With the start of the new year, I am in the midst of writing a letter old school style to a dear friend. In this age of electronic mail, it is refreshing to put pen to paper on crisp, pink stationary.
My old school letter writing comes on the heels of a recent sorting and scanning session of several family letters my late, maternal-grandmother tucked away in a closet. Weathered from time (and a little acid erosion), the letters mark a time of long distant communication that left one standing at the mailbox daily, waiting for the next updates and happenings from the beloved writer. I giggle at the thankfulness of an uncle receiving a baby’s photograph that regards my recent arrival. A call to my mom to ask which photograph was mailed to the family member will be on my to do list.
"the picture of the baby was nice, and the name is too"
I miss the days of writing notes to family and friends and using snail mail as my primary communication for genealogical queries. I miss the quaintness of smelling the sweet matching stationary and envelopes complete with address labels. I miss it so much so that I now vow to reintroduce my old school letter writing to touch the eyes and hearts of friends that are electronically close but far from touch.
As I tuck my letter away, seal the envelope…hmm minty…and apply a stamp, I glance at the stack of family letters in the wait for preservation. Some of the letters will do well after I place them into archival sleeves. A few others are very fragile and require encapsulation for their longevity.
But enough of devising my preservation activities for this week, I am off to catch the mail man so this old school letter can be on its way!
Aww! That’s a great reminder. I generally only send letters to those friends who don’t have email. Maybe I need to write a few letters to my email friends as well. Thanks for the wonderful post.
That is a great idea and perhaps this will start a new movement! Thanks for visiting Devon!
Your blog is lovely! It like the idea of writing a letter now and then. It just seems so much more personal and caring!
Happy Blogiversary!!
I agree, and to think the present generation doesn’t know what they are missing since they communicate primarily through email. Thank you for visiting Betty!