Sunday, March 24, 2013

Personal Letter Writing.

     I am a regular listener to Vinyl Cafe which is a CBC radio program which I get every Sunday at noon. It consists of music and stories. They travel and do shows on the road. Usually they have a theme for the program and today's theme was letters. So all the music and stories were about letters. The story was about the host writing letters and then getting interested in stamp collecting. It's surprising all the music you can find about letters.

     This got me thinking about my personal letter writing. First of all, personal letter writing, where a letter is written by hand and sent through the mail is almost extinct. I started to think about the last time I wrote a personal letter and I couldn't remember the last time I wrote a letter.

   I do remember when I did write letters on a regular basis . I also received letters regularly. As a child I wrote letters to my friends and Grandma. My letter writing hey day was when I first left home. I usually wrote home once a week. I used a fountain pen and unlined writing paper...the kind you put lines under so you could write in a straight line. I think the postage was four cents. We don't even have a penny anymore! I would put dear Mom and Dad on the greeting but in my head I was writing to Mom. I thought of Mom because she was the one who always wrote back to me. 

    So I wrote letters home for nine years after I left home. Why did I stop? I got married and somebody else took over the letter writing. 

    Letter writing today has become quite rare. Long distance phoning has become much more comparable in price to sending a letter in the postal system. Phoning is much more immediate. Email is also super fast and efficient. Now texting has become almost continuous.

    Now I would say that I am an elder in the blogging world. I think I'm older at 73 than all my followers as well as the people I follow. So most of my readers will probably be pretty hazy about personal letter writing! Writing was an excellent form of communication at the time but modern technology has given us easier and faster more direct contact.

    Just out of curiosity, does anybody out there write personal letters?

31 comments:

  1. i still send a few - very few. when my mother was alive, i wrote to her at least once a week - sometimes more. i send christmas cards/letters sometimes to my siblings and closest friends. but that's about it. i'd much rather email than call. and if email's not available, then i'll write the old fashioned way.

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    1. Well, I'm surprised that I found somebody who is still involved with writing letters!

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  2. I used to write letters. I have a box in the attic somewhere of all the letters from friend while I was in high school and college. I don't write like that anymore - it's mostly phone calls, text messages, and email.

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    1. Keep those letters they will be awesome. I think only one of my letters survives. I wrote it in 1963 to my little brother who was 9 or 10. He still has it.

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  3. I just "wrote" one this week. I used the computer and typed it, because my hands are getting clumsy with arthritis, and I'm needing spell check more and more since I type almost everything. So does that count? It was a personal letter, hand signed and hand addressed. I wrote letters to my mother until she passed and year and a half ago. She had trouble hearing on the phone and had not computer/email.
    I still send cards in the mail too.

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    1. I was being rather selective to say "hand written" sure personal letters are typed. Emails are certainly personal but not mailed the old fashioned way. My wife's Mom passed away last year and that's the only letter we used to receive through the mail.

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  4. I know what you're saying Red. I do remember how important receiving a letter or post card was at one time. Then phones took over almost exclusively. I see email and even texting as a means of getting back to letter writing again.. at least getting back to the written/typed word as opposed to phone calls. They're as immediate as we chose but less insistent for an immediate response like a phone call is. I'd still prefer to chat on the phone though. ;) I know some folks who have exchanged hand written letters just because. Not a bad idea.

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    1. The letter in paper physical as you can touch it etc. I don't think it's any more permanent than other forms except for phone calls.

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  5. Yes, I write to my mother and a couple of other elderly people who do not have access and are far too old, plus they don't approve, of this modern e-mail stuff, I think "Face book and Twitter" are for the moronic, can come back with dire consequences.
    They all enjoy letter writing. The young ones of todays Education systems, be it Australia, Canada, the US, France etc.
    Cannot put a sentence together, the spelling is atrocious. They grip pens like machetes - I see them making notes going off to
    schools and the universities on the trains. I actually feel sorry for the pens.
    I used to send B/day cards to nephews and nieces - no more. They, all have highly paid positions, never a reply,
    never a thank you. I gave up about 3 years ago. Every now and then ( rarely) I will get an e-mail, riddled with spelling
    mistakes. Most times I have not a clue what they are on about with this "new mumbo jumbo lingo"!

    My dear old Mother, now 91, still writes a couple of times a year, mostly communicates by the telephone.
    She can no longer type. Arthritis!

    Well that is my say. And I will not budge on this one. So Be It - or is that now "sobeit". Looks like a fancy sorbet?

    Cheers
    Colin (Brisbane. Australia)
    Weather here: More havoc storms predicted and SOON.

