Sunday, August 27, 2006

I Miss REAL Letters

I've never been much of a telephone chatter person. I use the phone for making appointments or for a short conversation with someone that lives nearby and I'm more likely to see a little more often- like Stevie who refuses to answer emails.
I know that email is a good way to keep in touch and I do use it often. When I have some quick question late at night (at my age I'm always afraid I may forget it by morning), or I don't really have much to say but just want to 'touch base' with someone. It's great when you would have to make multiple phone calls for the same message to a group or you just want to hear from someone as often as possible - like your kids. Becky was great at emailing almost everyday while she was in Nashville, Jen wasn't too bad - she usually answered about every fifth or sixth one of mine. Getting an email from Stevie was almost too good to be true. I think I've gotten maybe half a dozen emails from him ever - maybe it's a guy thing. He was always good about calling though.
But I really miss walking out to the mailbox and getting a good old fashioned letter from someone you haven't heard from in months. The closest we ever get to that anymore is from a friend of Steve's -Bill Walker - who very kindly includes me in his greetings. We usually get postcards from him - from all over the world. And I love that kind of mail and really miss it. When I was a kid we use to have penpals or I had a friend who moved away that would write for awhile. I can remember when I was at OCC the highest point in the day was checking the mailbox. Mama wrote me at least once a week and my brother Joe would write now and then. For years after high school I would often get letters from old friends or some of the new ones I had made in Oklahoma. After I was married I still had several friends and one big brother that would write now and then. I was looking through some old pictues and stuff from my younger years and I found a few letters I had kept - if I had known they were going to be a thing of the past I probably would have kept a lot more of them! Now I know what you're going to say - I should write letters to some old friends so they will write me back - I've tried that. I've either been ignored completely or they email me - which isn't bad but I really would like to find a letter in my mailbox sometimes! Well, I don't know what I think whining to those who read my blog will do - but I'm curious - do you guys get real mail or is it truly a thing of the past?
Maybe I should write a bunch of letters and see if I can start a new fad.

2 comments:

Becky said...

I miss real letters too mom... especially from friends I met at church camp. :) That was always SOOO exciting! It is very different even from when I was a kid. I do still get the occasional thank you card in the mail, which is always nice, but that's the closest I've gotten in a while. Laura used to be really good at it, and she would write her letters in all different colors, so it was very "Laura-like" :) We should all follow her example, huh?

Ed. Tritschler said...

I like mail but not sure I ever really had very much mail corrospondence going either way. Maybe because I have poor hand writing skills and even worse typing skills.I think that I did write my kids every Monday when they were in college.