getting personal mail

It's just so dandy, getting personal mail. Today we got a little postcard from some loved ones. What an upper.

How are we keeping to our weekly goal of letter writing? Well, I need to get in gear, because many of our February letters are going to old friends of mine--so I need to get those letters out there!

How do you use a letter to reconnect? Well, I'll think about it while I write these letters, and I'll let you know what I find. Got thoughts? Let me know....

real life letters

Dear reader,

When I was a young man child, I started writing to church camp friends. Lo and behold, they started writing back. And I realized that a great benefit in writing and sending mail is receiving mail in turn. 20 years later, according to our new year resolutions, we are sending out more letters now, and wouldn't you know it, we're tickled to receive good old fashioned letters in our mailbox, and not just the bills.

Do we require or expect return letters when we send out mail? I do not. I think of letters as little mail treats that for now four dimes and four pennies I can get delivered anywhere in the country (and for a little more delivered anywhere in the world). I like to send them off with "no strings attached". But of course there is a string attached... a little string of love, and I like to imagine these little silky things criss-crossed around the world, weaving together a sort of fabric of human networking and interaction. I like to send them off without the need of anything in return. Now, there is a lost cultural expectation, in American culture at least, which has to do with the requirement of corresponding in turn and also with formalities such as thank yous and so on. There is some good value in this, but I'm not sure how I want to participate in reviving this custom. Especially in the matters of correspondence, which, as I stated, I like to think of as free gifts. Perhaps it is my conservative side and perhaps not, but I think correspondence customs work well in a free market, where letter exchangers are more likely to write more letters and get more letters. If one wants to get more, then one writes more. If one wants to get less, one writes less. On the other hand, I believe in a more literate and giving culture, and I do participate in this blog to inspire us all to write, so maybe I'm less "free market" than I realize....

I do like ellipses.

To close, I want to open a tag/label for envelope art. I like all forms from the simple smiley or quick exterior note, to the ornate and complex. My brother's lone star is somewhere in the middle:

Letters of Note

This is what I'm talking about: Letters of Note

I link to sites like this on the side...

Ultimately, I'd like to collect gems from you readers and host something like this for the personal everyday common wo/man.

marriage arrangement letters, by troy

I recently found this great old photo of my great-grandparents with my grampa and great-uncle. The picture touched the core of me because of the buildings around which I grew up--I can understand the very spot where the photo is taken. Also I am not familiar with photos of my great grandfather but he sure looks like my uncles. My great-grandmother I knew but as a blind nonagenarian and not as a young mom. I always see me in my grandpa even though he looks a little more like some of my cousins.

The barn in the background is going to be featured in the Becker Park going up in that area.

But is a picture really worth a thousand words?

This couple, "Will" and Minnie, met over correspondence. In the early twentieth century, Will went west to gain his fortune. Jerome, Idaho was founded in 1907 and it was around this time he was working in quarters where Minnie's sister was a cook. Maybe she hooked up a bunch of guys with a number of sisters--I don't know. But the story goes that after some mail between Idaho and Iowa, a marriage was assembled. The marriage was made. They begat him. He begat him. And he begat me.

Hmm... to see some of those letters. I owe my existence to such!

Dear Dragon...

Before there were the dear dragon kid's books of today, there was

Dear Dragon: And Other Useful Letter Forms for Young Ladies and Gentlemen Engaged in Everyday Correspondence

by Sesyle Joslin, illustrated Irene Haas

This little gem of a book from 1962 is an inspiration to letter writers. A "beguiling and practical series of letters showing [children] what to write for all kinds of occasions." Do any of you remember this, or "What Do You Say, Dear?" or others of that ilk?

Any other letter writing inspirations in print you'd like to share?

diversion: cursive writing

You gotta love the Internet. Take this for example. A guide to cursive writing. I know probably all of you have developed your writing style. But if you're into writing with flourishes or wanto brush up on cursive writing, check out these pages on the construction of cursive letters.

yeah, there's

but also

You could say I have a style, personally. It's heavy on the utility of being writable and readable. However, it also is fairly fluid, and when I write letters, hmmm, maybe I'll try some flourishes.

Write on.

the spreadsheet

So, it is easier to plan than to do. But if you plan things really well, it can really facilitate the doing. So we opened up a spreadsheet and made a list of people for the rows and months for the columns. Then we went down the list and made a sort of schedule for when we would write so and so. Now, each week we can refer to our spreadsheet and just write to those people.

Also to facilitate our writing we bought some envelopes and stamps. We really never have a shortage of paper around. If you get a piece of "scratch paper", which is just printed sheets of paper that aren't of any use but have a nice blank backside, and it has a letter on the back--that's our way of saying we love you, and here we are showing it in part by reusing paper that would otherwise be trash. Unfortunately are stamps aren't here yet (we bought them online), so some of you may have already received envelopes with a nice official postmark on them.

The kids like drawing pictures or coloring, so that part is easy.

So we just need to write letters, stuff the goods in the envelopes, address the envelopes, and send them off!