Garry was watching an old movie, “A Letter to Three Wives.” He thought the whole concept of writing letters was kaput. No one writes letters anymore. We may dash off a note on a card, but a whole letter?
“When,” I asked Garry, “Was the last time you wrote a real letter.”
“When I wrote to you, in Israel?”
“Yup,” I said. “And the letters I wrote to you from Israel were the last personal letters I ever wrote.”
“Funny about that,” he said.
“Sure is,” I answered.
That was 1987.
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Categories: #Blogging, Humor, Personal
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I use email the way that I used to write letters. It’s more convenient and faster. I remember how I’d write a long letter to a penfriend and weeks later get an equally long reply but I’d have to remember what I said in my letter to them. With email the gaps between messages are shorter. I write the same way as I would in a letter and I think of them as letters.
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The ability to keep copies of what we sent is great. I write so much and my memory is NOT what it used to be, so I can at least refer back to what I said and not respond to the wrong letter! I actually like email. I’m sure Garry and I would have used it when I lived in Israel except it hadn’t been invented yet!
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It would have been so useful wouldn’t it. Sending a letter to the other side of the world, waiting for the person to reply and for it to come back, two weeks was a good turnaround. Usually you would wait longer.
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Hand writing? WOW! I haven’t done that in years. There was a time when I prided myself on my penmanship. I even studied calligraphy and my signature was a thing of beauty to some. It’s all gone now, I haven’t hand written a real letter for years. My attempts at it result in very sloppy scribbling, and my signature has gone to hell. Of course I rationalize the signature by labeling it “stylistic”.., in truth, it’s not even close, just laziness. I don’t even try to re-learn my former skills. This is ,of course, is not helped by modern digital signing, with a finger on some little screen at a restaurant or place of business. Everyone laughs at their signature, complaining it looks nothing like the real thing, only to be reassured that “it’s alright” by the sales person.., THIS IS VERY SCARY as anyone could sign your receipt, or anything else requiring it. So questioning whether we remember when we wrote a “REAL” letter is just the tip of the iceberg.
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I write grocery lists and discover in the store — I can’t read my OWN writing. I have to print.
Considering that most peoples’ signature are just a scrawl, I’m not sure a signature has ever been a “real” test of who signed it. That’s why our new cards don’t have room for a signature. The chip has replaced signatures.
Hell, I’m still waiting for for someone to invent a hack-proof router!
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I write letters less often but I still write them.
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I write letters in email, but pen to paper? Not really. I can make excuses, not the least of which are two really wonky wrists which, between 60 years of touch-typing and another 50 of piano, are pretty much dead in the water — but mostly, it’s knowing that email gets delivered fast and isn’t going to disappear enroute. I don’t have to go to the post office to find out how much it will cost — or wonder how many weeks it will take to get to Tasmania — if at all.
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I haven’t written a letter [outside of my historical novels] for years, Marilyn. My last one would have been in 1985 when I changed schools and left my best friend behind.
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Garry’s last one was probably in early 1987 when I knew I was coming back. Until then, for all the years I was away, we wrote. He wrote three or four time every week and I wrote whenever I was at a typewriter (remember them?) and wasn’t busy with work.
I have never seen him write a letter since I got back to the states. I write little messages on cards, but 1987 was IT.
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I still write letters, as I’m clearly one of the dinosaurs of communication
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I think about writing letters — pen to paper letters — but even when I was writing letter, I typed them. I learned to touch-type when I was 10 and I haven’t written anything more than an inscription in a book or a card since them — so that would be 64 years. I do write letter, but I write via email. Actually, I sometimes write very LONG letters and I have correspondences that have gone on for the better part of a lifetime, but not in envelopes. No stamps, no wondering if the letter actually got there or how many weeks it will take to cross the ocean. I suppose, for me, the best part of email is that it gets where it’s going without long distance mail and associated costs. AND it has a higher likelihood of actually getting read.
However, back when I was away and Garry wrote more often, it was a lifeline. I think his letters kept me sane!
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I think there’s a place for all of them –
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