I Miss Letters

I miss letters.  The kind you used to get in your mail box.  Remember those?  Nobody writes letters anymore.  Even one of my dear friends who is now almost 80, sends emails rather than letters.

I still get a few Christmas cards every year, but even those are not nearly as numerous.  Most people if they do anything at all, they will send you an “e-card”.   Somehow, it’s just not the same.

I remember the thrill when I would find a letter from a childhood friend in the mail box.  It was so exciting!  I remember, making myself wait until I could devote my undivided attention to that letter.  Then I would sit and read it several times, relishing every word.

Remember Pen Pals?  I had a few growing up.  One was a Girl Scout that I met while I lived in the Philippines.  She was a Girl Scout from that country and we stayed in touch for years.

When I first left home, at 16, my mother, grandmother and I would write letters back and forth.  Those letters were priceless to me!   It was a piece of home!  I would love to have that stack of old letters today.

My oldest brother used to have the most beautiful handwriting!  He would use one of those old-fashioned fountain pens.  His letters were a work of art.

Penmanship was important when I was a little kid.

My ex-husband and I were reminiscing recently about how we used to write letters back & forth when we first started dating.  He lived 3 hours away.  The long distance phone calls of the time were not in the budget.  So we wrote.  He asked me if I still had those letters.  Sadly, no.  During my last move, I got rid of them.

My letters as a woman or a young girl would have the typical “girly” look.  I would use different colored ink, or draw hearts in the margins.  You know the type.

One of my dear friends has terrible arthritis, so she doesn’t write very much.  She does not have a computer, so we do not exchange emails.  We talk often on the phone, but there is still something thrilling about getting that little piece of mail that is simply a hello from a friend.  So I send her the occasional letter or card for no reason.

Think about this… What if you opened your mail box today and instead of a bill or a solicitation from the local car lot, you had a letter!  A REAL letter!  The letter was from a relative you hadn’t heard from in a while or a dear friend.  The only reason this person sent that letter to you was to not only touch base with you, but to Make You Smile!

How novel would that be?!!?

I think the next time I want to send one of my brothers an email, I might just take pen to paper instead.  I bet it will sure put a smile on their face!