these?

My sister lived in Australia and we had family there so I guess that’s where I remember them from?

I remember them and I am mid-40s. I wanted to use them again but couldn't find them, don't know when they were disbanded.

Oh yes! When l was young, my boyfriend worked away a lot and he wrote to me every day. Usually on these!
I still have all of them, l remember sometimes going days without one, then maybe three or four would arrive at once. The ones in the lead up to Christmas are so sweet, he loved Christmas so much and he used to take an advent calendar away with him (before the days of chocolate ones!). On the top of every day's letter he'd do a little drawing of what was inside that day's 'door' on the advent calendar.

I did a year abroad at uni in the late 90s and my mum sent aerogrammes to me, as did a couple of friends. I'm mid-40s.

The alternative was (cheaper) surface mail that could take weeks! I remember my mother sending out the Christmas cards (unsealed so cheaper for some reason) in October for overseas relatives.
My Aunt still sends cards unsealed , even though there hasn't been a special rate for as long as I've been an adult.

I am 54 and while I don't remember aerogramme, I do remember being taught about the importance of using airmail paper, envelopes and using an air mail sticker as instruction to the postal clerk.

Yes! I lived abroad for a while and still have the ones my Mum and Grammy sent me.

I found a half used pad of air mail paper the other day . Last used c.1991 I think. Unlikely to be used again....

I expect that when aerogrames were invented, the most expensive part of the cost of sending international mail was the weight, and by halving the weight through eliminating the envelope the cost of sending was much less. nowadays the most expensive element in the cost of sending is the sorting of items and correctly interpreting the address to get it to the right destination, the weight is mostly irrelevant (I think anything up to 100g is the same is the same cost) but the flimsiness of an aerogramme is probably incompatible with automatic sorting machines so probably cost the postal service more to deal with rather than less.

I only heard them called Blueys when writing to my brother when he was overseas the the RAF so maybe that's a military term.

I remember the ordinary airmail things but don't recall calling them aerogrammes. We had an assortment of family friends/relatives in other countries so they were fairly common.

Yes we called them “air letter forms” and filled them with teeny tiny writing. One sent every weekend.

My Aunt still sends cards unsealed , even though there hasn't been a special rate for as long as I've been an adult.

I remember this too! My gran always sent them unsealed.

Yes I remember these

I'm 49, I sent them to my pen pal and we sent them as a family to my uncle abroad. They stopped in the 90's finally