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    1. Well, Colin, I hate to rain on your party and mess up one of your good rants. Old folks spelling , sentence forming is not that good either. I see all kinds of things written by older people and some of it is of very poor quality. I know some of the older people do well but not all. Now I know that the kids have some very poor language skills.

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  6. My first letters were to grandparents every week, but it cost 4 cents.I email except at Xmas, with a printed letter.

    The radio program sounds fun. I used to listen to CBS Radio Mystery Theater a lot.

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    1. I do lots of emails. I have one friend who doesn't have a computer and I write to her.

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  7. It must be thirty years since I last wrote letters regularly.
    I actually prefer e-mail but detest Face Book and the other networking sites. The nearest I get is blogging.

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    1. I spend some time on face book and twitter. Sometimes there's a lot of second hand junk on face book.

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  8. I still write them from time to time, although I'm more likely to send an email these days. I do send postcards quite a lot when I'm on the road - it's a thrill to receive them, so I just assume everyone else thinks the same way!! I guess they're like the 'tweets' of today - it's a real art to saying what you want to say when the space is limited!

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    1. I just got a post card the other day and it was quite a thrill, but I only get one or two a year.

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  9. No, it is a good long time since I wrote anything other than business letters. I do still send postcards on a regular basis however - it is my version of Facebook, and there is something far more satisfying about having a real postcard with real writing dropping through the letterbox than a post appearing in your digital inbox.

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    1. What I'm beginning to see with the comments is that us guys have stopped the letter writing. Most of the gals still write some letters.

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  10. I never write longhand letters any more. But I have a drawer full of mementos, and many of them are handwritten letters I received long ago. These days I text or email. When for some reason I have to write something down, like in a card I'm sending, my handwriting looks all funny from disuse. :-)

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    1. It's kind of interesting to see how our handwriting changes over time.

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  11. I NEVER write personal letters anymore. I do still hand-write thank you notes to thank people for Christmas gifts, Birthday gifts, etc, even if it's family right here in town. I've taught my daughter to do the same.

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    1. It's pretty classy to hand write thank yous and you probably hand write sympathy notes too.

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  12. I sent out three letters after Christmas, and got no replies! I used to and still do, love to get handwritten mail!

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    1. Personal letters received in the mail has really dried up. I get maybe one or two a year.

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  13. I love an old-fashioned letter, but even I don't write like I used too. Good post, Redd!

    Linda
    http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
    http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com

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    1. Letters were and are enjoyable to get, but I think we've all gone on to new technology.

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  14. But when my father died his 6 children split the letters that his mother, my grandmother wrote him. The ones I got are very special to me. Phone calls and emails will not be handed down to later generations. When I go out of town, I always buy postcards for my grandchildren and write silly things on them unusually about made-up events that kids would like. But I don't write letters. Good post, Red.

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  15. Hi Red, I have a long time friend that has ALS..I write to her..monthly...sometimes more than that. I suppose when she dies the letters will be returned. I also write to friends in Oklahoma. neither have computers...so if I want to communicate with them I must write a letter. Getting them in return is wonderful. The gal with ALS can hardly hold a pen anymore..sad.
    I send lots of cards..homemade ones...I wrote to my Granddaughter the other day.
    I know I am an old fashioned gal:)

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  16. At one time I loved writing letters. Before email and cell phones it was the way to communicate. Going to the mailbox to see if there was anything for you was a joy.
    In college I wrote to my Mom and Grandma and a girlfriend who went to a different college. I'm thankful that there wasn't cell phones and computers back then or I wouldn't have this little stack of letters from my now husband that I treasure. He would have been too lazy to write if he had had easier ways to communicate.
    I still send cards for every occasion to family and friends and special letters to my Granddaughters. They love getting mail so while they are little and don't know about email it's a pleasure to make them happy.

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  17. Great topic! I love Vinyl Cafe, too.

    I did a lot of letter writing. I wrote to mom everyweek when she was at the cottage. I wrote regularly to my grandchildren, too, when we were in Muskoka. I always do handwritten notes, too!

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  18. I do occasionally, but it's pretty rare. When I was a teenage, I had a lot of penpals all over the world, and I have always loved writing and receiving letters. One of my friends, who lives in Maryland, started out as a penpal when I was 16. But we are true friends now. She was a bridesmaid at my wedding, we visit each other regular, and I'm involved in her kids's lives. We've been friends for 33 years now!

    I really miss that little thrill of finding a letter in my mailbox. I also miss the slower pace of letter writing, as compared to email, It used to be I could take my time over a response, sit at my desk for a while, and compose a letter. Now everyone seems to expect emails to be answered instantly. I find writing emails far less satisfying than writing letters, but email does have other advantages.

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