Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Letters

We often hear it said 'He is a person of letters' meaning he is of an intellectual persuasion. 
 
But ... there are those other people of letters who literally write letters regularly, to family, to friends, to acquaintances, letters of complaint, thank you letters, and letters of apology.  To me folk who put pen to paper, or in the modern idiom, fingers on keyboard and print out [which is eminently more readable in many cases] are the true people of letters.
 
Sadly people of letters are becoming a rarer breed.  Although the Internet offers several ways of communication much is fly-by-night; fluffy and following the thoughts of the millions of that moment.  Some, thankfully, is interesting and well worth sitting down to read and appreciate.
 
As a child I liked to write letters; more importantly I loved to receive letters, and it soon became evident that to receive a letter one had to first write one, or at least reply.  Aunts and Uncles became my main targets as they were as thrilled to receive my scribbles as I was to receive their replies.    Thus a lifetime of letter writing was nurtured.
 
When my parents departed this world I took it upon myself to become the 'family correspondent'; after all my only brother had left pen and paper behind upon completing his school days, though [said in a whisper] when he was courting he did write letters.  Those letters were composed at the kitchen table with a lot of input from myself and our parents.  To this day I am sure the recipient was not aware of how public his letters were. 
 
Elderly relatives died and my list of correspondents faltered.
 
Then I discovered pen-pals!  People from across the ocean wishing to correspond with folk of like minds.  By this stage a portable typewriter became my main tool of keeping in touch, and on a Saturday afternoon with the children either in bed, or at the swimming pool, and husband occupied in his shed, or in the garden, the kitchen table took on the appearance of an office.  The number of pen-pals altered as other activities captured their attention more than writing. 
 
Many of those letters had small booklets enclosed and these little treasures held the names and addresses of other pen-pals wanting to increase their circle of friends.  Fun!  Did I want a pal in this particular country or would I prefer one there?  All the time the cost of stamps was kept forefront; after all the grocery money had to be adjusted to fit in overseas postage.
 
Letters passed to and fro; photos of children; snippets of a life lived in another country added to the tapestry of my life.
 
Time marches on; the Internet arrived, and slowly, one by one many of those letter writers fell by the wayside and emails were exchanged.  Emails that were jokes, or fripperies; not letters that could be read and re-read.
 
But, some of us keep up the old tradition of letter writing [or letter typing and printing out, complete with photos] and today I have just written two such letters.  Page upon page of what I hope the recipient at the other end will find interesting. 
 
I do wonder how, in say 100 years, people will communicate?  Will mail be delivered into mailboxes?  Will pen and paper, or typewriter and printer be  normal, or will everyone send a text ... minus the vowels?

3 comments:

  1. I'm afraid my former love of letter-writing has greatly lessened over the years with the advent of email, Shirley. As a child I had a number of pen-friends, but now I'm in touch with only one of them. My writing energies have been channelled into my blog, which friends do seem to appreciate. It's a great shame in so many ways as letters have historically been one of the great sources of information and insight into people's lives and thoughts. I'n not sure what future historians and biographers will do for source material.

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  2. as a child i had more confidence in my english so i had some pen freinds, now i forgot so many words and the spelling is also a problem so i dont write letters. but i do enjoy comunicating in short lines with people i like:)

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  3. I love receiving letters and cards. I try to write letters to encourage people I know who need it. This is a thought provoking article!

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