Tomorrow's postal history: Australian rugby aerogramme

Found in a box lot was the following aerogramme from 1990:

http://cjoint.com/?gChYKIsSeA
http://cjoint.com/?gChZgRbkRo

It would not have caught my notice, except for two interesting facts.
First, the endorsement on the front to "HOLD UNTIL COLLECTED with Mosman
Rugby Club Centenary Tour" and a delivery address of a hotel in Alabama
in the American South.

Second, it was unopened.

I wonder at the history of this aerogramme. Did the hotel staff forget
to hand this over to Mr. Barrett? Did it arrive too late? And how did
it get into the hands of a box lot from Canada?

For propriety's sake, I left it carefully sealed for posterity.

Rubbish. I opened it up with a blade to see if there was anything steamy
inside.

There wasn't: it was a letter from Mr. Barrett's girlfriend/partner and
her daughter, attesting to the latter's chicken pox, and hoping for his
quick return to Australia where, on 30 October, summer was beginning. It
also indicated that Mr. C.L. Barrett went by "Lee".

After a Google search, I learned that Mosman Rugby Club is still going
strong, in its presumed 118th year (http://www.mosmanrugby.com.au/).
Furthermore, Mr. Barrett is, as of 2006, an honorary life member of the
club, active in their "seafood raffles" (what this is I couldn't possibly
guess), and is noted for having completed 142 competition games for the
club (http://www.mosmanrugby.com.au/verve/_resources/
Annual_Report_2006_file.pdf)

1990 is not long ago. Some of you are probably cringing at my decision
to open this aerogramme and publicize the contents. To me it brings up a
very interesting ethical question: what amount of elapsed time turns bad-
mannered snooping into valid historical research? Likely, none of us
would hesitate to publish a letter from 1918. Maybe none of us would
dumpster dive for last week's letters and reproduce those on an
international newsgroup. I am sincerely interested in thoughts regarding
this. You will note that I did go so far as to redact the home address
of Di & Jessica. But I went ahead and told about the chicken pox.

Anyone know of Mosman or their rugby team?

--
Joshua H. McGee, Los Angeles, California, USA
Member: APS, ATA, ISWSC, AFDCS, MBPC, MCC, BPS
President: http://www.penguinstamps.org
Trade?: http://www.mcgees.org/stamp-offers/

I know that Rugby is now very much an "up-and-coming" sport in the US
- but in 1990 it must have been quite a feat to find enough teams in
the USA to undertake a tour from Australia. I wonder how they did
that. For those unaware of the game it is tradition that clubs
organise a "tour" ( read drinking session ! ) annually - in the UK
normally over the Easter weekend -relatively poor clubs visit other
regions in the UK, richer ones travel to Europe, usually
France,frequently now Italy, and occasionally Rumania or Spain. The
play ( and the drinking! ) is quite intensive - and it is normal to
play every day ( sometimes twice) over the long weekend. The after
game hospitality from the "home team" is often more physically
demanding than the game !

Note that all these clubs are miles away from big-league
"professional" rugby and are usually town or even village based and
purely amateur. While the game is taken very seriously by those
playing ( while actually on the field) at any level,there is a not
inconsiderable "social" element and many clubs have a large "non-
playing" membership and active and sometimes quite luxurious social
clubs the profits from beer sales going to defray the running costs of
the club.

In my days as a "charter" bus driver I took a couple of these tours,
and while the journeys were sometimes rather hectic - it was worth it
for the "entertainment value"- and certainly I was well looked after ,
and while obviously not in a position to take part in the frolics
until after driving was done for the day ( and then only in
moderation ) there was always "something to take home" at the end of
it !

Malcolm

Malcolm