Great OP, FCM! I used to love writing letters, but as I got older and email got more popular, I got really lazy. But a family treasure is from my distant past – my folks spent five years in India (I was born there), and wrote to both sets of grandparents every week. Remember the old airmail letters, blue, with foldover-and-stick edges, and no inserts allowed? They’d write one of those each week telling the grandparents all about what they were doing, my sister (who was a year old when they went to India), and later my goings-on. Every time I visit my mom, she asks me to spend a few hours with the folder of letters and read through it, but I’ve just never had the time. I definitely plan to, though; it’s an amazing walk through the now-distant past, when people wrote airmail letters and traveled around the world by ship, and the world was an altogether different place.
Good luck with Bionic Special Dad’s new hip! I hope his recovery is uneventful, and he ends up getting all the results he wants from his new hip. Oh, and in case nobody has mentioned it? Remind him that it’s really, really important to do his exercises.
It’s cool and wet here today, so I’ll probably spend a quiet day at home working. Heaven knows I’ve got enough of that to get done! Speaking of which, I should probably get to it.
My mom was very strict about sweets. As grown-ups in fairly decent shape and with all our teeth, my brother and I are eternally grateful.
I also hate chewing gum in public - I agree, it seems vulgar. Sometimes I’ll chew it out of necessity (like right before an interview or something) but I spit it out the first chance I get.
I’ve started writing paper letters. I do them on my laptop computer and print them out. (My handwriting is unspeakable, so I shall not speak more of it.) I can work on them while I’m on the bus, and include pictures and all sorts of things.
I’ve written two to may father, but I don’t know whether he’s remembering that he’s received them. I wrote one to my sister, who was so startled that she called me at 10:30 PM! She works late and knows that I am usually up late. I wrote one each to both my aunts, and one to my cousin in Florida.
Great OP FCM, and I’ve gotta gree with you. When I was a kid my Dad used to write letters to me, and I’d write back. It kept us in touch better than the phone did. When I was in high school and moved back to live with him I tended to talk to my mom on the phone instead of write letters. I don’t think I’ve sent a hand written letter in. . . 20 years?
I still write letters. When I write a thank-you note to someone here at the office, I always like to lurk & watch them open it. It’s like they’re opening a time bomb or a valuable antique - it’s that strange to some of them - lol
I have tons of writing paper - I am possibly the #1 consumer of Crane’s notes with the intials on them - “P” for me.
I had a good friend from junior high that moved to Nashville the summer before high school. For four years we wrote each other about every week. I think we only even talked on the phone a few times that whole time. The summer I graduated high school, I visited her and she showed me every single letter I wrote her over the last four years.
Cool OP, brings back some good memories…
Back to work.
Which is NO damn fun after 4 days of slouching and slacking…
I have a box full of pen pal letters from high school. I can’t remember the last time I got a real letter, but I miss receiving them. I’m home sick today, so maybe I’ll go through some today.
Add me to the caffienating crowd today. I only got three hours of sleep last night for reasons best discussed in the Pit. I’m still getting used to my friend living in the same house with me again so things are still antsy in Casa de Spaz. Good thing is he’s building me a new computer today. Yay new computer!
Regarding the OP, I’ve been meaning to write some letters to people. It’s so easy to forget in these technological times in which we live in. After I get my last three papers dented, I’m going to get a new box of Christmas cards and send out some letters to people I’m losing touch with. I used to send out random poetry to people in the mail. Nothing fancy, just a handwritten copy of a poem I liked. I may start doing that again as well. I’ve got some stamps lying around.
As someone who works in a library archive (and spent all of last week sorting through one family’s letters from 1872-1978), I applaud all of you who are keeping your old letters. They’re a lot of fun to go through years later and they tell a lot about who you and your friends are and the times you lived in. Here are two of my favorite letters from last week to illustrate:
A snippy note from 1907 from a co-ed to a law student. Roughly paraphrased it said “Might I inquire what these stories about me are that you’ve been amusing Miss X with?” Oh how I wish I could have seen the reply to that one.
