By MJ Malleck//
Update: Mystery Solved
Thanks to an anonymous friend, the mystery of the secret code is revealed. Here's what the postcard writer wrote: "Well, what do you know all the way from New Orleans and in semaphore. We are fine and hope you are too."
The key to unlocking the code came from his knowledge that, in English, the only double letters at the end of words are ll or ss. Seemed likely that the 3-letter word (sixth word in) must be ill or all. The symbol used for the second letter in the first word is used twice as much as any other symbol, so almost certainly an E, the most common English letter. (My friend plays Scrabble too.) Making the first word, Well.
After an hour, he had it.
For those who don't know what semaphore means (I did not) it is a method of visual signaling, using flags or lights. The Chappe-Code I mention in the original post, was an kind of signaling using towers with moveable arms. The Boy Scouts used to teach the two-flag system, and they have a merit badge called Signs, Signals and Codes. Part of the criteria to earn this is to be able to spell your first name and send a message with flags using semaphore.
I guess that Dad and his son were Boy Scouts or perhaps he'd served in the navy. At any rate, when you look at an image of the semaphore system, this postcard makes sense. It's like he is drawing a figure and the arm positions.
Today’s postcard is a mystery. It was sent from New Orleans, from Dad to Bob, February 12, 1955. The thing is, Dad and Bob had a secret code, and I cannot tell you what it says. Here’s what it looks like:
Isemaphorn researching, the closest I found to this is a Diagram of Telegraph Symbols in the papers of Thomas Jefferson (yes, that one, the paper is undated and in the Library of Congress). Scribbled sometime between 1651-1827 the symbols look very much like what Dad used. However, they do not translate to anything, and there are no “arrows” which Dad used. These symbols are also reminiscent of the Chappe-Code which are optical telegraph symbols. The pivoting arms depicted in the code were atop towers in sight of each other. Claude Chappe invented the system used widely in France in 1792. Tower operators could convey messages over long distances by repeating the message spelled out. Later the electrical telegraph took over.
Other alphabets that look like Dad’s code are the early Viking
and the Runic, early Germanic. I wonder if Dad and Bob designed this as part of
a Boy Scout thing. Or perhaps Dad was in the military (WW II) and learned this
telegraph signaling. All this is speculation, I could find nothing. If you can
read it, please let us know!
You may have heard the term, Banana Republic. A funny name
to give a clothing store, since it is also a derogatory term first coined in
1904 by the American author O. Henry (and of course there is a chocolate bar
named Oh Henry!) Henry was talking about countries like Honduras and its
neighbours, unstable politically and dependant on export of natural resources (bananas)
the rich ruling class allows companies to operate large scale plantations in
the country, exploiting labour and public lands for private profit. Debts
remains part of the public treasury and such countries end up devaluing their
banknotes and becoming ineligible for international development credits. The
rich get rich (at home and abroad) and the poor stay poor.
I learned a lot about the true history of banana republics
at this wonderful site, Visualizing the Americas. It’s a collaboration
between Kevin Coleman (principal investigator) and the University of Toronto
Mississauga Library. The site examines the history of capitalism through the
production and consumption of one commodity-the banana. It works to decolonize
the history by making available free, and easy to access research is based on
local historical documents and photographs, in contrast to the official archives
of the US based fruit companies, now known as Chiquita and Dole, who oversaw
the industry.
https://visualizingtheamericas.utm.utoronto.ca/about/
By the late 1950s, New Orleans
began losing its grip on bananas due to wage disputes and resistance to
modernizing the port. Today the port of Wilmington, Delaware is the
world’s second largest banana port (after Antwerp-Bruges, Belgium). In the
1980s Chiquita and Dole relocated their facilities to Wilmington. A local
newspaper in New Orleans reported in May 2016 that rumours on the dock were
that Chiquita was considering leaving the city (again) just two years after a celebrated
homecoming. The fear was that 350 jobs would be lost. And they did leave,
returning to Gulfport, Mississippi where they had a lease for 40 years.
I wonder if, when Dad was in New Orleans, he went to Brennan’s
Restaurant to sample the famous desert that was first concocted there in 1951. Bananas
Foster is a lovely rum and brown sugar banana flamed desert that is still a
best-selling menu item. I found different historical versions of who is
credited with the new recipe. In her memoir, Owen Edward Brennan’s sister Ella
(his restaurant manager) say she had to pull it together quickly and there were
so many bananas on hand. Other sites credit the talented chef, Paul Blange. You
can order one today at Brennan’s for $12 for two people, flambeed tableside.
Or here is their recipe if you want to try it at home (be
careful with the fire). https://www.neworleansrestaurants.com/new-orleans-recipes/recipes_brennans.php#:~:text=Owen%20Edward%20Brennan%20challenged%20his,Chef%20Paul%20created%20Bananas%20Foster.
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