NPR has a story on right now about letter writing and how it is a dying art.
I’ve always been a letter writer. There’s something satsifying about putting your thoughts down on paper in a comprehensible way and then sending them off to the recipient. Letter writing forces you to think through what you’re trying to say, to take your time in the excercise. Email doesn’t have the same quality - you can always go back and delete, retype, etc. (of course, you do have to hit the “send” button, and then all bets are off).
I recall reading that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams kept up a regular mail correspondence for nearly 50 years. Letters were, of course, the only form of communication during that era, but to maintain the effort and consistency for 50 years is extraordinary.
Another great thing about writing letters is that you get to go the the mailbox and get a reply. Mixed in amid all the crap that flows into the mailbox everyday is something that is personal. You aren’t being asked to buy anything, you aren’t being asked to pay a bill - the letter is a way to say “Thanks for writing. Here’s what’s going on in my life…”
Do yourself and a friend, loved one, congressman, newspaper editor, or anyone else a favor and write them a letter. It doesn’t have to be much, just a note will do. Plus, it acts as sort of a statement to whoever is using the mail to spread anthrax that we haven’t lost all civilization. We’re willing to spread a little joy through the mail.
How 'bout a Dopers Letter Writing Club? Email me if you’re interested and we’ll see what we can get started.
I pride myself on writing letters—good, long letters, that I take time composing. I have about half-a-dozen regular correspondents throughout the world, and we all agree that nothing beats going to the mailbox, shaking the anthrax off the envelope, and settling down to a good read (enclosed clippings, extra points).
I love writing letters, but I don’t do it any more because 99% of the time, the person I wrote just calls me up and says “Hey, I got your letter! Like you said, I’m…blahblahblah…”
Well, gee. It’s great to hear from you, but I wrote a letter kind of thinking you’d respond in kind. Jeez. I even have fountain pens and dip pens and inkwells and heavy paper for this stuff. Couldn’t you at least write back? Typed is fine; I don’t care!
Sadly, I’ve never been a letter writer. I’ve made an effort a few times, but find it difficult to put things down on paper (strangely enough I was always good at “writing” in school.) I either can’t think of anything to say, or else I ramble on and on. And honestly, there aren’t that many people that I would write to. Most everyone that I care about lives within “visiting distance.”
I’ve never regularly written letters but I’ve always loved it and prefered it leaps and bounds over most other communication. So often I decide that I’m going to start writing regularly and it just never happens, usually for a lack of stamps. I just bought some, though, and I’m headed to the store to buy stationary and envelopes today. Hopefully that will jumpstart a letter-writing marathon for me.
I write letters! People seem to think “I’m not much of a letter-writer” is a valid excuse for never writing back, though. Interestingly, some of them never call or e-mail, either.
My stamp-collecting hobby isn’t moving along very rapidly, since so few people ever write. But on the bright side, the people who do write letters also pick out interesting stamps.
I’d’ve had a great set of stamps from Bosnia and Kosovo when my then-boyfriend was stationed there, except that postage is free for deployed soldiers and so he never had to use a stamp.
While I was on active duty, I wrote frequently, if not constantly - family, extended family, friends, new acquaintances. My handwriting is generally abominable, but I do make an effort in notes and letters. I frequently got tired of whining about how no one ever wrote back. Over the years, many of my better correspondents died (mainly older relatives) and the ease of e-mail has taken over.
I do add little personal notes in most holiday cards I send out, and I included notes with my white elephants. I’d gladly return to letter-writing again, tho I’d be inclined to type as it’s faster and much more readable.
A letter writing club sounds interesting… e-mail shall follow.
I love writing letters. In this day and age it seems so “old fashioned”, and that’s what the charm of it is, to me. The only problem is that nobody writes back because they’re too busy. I would love to have pen pals in the mail, if only people wrote back.
I write letters with a nice black pen on thick, creamy paper. I had regular correspondence with one friend since we were both about 11 - we met at nerd camp in the summer and would write back and forth with our poetry and short stories and thoughts throughout the year until we’d see each other again. We lost touch when we went to college, unfortunately. Some of my college friends and I write letters back and forth. Grandpa and Grandma send me letters typed on his old typewriter, full of the stories of his youth. He has email now, and I hate it - I don’t save people’s emails, and I miss the old typed notes. Cartooniverse is known for packing his letters with banana bread and other goodies.
I’ve saved every letter I’ve ever gotten since I was a kid in a box in my room.
