topic Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals in Community Chat

Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

sunshine&rainbows — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 00:23:32 GMT

My box of saved letters.

A piece of our family history.

I think it is so thoughtful to send hand written letters, it means they took the time to sit down and think of you, walk to the mailbox and raise the flag.

I miss my mothers letters, I have saved them all.

I miss my mother in-law letters with her little stickers on the envelopes and pictures of family members, with their names written on back of each pic, that would always make us chuckle.

When I would visit my dear mother in-law she had her roll top desk, to do all her letter writing, with a shoe box of cards for every occasion and a list of everyone birthday, anniversary, get well cards and thank you cards.

When I would visit my dear mother I can still see her sitting at her desk, writing even through her black spots in her eyes, from diabetes.

I have saved all the cards and letters, some through the years have been lost.

I remember my son when we brought my mother home on Hospice to his apt.

after she passed he found a box full of pictures and love letters of hers.

It was a look back for him through his grandmas history, somethings he never knew about. Good history!

I just think there is something so heartfelt and touching about hand written letters.

With today's technology I think maybe we do not write as much, everything is instant gratification with fb, text, e-mail, skype, everything is in a cloud.

I wonder if they still have letter writing to pen pals in school?

Its my family history in these heart felt hand written letters that I cherish.

"shoe box of memories"

I also remember when we had Ma Bell only one telephone service and it was expensive to call long distance and even more if someone called collect!

So maybe that's why we wrote more...

take care of your self so you can take care of others ~ sunshine&rainbows

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

Julie928 — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 02:30:36 GMT

What a beautiful thread! My husband and I have a box we keep all our cards to each other in. It's nice to look back and see the different notes we've written to each other. Same with my mom and my best friend from grammar school. I save all those things. I will always send a handwritten note to the people in my life, sometimes I make my own cards. I don't know ~ I just feel good when I drop that note in the mailbox...

Thank you for sharing your story.

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

panda1234 — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 02:54:25 GMT

Pen pals in school.....no, not anymore. They hardly even teach penmanship today. So sad, another lost art.

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

sunshine&rainbows — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 05:03:57 GMT

@Julie928 wrote:
What a beautiful thread! My husband and I have a box we keep all our cards to each other in. It's nice to look back and see the different notes we've written to each other. Same with my mom and my best friend from grammar school. I save all those things. I will always send a handwritten note to the people in my life, sometimes I make my own cards. I don't know ~ I just feel good when I drop that note in the mailbox...

Thank you for sharing your story.
@Julie928

What a lovely reply.

My husband and I have also saved our letters and cards to each other.

My husband leaves me a little love note every morning on the kitchen table, when I make his lunch I also put one in his lunch tote.

It is such a lovely sentimental thing to still write to the people in your life, and to make your own cards is something I'm sure they treasure.

I agree it is a good feeling to take the time to write a letter and even more delightful to receive one.

Thank you also for sharing your story!

take care of your self so you can take care of others ~ sunshine&rainbows

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

blackhole99 — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 03:00:52 GMT

I loved letter writing, I remember my pen pal from Germany when I was a kid and writing to my boy friend when he was serving in Viet Nam. My husband and I wrote love letters to each other in the early 70's when he lived in another state, I still have those letters. When my son was serving in the national guard and was down south we wrote to each other every week. My elderly aunt still loves to send and receive cards and I have saved her cards with her handwriting. I'm sorry I didn't save any thing with my mothers hand writing. Hand writing is getting to be a lost art, they don't even teach the kids cursive writing in grade school any more.

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

panda1234 — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 03:06:49 GMT

Have to add....my friend's sister-in-law writes her 25 year old son letters periodically. The sweet thing is, this 25 year old writes her back. So old fashion, which makes it so touching.

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

AliJoi5 — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 03:34:56 GMT

First of all, what a beautiful post (and tribute). I too still have letters I will read from time-to-time. It's like replaying a favorite movie or hearing a loved one's voice as if he/she were here. Very comforting... I still write them on occasion (I'm always sure to write thank you notes anyway).

