Txdigest.com

Have you ever received a telegram? Sent one?

No to both questions for me. With today's technology, I would think the telegram is obsolete. Does anyone use them anymore?

I've wired money via Western Union.
That's a form of a telegram.

In 1968, my freshman year at UT, Texas Tech beat UT in Lubbock. (It was the second game of the season, and it was the game where Coach Royal replaced Bill Bradley at quarterback with James Street. The Longhorns didn't lose again for 30 games.) On Sunday morning I got a telegram from a high school buddy who went to Tech. It was a string of HA HA HAs followed by a taunt that Tech was ranked higher nationally. (That didn't last long.)

I have one that was sent to my parents from relatives who lived in Houston. The message was congratulating my mom and dad on the birth if their first child (me).

Telegrams were so common nobody thought to keep them, unless they were for special events like a birth.

Many small town railroad stations doubled as Western Union offices; because the railroads used telegraphs to dispatch trains. The MKT had a branch from Waco to Hamlin that still utlized the telegraph to send train orders up into abandonment of the line in 1969.

Western Union no longer sends or delivers telegrams. The primary function is wiring money!