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Ben2World 
Group: Members
Posts: 23917
Joined: Jun. 2005
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 12:06 pm |
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The elimination of Saturday mail delivery got me thinking about when was the last time I got a real letter from someone. And by real letter, I am excluding 'thank you' notes, cards and postcards.
I believe the last real letter I got was back in 2011 -- a letter from a traveler I met -- a Vietnam War vet who didn't use a computer! And prior to that... probably a more than a few years ago!
My hunch is that folks are writing a lot less both because of the internet and because long distance phone rates have come down a lot, compared to twenty or thirty years ago. I imagine no one here rushes to the phone anymore because it's a 'long distance' call.
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The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page. -- St. Augustine
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| Post Number: 2
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desert dweller
Greetings
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Posts: 8859
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 12:12 pm |
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Last week I actually found the last letter I got. It was from an ex-bartender/waitress that moved away for a while. She sent me the letter because I was a good listener as she talked about her dad and issues with him. The letter was about her attempts to reconcile with herself what she was going to do. It was hand-written and mailed about 11 years ago.
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Seek Higher Ground
Can you feel the silence
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| Post Number: 3
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Echo
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Posts: 6380
Joined: May 2008
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 12:17 pm |
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This is one I'm outside any norms on. I've always been an avid letter writer as are the older aunts and uncles and my Mom. Also one of the funnest projects I participate in is post crossing.com which is a postcard well, not exactly exchange because you don't get one from someone that you send to, but you send a postcard and when someone registers that they got it, your address is given to someone somewhere else in the world and you never know where they will be coming from. Very fun to share with my students.
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If Light is in your heart, you will find your way Home. (Rumi)
The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water, but to walk on the earth. Chinese proverb
http://echo-echosvoice.blogspot.com/
http://duffybarkley.blogspot.com/
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| Post Number: 4
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Ben2World
Group: Members
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Joined: Jun. 2005
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 12:19 pm |
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DD:
What do you mean by 'found'? You dug up a letter written and received 11 years ago? Or you just now received a letter written and mailed 11 years ago? I suspect the latter, but can't tell for sure.
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The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page. -- St. Augustine
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| Post Number: 5
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no_granola
minor deity
Group: Members
Posts: 12566
Joined: Dec. 2004
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 12:30 pm |
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1996 when i lived in Ames, IA. My roommate was always amazed that I would get care packages from multiple women. Said packages most often contained baked goods and hand-written letters at the minimum, but sometimes also included photos from recent events and other odds and ends.
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The difference between people who think for themselves and those that follow the herd is that thinking people aren't afraid of reality.
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JRinGeorgia
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Joined: Jul. 2012
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 12:31 pm |
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A few letters from my daughter from overnight camp last summer. And even for those she probably was forced to write them by the counselors.
She isn't even learning to write cursive in school, letter-writing is destined to become a lost art.
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- JRinGeorgia
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| Post Number: 7
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ol-zeke
me in the Tetons
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 12:54 pm |
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I got one just last month, but I cannot recall the one prior to that. Since you have chosen to ignore Thank You notes, even hand written ones, I probably receive a letter less than once every 5 years.
Of course, that excludes the letters I get from various financial companies explaining their fiscal year end liquidity. Pension funds are fond of that.
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Everything I know, I learned by doing it wrong at least twice.
The easiest way to ruin a Friday is to realize it is only Tuesday.
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| Post Number: 9
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QCHIKER
Group: Members
Posts: 1728
Joined: Oct. 2009
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 1:04 pm |
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If you are not talking about the traditional letter of what's been happing with our family with a Christmas card thens it's been ages. I think the last one was maybe 5 yrs ago or more. Probably more like 10 in fact. I usually just talk to people and family on the phone.
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| Post Number: 11
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Marmotstew
Group: Members
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 1:15 pm |
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Probably like late nineties or earlier. I also stopped writing checks at the store and putting leeches on me for a cold.
