When was the last time you wrote a letter to a friend or family member? I mean actually handwrote a letter (thank you notes not included). When was the last time you received one?
I used to be a good letter writer once upon a time. But now we've got email and texting. The handwritten letter is dead. Stamp collecting must be dying on its arse. What a tragedy.
When the work post girl goes by and there's nothing for me I always feel disappointed. When she appears with a package I'm thrilled. Hearing the sound of the post coming through the letter box at home is one of my favourite noises (alond with train doors slamming). The anticpation of what might be there is exciting. I'm sure I subscribe to so many magazines because it means I get post.
Of course once upon I'd dread. Letters from the bank that remained unopened and then binned. Leading to even more letters from the bank that bravely had to be read. Not to mention Bills, bills, bills, as Destiny's Child once sung about, always comin' thru my door. But those days have gone.
The other day I came across an old box full of letters. From parents, ex-girlfriends, college friends, school friends, even pen pals. I had a slight pen pal craze when I was about 12. I didn't really want to write to them because I could think of nothing to say of interest. But I liked getting letters from them. They'd always send gifts too. Some fox in Iceland knitted me some very scratchy gloves. I never sent gifts back.
Anyway, it was nice to see letters. It made me remember how great it is to receive them. Write to me, someone.
This has been a very dull post.
7 comments:
I know it's bad form to reply 'Me too', but that's exactly my experience too. Almost the only personal letters I've received in the last five years have been those Christmas/New Year circulars that people (mainly Americans) send, and which aren't very personal, apart from the bit where they write your name in pen at the top.
This post has encouraged me to do something I've always been meaning to do. A chap used to send me a shedload of letters, all of which I still have, when I was at college, and there's one bright pink envelope addressed to 'The Girlies' Punk Rock Academy, 136 Queens Head Road', which I always thought would look great on a T-shirt. So I'll get that done.
Letters rock.
One of my closest friends deliberately never uses email outside of work because he hates it, and as he has a young family and not much time to spend on the phone, he and I generally still stay in touch via letters, which I always really look forward to recieving. He's pretty much the only person I do still write pen-to-paper letters to, though.
I wrote a letter yesterday, it was kind of thank you letter but with other stuff too. It was written because it was originally done on the PC but the black ink had run out on the printer and I don't know how you change ink cartridges.
I hate my handwriting though, I have to write in capitals because otherwise it'd be illegible.
As long as your writing doesn't look like this, though
I'll get me coat.......
We're all lovely and old fashioned underneath it all. Banish email, bring back the art of letter writing.
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