Telegrams, Tweets and Test Scores

The art of saying a lot in a few words has been around long before the invention of smartphones and social media.  In Pier Giorgio's day, a popular way to get a message to someone quickly was to send a telegram.  The cost depended on the number of words being transmitted so most tended to be 10 words or less.  This would have been considerably fewer characters than Twitter's original limit of 140 so a person really had to be precise in choosing words.  Millions of telegrams were sent each year.

Because of their social standing and the travels required by Mr. Frassati's career, there were many times when telegrams were sent between Pier Giorgio and his family members.  A particular bit of news that warranted spending the money on a telegram was whenever Pier Giorgio received a grade on one of his university exams.  The progress he was making toward his degree was definitely of interest to his parents as his studies were a regular source of struggle for him. 

In November 1922, Pier Giorgio took the exam in Construction Science - the last class he needed to pass in order to begin Year Four of his engineering studies.  He happily sent this tweet-like telegram to his parents in Berlin on November 6th:

Guidi   75 kisses

Guidi was the professor for the course.  The number of kisses he was sending his parents was his clever way of letting them know his test score.  I like to picture Pier Giorgio heading to the telegraph office and dictating that little note to the operator with a great sense of relief.  And it must have put a smile on his parents' faces when they were handed the telegram and read those few words.  He passed!

So often in books and articles written these days, the relationship between Pier Giorgio and his parents is mistakenly portrayed as one marked only by severity and ridicule and lacking in love and affection.  Of course their relationship wasn't perfect, as none ever is; but this little code they used to communicate gives us a peek into the playful side of their private life.  

Like his father and sister, Pier Giorgio was an exceptionally gifted writer and was able to get his point across in a few words or in a long letter.  Using old-fashioned snail mail, his sister and his friends heard a lot more about that Guidi exam and how much it weighed on him.  Over the years, he wrote many amusing descriptions of mountain climbs and adventures with his friends.  He shared profound reflections about life and love and the great gift of Faith.  He even communicated in more than one language without having any app for translating! Thankfully, so many of Pier Giorgio's letters, telegrams and postcards were collected by his mother after his death and eventually arranged by his sister in a book that we can still enjoy today.  It's a treasure to read - but imagine the volumes that would have been filled if he had a smartphone, social media accounts and an unlimited data plan! 

On a serious note, although quite different than ours, the technology of Blessed Frassati's time still presented plenty of distractions and time-management pitfalls.  This didn't stop him from reaching the heights of holiness.  Through his intercession, may we do the same.

#75kisses!

Verso l'alto! ///cmw