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I'd rather be Facebooking watching videos of cats licking themselves
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| Post Number: 13
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llamapacker
Group: Members
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 1:19 pm |
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Around Christmas I write letters to a couple of friends. One never writes back, he calls, but the lady we bought our home from 16 years ago used to reply. I haven't heard from her this year and it concerns me because of her age and problems with diabetes. Receiving a letter feels warm and fuzzy in a nostalgic way, but phones or social media are better for communicating. I like hearing a persons voice.
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| Post Number: 14
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hikerjer
Group: Members
Posts: 9144
Joined: Apr. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 1:50 pm |
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If you don't count birthday or Christmas cards, it' been a least 6 months. About that time my 80 year old anunt sent me a letter. I'm still not sure why.
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"Too often I have met men who boast only of how many miles they've traveled and not of what they've seen." - Louis L'Amour
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| Post Number: 16
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RebeccaD
Double Arch, Arches N.P.
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 2:24 pm |
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If you don't count get-well cards and the letters that come in Xmas cards, its been eons. But this thread is making me want to sit down and write a real letter to someone.
And Ben, although I never succeeded in learning cursive in any meaningful way (and yes, I'm old enough that they tried, and it counted against me until I learned to type), I do not print in all caps. I print in a mix of upper and lower case and, the more I write longhand (doing a lot of my rough drafts that way these days), the more I mix in what cursive comes smoothly. Ever notice that letters like "r" and "b" in cursive are harder to write than they are in printing?
But I'll be the first to admit that no one but me could read those rough drafts (encryption!) and my handwriting is worse than that of the average 3rd grader.
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Bits of writerly thoughts and random short fiction found at
The Ninja Librarian Blog
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| Post Number: 17
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GoBlueHiker
Obsessive Island Hopper...
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Posts: 14069
Joined: Jul. 2006
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 2:58 pm |
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I got a letter from a WWII vet (10th Mountain Division) about a year ago. I still have it around here somewhere.
I was giving a talk in Estes Park, CO about my trips on Baranof Island, Alaska, and among other things I'd displayed an old pair of antique steel crampons I'd found in the mountains up there. This vet wrote me a letter afterward, explaining how those were exactly like the ones he was issued, that there were likely a lot of them in the region after the war (surplus stores, etc), and that he was pretty sure it was something from that period. Upon further research, he was right.
I wrote him a letter back thanking him for the message. It was a very neat thing.
- Mike
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Wealth needs more. Happiness needs less. Simplify.
www.RainForestTreks.com
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| Post Number: 18
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Chuck D
Group: Members
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 3:00 pm |
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Do restraining orders count as letters?
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Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,
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| Post Number: 19
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Echo
Group: Members
Posts: 6380
Joined: May 2008
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 3:03 pm |
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The letter I have that I found in a 1923 physics textbook belonging to my grandma, delights me to this day, her older brother had been skipping school to swim in the irrigation canal in their farm community in northern Illinois. The principal had heard about it from people who had seen my great-uncle, and had sent a note home with one of the siblings requesting a parent meeting, when he didn't hear back, he mailed a handwritten letter with no return address. Somehow my grandma ended up using it as a bookmark so I wonder if my great grandfather had ever actually gotten it.
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If Light is in your heart, you will find your way Home. (Rumi)
The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water, but to walk on the earth. Chinese proverb
http://echo-echosvoice.blogspot.com/
http://duffybarkley.blogspot.com/
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tarol
Well I never!
Group: Members
Posts: 10298
Joined: Mar. 2003
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 3:27 pm |
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Oooops, didn't read your whole message. A real letter separate from a card? Probably 2003, I was dating a guy who wrote me wonderful love letters (and vice versa).
I did receive several nice handwritten letters inside cards this Christmas.
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Got elevation? www.tarol.com
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| Post Number: 22
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JimInMD
Group: Members
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 3:28 pm |
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I have two young nieces in Maryland and a young nephew in Texas. About a year ago, I decided that receiving letters was a great joy as a child, so I would write them each a letter every month and maybe one day they'd write back. Within a day or two of receipt, both families had called me to say that it was nice, but it would be easier on the parents if I'd just call. Thus ended that project...
My cursive has never been legible and the Coast Guard and police department both preferred capital block letters if I couldn't type something. My signature is just a scrawl that I'm familiar with by now.
