Pen pals?
- Thread starter Alby
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I'm actually sending out a handwritten letter this week.
I've written letters since I was about 9 years old. I think stamps were about 20 cents back then, and I used to spend most of my allowances on stamps as I got older.
It's crazy to me that stamps are now 50 cents! I correspond fairly frequently, so that would really add up if I didn't take shameless advantage of the internet.
I can also type a bit faster than I handwrite. My friends also tease me that when I text, it's in chapters, not abbreviations, but that's just how I've always written.
Every now and then however, it's very therapeutic to break out the good stationery and write out a good old-fashioned pen and paper snail mail.
I can type pretty fast too (IT field so lots of practice!) and some tell me to slow down lol
Good old fashioned stationary like hello kitty
I wonder if they have Star Wars stationary
I would rather window show through a Papyrus paper goods store than a jewelry store or shoe store. It has about the same effect on me, but I try to exert self-control.
Does anyone else have secret things they've wanted ever since they were a kid?
One of mine was to have a collection of wax seals that expressed something about my life or personality, along with a collection of brightly-colored sealing waxes to finish off the back of envelopes.
I've looked online for years... but haven't really found anything I like. (I've also heard the seals just get ripped off in the mechanized mail-sorter or will cost a bit more to send.) Sadness.
You betcha!
When I was growing up, my family didn't have much money, so one of my favorite things was going to stores like Woolworth (does anyone else remember Woolworth's Dime Stores...) and buying tablets of stationery with cool designs or characters (at the time, Garfield was my favorite.)
Hello Kitty stationery was only sold at fancy stores in the big cities (this was way before the internet) and cost a bundle of money.
Now that I'm grown up and work to earn my own way... I make the big splurge and pick up $8 pack of Hello Kitty paper now and then, but only to use on letters for my most treasured friends and family.
I love this! Snail mail is my favorite. I have Hello Kitty stationary, a childhood friend of mine sent it to me. I only use it one rare occasions.
if you seal the letter, rather than the envelope, the wax will be protected inside during delivery
I wonder if they have Star Wars stationary
With all the clip-art that's available now days, I would imagine it might be easy to design your own?
(I should try it out myself as well.)Writing a letter is really an artistic process.
I love picking out a paper design with just the right mood or decor that might make the person smile, choosing ink colors that will complement the paper and motifs, selecting a stamp that goes with the theme, and, if I have time (and any creative gumption left), decorating the envelope. A letter to someone is really a quiet gift of someone's thoughts, personality, and time.
if you seal the letter, rather than the envelope, the wax will be protected inside during delivery
But, but...
Then all the people who handle/see the letter as it travels on its way won't be envious that such a beautiful little work of art is going to someone else.
After all, isn't a big reason why someone would go through all the trouble?
With all the clip-art that's available now days, I would imagine it might be easy to design your own?
Writing a letter is really an artistic process.
A letter to someone is really a quiet gift of someone's thoughts, personality, and time.
I do remember a friend of mine from SC sent me a surprise hand written letter... when I read it I thought how sweet of her! I sent one back but that was the end of hand written letters lol
I'm actually sending out a handwritten letter this week.
I've written letters since I was about 9 years old. I think stamps were about 20 cents back then, and I used to spend most of my allowances on stamps as I got older.
It's crazy to me that stamps are now 50 cents! I correspond fairly frequently, so that would really add up if I didn't take shameless advantage of the internet.
I can also type a bit faster than I handwrite. My friends also tease me that when I text, it's in chapters, not abbreviations
Every now and then however, it's very therapeutic to break out the good stationery and write out a good old-fashioned pen and paper snail mail.
i can handwrite much faster than i type. i never learned to write in cursive, tho, so i write in an odd manuscript scribble wherein i've formed my own kind of cursive, joining adjacent letters to each other in the kind of haste one develops when trying to furiously copy notes from a chalkboard that is about to be erased and refilled with more notes to also be copied - all the while adding marginal notes to try to explain to yourself what all this scribbling means, later.
the post office used to have a machine open 24 hours that you could buy stamps with, which only dispensed change in coins, not bills. that meant, if you put in a $5 and bought less than a dollar in stamps, you got 4 dollar-coins back. i got a big kick out of carrying a sack of golden Sacagawea's instead of a wallet full of paper. so i would amass piles of 1-penny stamps, and when i wrote letters, cover a side of the envelope with them.
sadly there's not enough real-estate on a standard envelope for the amount of penny-stamps one needs, these days - and ((at least where i am located)) no more stamp-machine dispensing change in my imagined facsimile of gold doubloons.
this whole thread is painfully reminding me that i should send my mom a letter
for which -- my sincere thanks @Alby for the conviction!