Email is very useful, but I like letters better. I don’t think I’d want to join a letter writing club - it would be too much to keep up with - I can’t even keep up email correspondence with SDMB friends. But good luck.
I write letters to companies if I have a complaint, as they tend to take it more seriously than an email, or a phone call.
Other than that, I have hand-written love letters to my beloved Una, and that’s the sum total of my letters this year. I’m very bad at writing letters, and my handwriting is nearly unreadable too. If it weren’t for Una, I would have hand written exactly zero letters this year.
I don’t write letters often these days. When I was younger, I had a few pen-pals, plus I would write my regular friends when I was staying the summer out of town. I was famous for decorating my letters and envelopes with artwork and rubber stamps.
Unfortunately, many of my efforts were not returned in kind, and I almost stopped it all. I still have a few friends that I drop the occasional line (I have tons of note cards that I put into use), but I certainly don’t write with the frequency and effort I once did.
I’m not so good at letters these days (no time) but I’m a big fan of notecards–like Javamaven. My collection of these is fantabulous. Right after 9/11 I wrote a bunch of friends short notes–mostly friends I hadn’t been in touch with lately. I told them it felt like a good time to be in touch with friends, and personal mail is so fun anyway. I love getting mail myself.
In the days before email I wrote tons of letters home from college. My mom saved them all and gave them back to me when I graduated. That was utterly cool. When my grandma died, we found some letters I’d written her among her things. Some from when I was little, some from later. I loved knowing she’d kept them.
Letters, yes I do on ocassion. With my mom and my grandmother. (I also e-mail and call my mom.) With my grandmother its a constant, though slow and gentle, thread of connection. Its a good feeling. (And I never minded the mail.) She hasn’t written since I moved and I haven’t put pen tto paper to write her. This may inspire me to do so, I do enjoy it (as illegible as my writing is)
My experiences with letters of complaint are the opposite of fierra’s: I inevitably end up calling to find out what’s happening and they tell me they never got the letter. Apparently mail rooms just toss them in the trash, etiher literally or figuratively. One phone company rep even told me on the phone that they “never” get any letters from customers.
I write letters, far less often than I have in the past, but still at least one sometimes two a month. It’s rather ironic how often I get a phone call or email back with a message along the lines of, “Wow, I just recieved your letter. I can’t tell you how great it was to get something other than a bill in the mail.” Hmmm.
I write a medium amount, mostly to my boyfriend living in New York. Also occasionally to cousins throughout England, and many thank you letters whenever necessary.
I guess I am a little bit of an exception because of people my age, almost none write letters.
I just saw Podkayne’s post and realized that when my Grandmother died is when my letter writing took a dive. I used to write her at least twice a week, she felt phone calls were too expensive even if I paid for them. On time she finally mentioned on the phone to my Mom that she’d received a letter from me that she was unable to read even with her magnifier. After that I started using bright colored markers and writing large on printer paper rather than pretty stationary. Using the markers helped me write large enough for her to see, she was very excited and appreciative.
When I was in High School way back when, (measured in Decades) as a result of my interests and hobbies I had occassion to write a letter to a family owned company requesting information about their rather unique place in the industry. The result of this one letter from a high school student resulted in a “pen-pal” relationship that lasted almost 15 years. At the time my family had many raised eyebrows about the correspondence (there was absolutely nothing untoward surrounding the ‘relationship’).
We exchanged letters constantly, and I couldn’t wait to get home see if I had any mail. The exchange of letters continued through college and beyond, and let me tell you it was great to get these letters and I responded in kind. I even traveled on numerous occassions for a visit with my pen-pal in New England and was totally welcomed by family and friends. Though it was a distant relationship it was close, but over the years as I grew older and was busy with work etc it faded. The letters tapered off, and I thought I would always “write next week”. 'Bout five years ago I rang a mutual accquaintence and during the course the conversation I learned my pen-pal had crossed over 4 months before. Everybody asked about me at the time, but nobody knew how to contact me because we had drifted apart.
I still have every letter in a filled-to-the-top cardboard box. I’ve moved about 12 times in the last 25 years and I know exactly where those letters are, and I’ve read them many times over. But I’ll be darned if I can find my College Diploma.
Last year I rang an 80 year old friend of my friend (and my friend, too: but we hadn’t seen or spoken for over 15 years!)
When she answered I only said: “Mary?” and her response was: “Operator6! Where have you been? Is everything OK?”
Never underestimate the power of the hand written word.
It, like this Message Board, can open up new and exciting vistas!
And thanks for this thread…Now where is my pen and paper?
