Herrera Metadata - Elaine Patton, 10/3/2013

Today I finished up MSS160-b4-f08, which I had started last week.

Mostly there were no surprises, though I did catch one document that didn't have a page count or size written in. I also encountered a few letters written in Spanish, which necessitated some transcription and a trip over to Google Translate. One, involving a Volkswagen car possibly being transferred to the younger son of a couple, was a bit difficult to parse, but the other two were fairly straightforward.

I got a kick out of a couple pieces of correspondence with Houston Lighting & Power Co., like this bill describing the amount of electricity used as the hours Reddy worked and the amount owed as "Reddy's Wages."

Electricity bill, circa 1960

There was also this line in a letter of apology about a billing error that led to Herrera's power being wrongfully cut off:

"It seems that whether our records are kept by a giant electronic brain or on the back of an old envelope, we must always content with clerical errors caused by human intervention. ..."

I just like the "giant electronic brain" imagery, particularly for 1960.