But, but...
Then all the people who handle/see the letter as it travels on its way won't be envious that such a beautiful little work of art is going to someone else.
After all, isn't a big reason why someone would go through all the trouble?
I'm joking about this, but there is a bit of truth to it.
Along with friends and family, I also used to write prison inmates, and they used to tell me that if they looked down the block and could see letters I'd sent no matter how big the piles of mail were, because they were the only flashes of color, and they told me that color was something that made them feel more human.
I also used to love trying to find a way to work around some of the prison regulations regarding letters. I understand and respect that they were in place for a reason, but once the inmates told me how much color and things from the outside world affected them, I really tried to make sure my letters incorporated that.
Some places didn't allow stickers, so I would use colored markers and stencils instead to create designs (sadly, I have no natural artistic abilities.) Another place didn't allow postcards unless they had writing on them, so I would send a "letter" written across 10 postcards, as if the postcards were the pages.
Ah. The good old days.
i can handwrite much faster than i type. i never learned to write in cursive, tho, so i write in an odd manuscript scribble wherein i've formed my own kind of cursive, joining adjacent letters to each other in the kind of haste one develops when trying to furiously copy notes from a chalkboard that is about to be erased and refilled with more notes to also be copied - all the while adding marginal notes to try to explain to yourself what all this scribbling means, later.
the post office used to have a machine open 24 hours that you could buy stamps with, which only dispensed change in coins, not bills. that meant, if you put in a $5 and bought less than a dollar in stamps, you got 4 dollar-coins back. i got a big kick out of carrying a sack of golden Sacagawea's instead of a wallet full of paper. so i would amass piles of 1-penny stamps, and when i wrote letters, cover a side of the envelope with them.
sadly there's not enough real-estate on a standard envelope for the amount of penny-stamps one needs, these days - and ((at least where i am located)) no more stamp-machine dispensing change in my imagined facsimile of gold doubloons.
this whole thread is painfully reminding me that i should send my mom a letter
for which -- my sincere thanks @Alby for the conviction!
Have you ever considered the username PostOffice instead of PostHuman?
Post, I think you are my brother from another mother.
Not too long ago, I sent packages to friends and absolutely COVERED one or two sides of the boxes with all kinds of stamps.
For any of our friends outside the USA, here in the US we have "forever" stamps that you can buy and they are supposed to alway be valid at whatever the current 1st class letter rate is. Sometimes when I have a few spare dollars, I load up on "forever" stamps because my reasoning is, I can use them to mail packages in the future and I'll have paid a lower price -- a regular stamp right now is 50 cents but when it jumps to say, 55 cents, the 50-cent forever stamp will now technically be worth 55 cents.
Have I ever mentioned I'm horribly cheap at times.
But hey, when I was sending out a packages that cost $22 each to mail... Every little bit helps!
However, I must admit that this strategy generally does NOT help one make friends with the local postal employees.
(To make it more convenient for them, I always go in with a count and calculation of how much postage I have on the box. I always under-estimate so that I just have to pay a little extra but don't waste stamps.) They still have to re-count and re-calculate, of course, but it seems to at least take the edge off checking a box with 50 stamps on it just a little.
I'm such a sucker for handwritten letters and cards. I still send out cards any time I possibly can and include a hand-written blurb inside. I'm extremely excited for Christmas cards to arrive so I can get a jump on it this year.
And now I'm really curious...
For Alby and anyone who writes letters... How did you get your start?
(Alby, I know you explained about writing to the Amish, but did anything else get you started with writing/receiving letters as well?)
For Alby and anyone who writes letters... How did you get your start?
(Alby, I know you explained about writing to the Amish, but did anything else get you started with writing/receiving letters as well?)
I'm such a sucker for handwritten letters and cards. I still send out cards any time I possibly can and include a hand-written blurb inside. I'm extremely excited for Christmas cards to arrive so I can get a jump on it this year.
It's so cool to read about someone else who gets excited over sending out handwritten Christmas cards, too!
Welcome to CC and God bless you.
When I was in elementary school, we had actual Pen Pals in another participating classroom in another state that we were matched with. Our letter writing was part of our writing curriculum but it made it fun and more engaging for us. My Pen Pal made Corpus Cristi, TX sound absolutely beautiful and sparked my interest in traveling.