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Checking out for a while, find me on FB.
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| Post Number: 23
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Firedancer
Colorado Dreamin'
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 3:51 pm |
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My grandma and I corresponded by letter until she passed in 2002, then her sister and I would exchange a couple of letters per year until she passed last year.
On my last rafting trip, I met a wonderful older lady who just doesn't do email, so we've corresponded a few times through snail mail.
I love to get mail, and still send handwritten Christmas cards, birthday cards and thank you letters. I even still buy notecards here and there, which largely go unused.
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The future is no place to place your better days.
Dave Matthews
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| Post Number: 24
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reubenstump
Los Cuernos
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 6:21 pm |
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I recently wrote one to my as-yet unborn grandson, Raspberry. Typed on a computer, but signed by hand.
As far as receiving, it's really only from my mom and mother-in-law in the form of cards on holidays.
However, several years ago when my youngest daughter was in college, I received a very nice 100% handwritten letter from another parent thanking me for some things I had done. I was very aware that it was 100% handwritten.
It's a dying art. I blame it on NAND gates, silicon, and their ilk.
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| Post Number: 25
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ImmortalBen
Group: Members
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 8:41 pm |
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It has been a loooooong time. I am OK with that.
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Don't protect yourself to death.
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| Post Number: 26
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CajunHiker
Carnival Time!
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 10:29 pm |
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I have a friend that only corresponds via mail, and we each send 2 or 3 letters per year, usually when some random event occurs that we need to talk about. We used to talk a lot before he retired and left civilization behind. 
I always send post cards from trips. And I also keep packs of note cards and a (paper) address file on my desk; I work near the post office, so writing a note to someone (though usually a thank you note of sorts) gives me an excuse for a quick walk to the mail box on my break.
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"Mardi Gras is the love of life. It is the harmonic convergence of our food, our music, our creativity, our eccentricity, our neighborhoods, and our joy of living. All at once." - Chris Rose
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| Post Number: 27
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swimswithtrout
Group: Members
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Joined: Jan. 2005
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 11:03 pm |
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Incomplete Poll !
You left out today !!!!
I didn't vote
I'm ignoring your comments about post cards, photo's etc, since most of my family always includes at least a small to very large hand written note on everything they send.
I just received a nice photo of my my 2 month old Grand daughter today with 3 paragraphs of hand written messages.
Yes it was ink, minor spelling problems, but it's the thought that counts !
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Want to see The Wind River Range in widescreen 1080p ?
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| Post Number: 28
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Ben2World
Group: Members
Posts: 23917
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Posted on: Feb. 06 2013, 11:15 pm |
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I am actually surprised by the number of people still receiving handwritten letters.
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The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page. -- St. Augustine
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| Post Number: 29
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trailweaver
Group: Members
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Posted on: Feb. 07 2013, 1:54 am |
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You did leave out "today" in the poll. I am also a letter writer, and have always, always loved sending and receiving mail. I make it a point to have "good" stationery - cards, paper with matching envelopes, special stamps for birthdays, etc., and try to match the cards with the kind of person I'm writing.
It does take more "effort" on the part of the writer, but a person who receives a letter has something they can hold in their hand, read, read aloud to someone else, re-read a week (or several years) later, and put into a book to use as a bookmark. (Or blackmail a brother with.)
I treasure certain letters I've received from people now lost to me through relationship changes, moving, or death. I have saved sweet letters from relatives and old boyfriends. It does make me "warm and fuzzy" to read them occasionally.
And my daughter will one day find the stash of letters "to and from" me and her father when he was away at law school. I hope she loves them as much as I do.
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| Post Number: 30
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Roscue2
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Posted on: Feb. 07 2013, 2:49 am |
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My cousin and I attempted to mail each others letters for a few months, but it did not last long. That was over 5 years ago. Nowadays I still write thank you and xmas letters, but other than that the only people I write to on occasion are 3 members from the Tennessee Trails Association that I used to hike with. I wrote them each Christmas letters, but I haven't heard back from them. I could easily find their phone numbers through the internet and call them, but haven't in the 2+ years since I moved away.
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Survival Skills 101 • Eat Better
