When I was a youngling, my uncle would travel abroad..when he was in the Middle East, he’d write back long letters to me..it was this thin paper called onion sk

When I was a youngling, my uncle would travel abroad..when he was in the Middle East, he’d write back long letters to me..it was this thin paper called onion skin…because in those days, mail was weighed and postage was determined on the basis of weight. He used the letters to teach the region’s history from Jordon to Palestine to Israel to Iran…and also post cards. Post cards are sadly out of fashion. I have a whole collection of them that family sent each other from all over the world..There will be an image on one side and a box for address and a tiny space for message. You could see the personalities of the various family members from what they try to cram within that tiny space or how empty it was.. My favourite: There is one from Egypt circa 1957 where someone on a world tour scribbled that they were going to end trip and return home because they were out of mango pickle(vegetarian Indian Brahmin family of 4 and had curd rice throughout the itinerary. Packed a jar of mango pickle from home.), but made a ‘friend’ at the embassy who made an Egyptian version of preserved lemon which ‘will do’. But I digress..everyone of these postcard communications will always end with ‘affly’. And for the longest time..until I was in my teens, I’d use it to sign off like that too. And a friend asked me wth is ‘affly’ because it sounds like ‘awfully’. I had no clue, of course. I asked my mom and she said that it was ‘yours affectionately’ shortened because the postcard space was too small. I still use ‘affly’ in my communications with family.