A postmark on a postcard from 1954: “Fight our insect enemies.” That got photocopied and passed around to everyone working last Thursday.
Another good thing about letters: they get noticed at businesses, too!
I just got a phone message from my optometrist. I’d bought a pair of glasses from them, and upon getting home noticed a few things wrong with them: a gouge in the frame on one side; the other side wasn’t assembled well; there was a non-removable black spot on the lens.
So I wrote an actual paper letter of complaint, asking what needed to be done to fix them, (and also saying that the new prescription is working very well). They just called back saying that they’ve ordered a new pair of frames, and they’ll do their best to fix everything!
Growing up I used to have pen pals in Pennsylvania and New York from school. That was so much fun! Then my great Aunt had me start writing to one of her friends granddaughters since we were close in age. I used to love going to the mail box and finding an actual letter in there.
When my husband and I were dating (we lived about 3 hours apart) I used to send him little cards and quirky little things. I enjoyed doing that.
Now I don’t send or receive much of anything anymore. Everyone seems to prefer email, which I do too, but there is nothing like getting the mail and finding an actual letter there.
I’m also a huge stationary freak. I love cute cards and envelopes and paper. They have some really cute stuff on Etsy, but I typically do make my own cards and stuff. I thought about designing my own stationary too. If I do that, I would actually have to write though, lol.
Lunch, good thoughts going out to you and your dad.
Not much going on here today. I’m working until 2 p.m. and then home. I think I need to run to the store and pick up a couple of things. Nothing exciting.
I think it’s well on its way to that. It was the answer to a crossword puzzle clue in yesterday’s paper: “Foreign correspondent?”
I wrote enough letters to fill a postal truck back in my days in the Navy, especially when deployed or underway for longer than a couple of weeks. Wrote them to just about everyone I knew. But then I stopped after awhile - not really sure why but I’m pretty sure it had something to do with the fact that I kept having less and less time for myself the longer I stayed in.
kai a friend of mine spent a couple of years in Tok when he was in the Coast Guard. I’m pretty sure you’re the first person to ever mention that town since he left there. At least to me.
no one My mom has had both of her hips replaced (one at a time). She was surprised how fast she was up and about afterwards. I think you’ll see the same rapid recovery. At least, I hope you do.
Great OP, fcm. I think that a handwritten letter implies more a thoughtful writer than an email, whether that it is really true or not.
That said, I just don’t write letters anymore. I work for an engineering firm, and I used to do my own drafting. My handwriting was pretty good back then. But I find that working with computers over the past 15 or so years has let my manual dexterity suffer. Now my handwriting now is not much better than a scrawl.
And let’s not even get into how hard it is to find decent stationery…
Re whoever it was upthread who wrote to each child that they were the most loved:
Erma Bombeck did the same thing in one of her books. If the kids wait until they are older, and share these letters (I’m talking in their 20s at least), it will be a real boost to all of them. Or it should be. I know some sibs for whom this would be 5 years in therapy and a lifelong grudge, but that’s not important right now.
Whenever I go to UK alone (or leave some combo of kids behind), I always write each of them a letter and leave it in my desk. That way, if I die in the fiery plane crash that is to be my destiny and I just know it, they will stumble across a loving memory.
I had a difficult night last night and am off to take a nap. 98% of Xmas shopping is done. Thank God.
Yep. Got my application finished and submitted, with the help of one of the least-informative forms ever. I think it said, “Please print information below”. Okay, about what? I have two cats, my favourite colour is red, I had crackers for breakfast. That good enough?
Actually, no, it isn’t. How dare you prefer red to cool colors like blue and green (and, of course, purple… can’t forget that around here! :)) !? :rolleyes:
You’ll have to redo all the paperwork, and choose a more satisfactory color!
She works late and knows that I am usually up late. I wrote one each to both my aunts, and one to my cousin in Florida.