But I also have to mention a funny story, which you reminded me of when you spoke about being assigned pen pals in school. In 4th grade, we were each assigned a state to write to... the letters were then given to a random school within the state, and then passed on to a student in the same grade. I had Arizona. What a wonderful response I received from the teacher of the class and the student. They told me all about where they live - the geography, climate, culture, etc. A wonderful experience! To this day, I still have a special affinity for Arizona for that reason. Moving on... So my brother had Nebraska. He was so excited to receive a response to his little letter! What he did receive (9 years old) was a letter from the department of education that read, and I quote... "We have received your inquiry, but are too busy to answer it. Thank you for your interest." They literally wrote him a letter to tell him they were too busy to write him a letter. He still has it and, yes, he still very much holds a grudge against the entire state of Nebraska. Kills me every time!!!!!!!!!!! bah haa haa

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

sunshine&rainbows — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 05:05:06 GMT

@baker wrote:
I loved letter writing, I remember my pen pal from Germany when I was a kid and writing to my boy friend when he was serving in Viet Nam. My husband and I wrote love letters to each other in the early 70's when he lived in another state, I still have those letters. When my son was serving in the national guard and was down south we wrote to each other every week. My elderly aunt still loves to send and receive cards and I have saved her cards with her handwriting. I'm sorry I didn't save any thing with my mothers hand writing. Hand writing is getting to be a lost art, they don't even teach the kids cursive writing in grade school any more.

@blackhole99

I think my pen pal was from Italy.

That's sad the things that they do not teach kids in school now a days.

Wow I am sure your boy friend and all his friends loved reading letters from you, home that they missed, especially when they were in Vietnam, letters from home meant so much to them I am sure is something they looked forward to! And lifted there spirits.

Your son going away maybe for the first time leaving home, was probably hard and a letter from you I'm sure kept his spirits up!

I know when my 19 yr old son left home to join the Marine Corps we wrote him so many letters also.

Amazing how they got to them during the Iraq war.

Thank you for sharing your memories!

take care of your self so you can take care of others ~ sunshine&rainbows

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

sunshine&rainbows — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 03:39:46 GMT

@AliJoi5 wrote:
First of all, what a beautiful post (and tribute). I too still have letters I will read from time-to-time. It's like replaying a favorite movie or hearing a loved one's voice as if he/she were here. Very comforting... I still write them on occasion (I'm always sure to write thank you notes anyway).

But I also have to mention a funny story, which you reminded me of when you spoke about being assigned pen pals in school. In 4th grade, we were each assigned a state to write to... the letters were then given to a random school within the state, and then passed on to a student in the same grade. I had Arizona. What a wonderful response I received from the teacher of the class and the student. They told me all about where they live - the geography, climate, culture, etc. A wonderful experience! To this day, I still have a special affinity for Arizona for that reason. Moving on... So my brother had Nebraska. He was so excited to receive a response to his little letter! What he did receive (9 years old) was a letter from the department of education that read, and I quote... "We have received your inquiry, but are too busy at this time to answer it. Thank you for your interest." They literally wrote him a letter to tell him they were too busy to write him a letter. He still has it and, yes, he still very much holds a grudge against the entire state of Nebraska. Kills me every time!!!!!!!!!!! bah haa haa

You made me chuckle out loud! Not at your brother with him!

And to boot he saved it! Tell your brother about our laugh down memory lane together!

I lived in Tuscon AZ, hot, beautiful, monsoons!

Thanks for sharing too darn cute you two!

take care of your self so you can take care of others ~ sunshine&rainbows

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

AliJoi5 — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 03:51:07 GMT

@sunshine&rainbows lol! And when I tell you, he wrote the sweetest little 9 year old kiddie letter to them... "Hi! I live in Rhode Island... it is the smallest state in the union... it was founded by Roger Williams... my favorite food is rocky road ice cream..." I love to tease him!

Great thread... thanks for posting.

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

ROMARY — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 04:00:07 GMT

Somehow, somewhere in the world there are children learning and writing cursive......

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

panda1234 — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 04:06:51 GMT

@ROMARY wrote:
Somehow, somewhere in the world there are children learning and writing cursive......

Just not here. Too bad, so sad.

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

Shorty2U — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 04:16:31 GMT

What a lovely post! I could just picture in my head what you described. And I agree with you about hand written letters, they were wonderful.

I don't have any letters anymore, but I have post cards in various family members handwriting that I had saved over the years.

Also, I don't write letters anymore but for as long as the postal service exists I will forever mail birthday cards, Christmas cards, etc. Its so much more personable compared to this technology!

Also, I can tell you that children are no longer learning cursive hand writing in school, which makes me sad and mad. I taught my youngest granddaughter how to write her name in cursive because she never learned in school (she is now in middle school).

Everything for all 3 of my granddaughters school work is on Chrome electronic netbooks, children don't even have books anymore in school. My grandchildren still read real books but not in school!

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

MacDUFF — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 15:17:27 GMT

[site would not let me @mention baker or romary...too bad I can't mail this quote to them! hahahahahaha!]

Thought you might enjoy this quote...had to dig for it through pages and pages and pages of notes, postcards, thank you cards, quotes written on napkins, and hand-written letters...finally found it, but no attribution (sorry)...

