For the love of letters...

What can compare to the delight of  finding a REAL letter in the mailbox?  Or even better; a lumpy and mysterious package with your name on it! The envelopes arrive wearing stamps that are like perfect little miniature works of art...and sometimes they come bearing stickers too.... some are hand written, some are typed, but all are equally welcome in my mail box.  There is just something about knowing that the envelope you hold in your hand was also held by the sender, whether they are just down the street or half way around the world, it's pretty amazing really.  In this modern, hurry up, e-mail it instantly world, there is something comforting about receiving a letter that someone took the time to send you... it may make take a little longer to arrive but it is oh so much more satisfying.   For me (and not all agree - yes, I know..) no lettter should be ripped open willy nilly.... and read standing up by the kitchen sink - or horror of horrors, walking up the drive way!  I have to be comfy and nestled on the couch with a nice cup of tea, for maximum letter enjoyment.

I have a boxes of my Grandmother's old postcards and letters.... It only cost a penny, one little cent to mail a post card... the writing is scratchy  and scrawled in real ink and sometimes even pencil... with short little messages like...."Having a good time, see  you on Saturday"  The scenes on the post cards are most likely long gone... or at least much changed in the 80 plus years since they were printed.  Some of the letters are on hotel stationary.... with lovely drawings of the hotel printed on top... Do those hotels even exist any more? She saved them all...and kept them, quite literaly for the rest of her life. Now i save them, some times i feel like the keeper of time... It is a peek into the past, and a little history lesson too - I find them fascinating...

Lately, in addition to being the lucky recipient of letters from my great Pen Friends around the globe, I have also had the opportunity to correspond with one of the orginal residents of Onion Patch Farm.  Learning from her about the "farm" and it's past just delights me beyond words!

Snail mail has always been part of my world.... As a child i had to write Thank you notes to everyone, for everything.... after every birthday....and every other gift giving occasion... I don't remember that being much fun... but it's never fun when someone is pressuring you to do something.... like your nagging parent... who's trying to make you feel guilty and see it their way.  Of course it was the right thing to do... I see that now. :)  I had pen pals growing up.... the ones you got in back of "Teen" magazine... We had nothing in common, but the thrill of getting mail was not lessened by that fact... as we grew older... we stopped writing as life changed and we moved on. When Scott moved to California, the highlight of my day was getting a letter from him.... yes, I still have them all....  And then when i moved to California the highlight of my day became receiving mail from back East. I wanted to hug every little piece of mail... knowing that my family and friends had held it too... funny how your mind changes with time and situations at hand... 

Then, the most recent chapter begins many years later, when thanks to the magic of the internet I was reintroduced to the land of pen palling and what WONDERFUL friends I have found! 

Moral of my long winded story you ask?

  I suppose it's only that I hope that Snail Mail never ceases to exist... I think it would be a sad, sad loss for the world as we know it; as well as for future generations...  

I shall endeavour to keep the wonderful postal workers the world over busy for many more years to come; as well as my favorite ( if imaginary,)  pigeon friend "J.D." the #1 Air Mail carrier for Pigeon Post!