‘It’s nice to hear your voice’! Transatlantic pen pals who live almost 5000 miles apart in Texas and Devon and have been writing to each other since the 1938 make their first video call as they both turn 100

• Geoff Banks from Devon, UK, and Celesta Byrne from Texas, US, are pen pals
• The two have been writing to one another since they were in their 20s in 1938
• They have continued their friendship ever since, writing and chatting over video 

Two centenarian pen pals are still sending letters across the Atlantic after writing to one another since the 1930s.

Geoff Banks from Honiton in Devon, UK, and Celesta Byrne from Texas, US, started writing to each other when they were both in their 20s, and have continued their friendship ever since.

Geoff Banks was originally given Celesta Byrne’s address in 1938 when he took part in an educational project connecting young British and Americans.

The two quickly struck up a friendship, detailing their young lives to one another and their experiences in Devon and Texas.

‘It’s nice to hear your voice,’ Celesta Byrne from Texas tells Geoff Banks in Devon as they chat over video call

With the help of their children, Mr Banks (pictured) and Ms Byrne have been able to embrace new technology and chat over video call

As their lives continued, filled with ups and downs, both still made sure to keep their transatlantic friendship going.

And in 2002, when Mr Banks was visiting New York, the two were able to catch up and meet each other in the flesh for the first time. 

Eventually, the handwritten letters made way for emails. But now, with the help of their children, Mr Banks and Ms Byrne have been able to embrace new technology and chat over video call.

Speaking to his pen pal, Mr Banks said it was ‘a source of great satisfaction to write to her for over all these years’. 

‘She’s a very interesting person. We exchange stories and she’s very good to talk to,’ he added.

The two live almost 5,000 miles apart but have continued their pen pal friendship since 1938

Geoff Banks (pictured) reads letters sent to him by Celesta Byrne in their long transatlantic friendship

Geoff Banks was originally given Celesta Byrne’s address in 1938 when he took part in an educational project connecting young British and Americans. Pictured: letters sent between the two of them

The world was a very different place from what it is now when the two started sending letters to one another in the 1930s.

The first letter was sent in 1938, a year before the Second World War started. Unbeknownst to them, the world was about to be shaken by a conflict that would last six years and claim an estimated 50 million lives globally.

In that year, Britain was still pursuing a foreign policy of appeasement. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had signed the Munich Agreement in an effort to stave off any potential war and negotiate with Adolf Hitler. 

Life was also vastly different for young Britons in the 1930s. Children would likely leave school at around the age of 14 and be sent out to work. Many of them would soon be evacuated to the countryside away from the bombing.

Both the US and UK were also in the midst of the Great Depression, a time of mass unemployment and economic struggle.

In Ms Byrne’s native Texas, the state was further crippled by the devastating effects of the Dust Bowl – a period of severe dust storms and drought that made it almost impossible to farm. Many Texans were killed as a result of the weather, along with livestock and ruined crops.

Racial segregation was also legal in the US, with the Civil Rights Act still some three decades away.

Geoff Banks chats to Celesta Byrne from his home in Devon

‘God bless, bye dear,’ says Geoff Banks to his pen pal Celesta Byrne. The two have been friends since the 1930s

With such a long-running friendship between the boy from England and the girl from the US, the question has been asked if there was any ever any romance between them.

Celesta Byrne swiftly put the question to rest: ‘No, we’re just friends, like people who live next door.

‘You ask how they’re doing, you say a few words and then you both go to work.

‘There wasn’t ‘glibbily globbally’ stuff, it was just normal neighbor people.’

After such a long friendship, the two centenarians were adamant that they would keep their friendship going for as long as possible as they now continue to catch up with each other over video call.

Source: Read Full Article