"Every few months, I climb the ladder through a hatch into my attic. Over near a dusty beam, I see a gray shoebox of letters. Here's a valentine from when I was ten; a postcard from my best friend. A love letter from my college sweetheart. [...Aged paper; faded signatures....] Might take me an hour to find the letter I'm looking for, as I pause for each memory...Perhaps a future generation will save their romances [and friendships] on floppy disks*...give me a shoebox of old letters. Real mail has pretty stamps and postmarks...there's a return address, reminding me of a friend's home that I once visited. Here's a pressed flower from some faraway summer...."

Yep, a pressed flower from some long-ago memory.

*a clue as to how old this quote is and how far back I had to go to retrieve it lol!

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

AliJoi5 — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 15:24:26 GMT

Beautiful @MacDUFF!! Thank you for sharing that with us.

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

AliJoi5 — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 16:00:48 GMT

BTW, @MacDUFF, I was so interested to know where that quote came from, I ran a google search. It is an excerpt from the book Silicon Snake Oil by Clifford Stoll (1995... hence "floppy disks" lol). Thanks again for posting it!

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

MacDUFF — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 16:09:35 GMT

@AliJoi5

Oh wow Ali! Long time gone...I vaguely remember reading it, tho. I guess there's just no denying it: I am getting old. LOL!

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

AliJoi5 — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 16:25:20 GMT

lol! I was just saying the other day that it never ceases to amaze me how life's pace continues to pick up as you get older. I think we all remember when leaving your friends for summer break felt like an eternity. Now it feels like the "few" weeks that it is (which, incidentally, go by in a matter of days). lol Growing kids always make me feel most ancient, of course, and I find myself saying things to them that "old" people (who were probably 25 y/o at the time) said to me. In the words of the immortal Blanche Devereaux... kids are like noisy little calendars.

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

sunshine&rainbows — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 21:46:18 GMT

@Shorty2U wrote:
What a lovely post! I could just picture in my head what you described. And I agree with you about hand written letters, they were wonderful.

I don't have any letters anymore, but I have post cards in various family members handwriting that I had saved over the years.

Also, I don't write letters anymore but for as long as the postal service exists I will forever mail birthday cards, Christmas cards, etc. Its so much more personable compared to this technology!

Also, I can tell you that children are no longer learning cursive hand writing in school, which makes me sad and mad. I taught my youngest granddaughter how to write her name in cursive because she never learned in school (she is now in middle school).

Everything for all 3 of my granddaughters school work is on Chrome electronic netbooks, children don't even have books anymore in school. My grandchildren still read real books but not in school!

@Shorty2U

Thank you for your lovely reply.

The cards you send are something I am sure that are treasured and they look forward to.

Your granddaughters will forever have a memory of grandma teaching them to write, and read! My son have memories of his grandma teaching him arithmetic and writing

I also read to my grandson, and he colors in the coloring books and signs to grandma and gradpa and I display them. (even with the misspelling), he was disappointed, we told him it was alright, he realized it and knew the correct spelling.

I just shared an old movie with my grandson "Old Yeller".

I agree with you sending cards are more personable.

take care of your self so you can take care of others ~ sunshine&rainbows

Re: Hand written letters, my first was in grade school we were assigned pen pals

sunshine&rainbows — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 18:11:52 GMT

@MacDUFF wrote:
@sunshine&rainbows
@Julie928
@panda1234
@AliJoi5
@Shorty2U

@[site would not let me @mention baker or romary...too bad I can't mail this quote to them! hahahahahaha!]

Thought you might enjoy this quote...had to dig for it through pages and pages and pages of notes, postcards, thank you cards, quotes written on napkins, and hand-written letters...finally found it, but no attribution (sorry)...

"Every few months, I climb the ladder through a hatch into my attic. Over near a dusty beam, I see a gray shoebox of letters. Here's a valentine from when I was ten; a postcard from my best friend. A love letter from my college sweetheart. [...Aged paper; faded signatures....] Might take me an hour to find the letter I'm looking for, as I pause for each memory...Perhaps a future generation will save their romances [and friendships] on floppy disks*...give me a shoebox of old letters. Real mail has pretty stamps and postmarks...there's a return address, reminding me of a friend's home that I once visited. Here's a pressed flower from some faraway summer...."

Yep, a pressed flower from some long-ago memory.

*a clue as to how old this quote is and how far back I had to go to retrieve it lol!

@MacDUFF

What a walk down memory lane, hope you had fun looking!

You brought up memories for me, pressing a rose, a spritz of perfume on a love letter.

Remembering the old envelope's with stamps and postmarks.

Thank you for a lovely reply.

take care of your self so you can take care of others ~ sunshine&rainbows