yes, i still write letters… on house paper even.
Yes, write letters. Half of my family does not have access to computers, so sending them a letter telling them how things are going is the best way to communicate. I handwrite them, more personal and less expensive.
Yes. I also send postcards to keep in touch with friends & family because I travel often for work & pleasure. Occasionally also send photos. Sometimes send a news article of interest to friends. I was just a little concerned about the anthrax situation and mail. But haven’t let it stop me from sending snail mail.
I write letters to my penpal. Unfortunately, this takes a lot of effort for me to remember because I end up having to go to the post office and ask about postage. Actually, I need to go ask about air mail prices soon. My penpal lives in Japan and I promised to send him a letter before everything happened, so it was temporarily put on hold.
I love getting mail, and I keep all of my letters. I really, truly hate using the telephone, so I get my friends and family to e-mail and write me.
jessica
I have a couple of friends in jail, and unless they call me collect (at ridiculous rates, YAY prison system) a written letter is the ONLY way in which I can communicate with them. I’ve actually been really lax; I should go ahead and write one tonight.
I’ve been meaning to hand-write a letter to a person I only know through the internet and a handful of phone calls, because a hand-written letter somehow conveys a lot more than words on a screen or even a voice. In hand-writing a letter, I find that I take a lot more time to choose my words carefully and it really ends up being a creative outlet.
Unfortunately, I am an incredibly lazy human being, so I haven’t WRITTEN a letter in a couple of months. I need to. Every time I try, either my brain seizes or my hand cramps (or both). Maybe this thread’ll give me a kick in the hindparts.
**I LOVE GETTING A LETTER **
You know those cheezy America’s Funniest Home Video clips of the dogs attacking the mail as it slides in the front door mail slot?
**THAT’S ME **
Ok, maybe I am not a rabid schaunzer, and I don’t have a mail slot in my door or even a mail box on my house, BUT Every day since I can remember, I GET ALL EXCITED when the mail arrives.(Not THAT kind of excited, you pervs.) I’ve been this way since I was a kid. I was a voracious letter writer as a kid, had a couple long distance relationships and have been known to send great postcards whilst on vacation.
Every job I’ve held, I’ve somehow managed to finagle my way to see the mail as it is carried in and have it handed to me. I use to work in customer relations and was responsible for writing response to all the lovely hate mail received and I JUST LOVED that part of the job (The phone calls were hell.) And now, when I trudge down the 100 yards of a usually muddy driveway to cross the always muddy dirt road to get my mail. I ALWAYS LOOK and HOPE AND PRAY for a LETTER from someone.
Know what I get? Bills and junk mail. NO ONE I KNOW EVEN EMAILS SOMETHING OTHER THAN FWD’S.
I love love love love to write letters, some of them are even coherent. Possibly cohesive.
A couple of times a year, ( it use to be more) I sit down and pick a victim…er…friend…and write a letter. What ever is on my mind. Stream of conscieousness writing at it’s best. It can go on for six pages. Six typed pages. Six typed pages of the funny , provoking brain fodder. I think I suffer from diarrhea of the pen.
Know what I get back?
“Hey, I got your letter. That was good.”
Good? Good? AIGH! You think the menu at McDonald’s is genuis! I gave you three hours of my life and I get a three word response.
I send out masterpeices. I get back postcards.
Sorry, I’m a little exciteable about this subject.
Letter writing is a dying art and I have wanted to get a pen pal of sorts. (Actually, close friends and family love getting my letters, BUT I RARELY GET ONE BACK, WHICH IS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE EXCERCISE, PEOPLE. [sub]Sorry, I told you I was passionate about this. [/sub]
Great Idea! This will give me a chance to prove to everyone that I am the worlds greatest idiot and as an added bonus, add to my burgeoning stamp collection too. [sub]Am I a dork, or what? [/sub]
I’ll sign on for a SD Letter Writing Club.
Letters… yes, I remember them well.
I used to write letters, I loved writing letters
and I loved to get letters in return. 'Twas a lovely pastime. 'Twas a truly lovely thing.
BUT. Damnitalltohell I finally quit writing letters because so few would write back and if they did it consisted of…
Dear ------,
How are you? Fine I hope. We are all fine.
There’s not much to write about so I’ll keep this short.
Hope you can read my writing!
Love,
While we are on the subject of letters.
Does anyone know of a book or reference book about letter writing or that shows samples of beautiful letters,
you know the really awesome letters from days of old like…
My Dearest Annabelle,
It’s been such a long time since I 've seen your lovely smile and my soul aches for the touch of your skin.
How long must I wait!? The leaves on the tree outside the gate are falling forlornly to the Earth… blah blah blah
This thread has inspired me to take up letter writing again
and I could use a few ideas.
Thanks
I LOVE writing and receiving letters! And I’m a damn good letter writer too. Nowadays, I write emails, rather than snailmails, but it’s still the same thing. And it’s frustrating and disappointing when I take the time to write a letter and don’t get a response, or I don’t get a well thought out response. You’re right, plnnr, writing helps me figure out just what’s going on in my brain. Not that I don’t have enough work to do, but I’m always interested in writing and getting well-written email or snailmail, so sign me up for the letterwritin’ club.
If you have friends in the military, especially if they are overseas, write to them! I was stationed in Korea and the phone rates were ridiculously expensive. Most of us considered mailroom hours more important than pay. If the window was one minute late in opening people were knocking on it. I wrote a lot, and I lived for the letters I got back. just recently found out my grandmother saved most of my letters to her. Read a few and remembered things I had forgotten. I still write letterss now, for longer messages. For quick messages though I’ve been using email.
Thank you all for the great response to the thread. I knew that there had to be other folks out there that liked to put pen to paper. Thanks, also, to those of you who have sent me emails with your addresses. I guess we should forward them around to everyone else that expressed an interest.
Someone asked if there is a book out of particularly good letters. The answer is “Absolutley.” I don’t recall the exact title, but it came out within the past 5 years, was discussed on BookNotes on CSPAN, and includes letters from historical figures and quite a few from soilders. There is a VERY poignant one that was used in Ken Burns’s “Civil War” series. It is written from a man to his wife before the battle of Gettysburg and is very loving and tender. The man was killed in the battle the next day. Knowing that his wife received this last communication is touching, and I guarantee that you’ll get a little misty eyed.
Thanks again for the response. Keep those cards and letters coming.
<humming to himself…“Letters, we get letters, we get lots and lots and lots and lots of letters…”>
“Nowadays, I write emails, rather than snailmails, but it’s still the same thing.”
—No. No, dear, it’s not.
Shirley, I like your idea of a Letter Writing Club. It’d be kinda cool to be hooked up with a Doper penpal. I loved the Doper valentines. Of course, my recipient would have to promise to not mind getting pages of drivel.
I forgot to mention–my mother in law got me a super neat book last year for a gift. It’s a book about women’s letters. It has excerpts and entire transcripts–and in some cases, fascimiles of the original letter (Like Griffin and Sabine, put in an envelope glued to the page, in the original handwriting…) They’ve got a lot of letters of famous people (presumably that’s why they’re preserved and still around to quote from and copy.) They are grouped into themes. My MIL said she bought it because I always write such nice letters (I did a good job on thank-you noted after the wedding, and I still write my husband’s batty old grandma and my MIL often sees those letters). It’s a neat book!
Thanks Plnnr!
I found the book you were referring to.
It’s titled:
Letters of A Nation, A Collection of Extraordinary American Letters by Andrew Carroll. Reviewed 1998
I had previously asked several librarians about books such as these and they were apparently unaware they existed. I remember walking out of the library, shaking my head in bewilderment, thinking, “this is not possible, there MUST be books out there!” It did not occur to me to search the Internet since I assumed if THEY had not heard of any books such as these, there must not be any available.
So,Plnnr, thanks to you, I now have several references and the next letter I write shall contain a few stolen phrases
to make my letters livelier.
Instead of writing…
“Sorry I havent written sooner!!! !”
I’ll say:
“So many thanks for your letter of Sept 29th, you will doubtless think that I might have answered it before,but somehow I have not found the time until now and I am firmly resovled that this must reach you” … blah blah blah…
It’ll certainly make them pay attention! LOL
As a brief follow up to my last post - I’ve received emails from a few folks saying that they’d like to participate in the endeavour. The easiest way to get this rolling seems to be for me to forward the names and addresses to everyone else and let people decide for themselves what to do from there. Please be on the lookout for an email from me with an attachment of peoples names and addresses. When, and if, I hear from other people I’ll pass those names along, too.
Plnnr
The PostMaster General of the SDMB
[blues clues]
mail time, mail time, MAIL TIME!!!
We just got a letter, we just got a letter, we just got a letter, I wonder who it’s from?
[/blues clues]
I miss writing letters just as I miss those I used to write letters to, especially my grandmother.
My mother has been writing to her pen pal for sixty years, I was telling her next little vacation should be taken across the pond so she can finally meet this person face to face.
A hand written letter has a quality that cannot be duplicated by any other means.
Count me in.
I still write letters and with the word processing program in my computer, it’s even easier than before because I can change things around without having to rewrite the whole thing, Plus, it corrects my lousy spelling and gives me various fonts to use.
I also have discovered that, with some folks, writing e-mails to them is about the best way to get ignored, especially congressmen, so I make sure to use snail mail. I have friends that I still send written letters to as well as e-mail and I enjoy taking time to write and print a good letter.
I think on the USPS’s website they sell a book of letters.
Back when I was a teenager, I was a member of a national youth group, and I would write up to 10 letters a week to friends all over the U.S. Mail delivery was the best part of the day. Now, if someone doesn’t have an e-mail address, it makes it very hard to keep in contact. I just don’t have time to write letters anymore.
I have an idea that I’d like to run you all over with.
What about, in conjunction with a SD Letter Writing Club [sup]TM [/sup] [sub]All rights reseved unless they are unreserved, then your table was given away five minutes ago to that very large man over there in the corner [/sub]
Sending letters to a service person over whereever in Afghanistan/Podunk? Kind of like adopt a service person. Maybe be their secret pals or something like that.
I know we have military dopers here. Maybe they know of someone who hasn’t received any mail or email or is just really home sick and we/I/insert proper pronoun could send secret pal letters or something.
**What do you think? **
Don’t want to tinkle on your idea, Shirley, but I think I saw a plea from some high-up officer not to do this because of the difficulty of screening all mail from unknown sources. This was specifically mentioned concerning addressing mail to “Any Soldier/Sailor”
But by all means, adopt a service member - get names from friends - whatever. As long as you address to someone specific, I guess. Or maybe start with a postcard??