Letter in your post box - The Dying Art of Letter Writing

Not many of us receive letters via snail mail these days, but if you're living in a country far away from friends and family, receiving a letter in your post box would be such a treat, not so!

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It may just be a piece of paper with words written on it, but knowing that your loved one wrote that letter by hand, or more likely typed it these days, is a palpable connection to that someone special; something you can touch and smell, knowing those words are just for you and that the hand that wrote it and dropped it in the mailbox, did that especially for you! Amazing the power that words have; they can uplift us but also hurt us.

Letters my Grandpa wrote to me after Granny passed away in the early 80s

We all know the excitement of receiving a surprise parcel as I did today, absolutely spoilt by my son.
A nice touch from the company supplying wonderful natural products, was a little handwritten message on the invoice.

So I've admitted it before, I'm a real sentimental fool; have kept letters from way back; still have a letter written by my Granny over thirty years ago when she had to fly to faraway France to tend to my uncle when he was ill; that letter was full of longing to be back home.

Gran also sent a postcard, like many people used to do when they were visiting exciting places.

My nephew now lives in Minneapolis, over 9 thousand kilometres away from home, and told me how he treasures letters from my Mom; keeps them all together in a special place.
He was a keen Harry Potter fan at a very young age, and wrote this endearing letter to JK Rowling about his dreams to be an actor one day - he is a pilot today however, so that dream never came true.

Mom saved some of his letters when he was a small child and of course copies of that has been added to his collection.

Mom gave me a letter my son wrote to her - telling her she's much better than other Oumas (Grannies) and thanking her for all the things, like that he could have a sleepover at her place. His impatience comes through in the way he tries to draw straight lines freehand!

LEARNING TO PRINT - DRAWING MAPS BY HAND
When I started work back in the rocking 70s as a learner draftsperson in a land surveying firm all our drawings were done by hand. Part of my training was learning to print correctly; that was the very first lesson; day in and day out printing the ABC's and the 123's till that skill was honed to perfection and I was allowed to draw my first plan. We drew with dip pens with various size nibs that had to be dipped in ink, I kid you not! Being left handed I was at a huge disadvantage as I had to always lift my hand to avoid smudging the wet ink!

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Then we advanced to refillable ink pens, later on pens with ink cartridges, all still being done by hand, but by now we were using stencils, very advanced we thought!
Of course there was much consternation when we were told we had to draw our plans on a computer; that was real madness as we all thought we could do things much faster, how wrong we were :):)

But by now many younger people entering the profession had no need to learn the art of printing by hand, so that's another skill lost to technology.

Come to think of it, do people still practice the art of calligraphy now that one can pick and choose fonts to your hearts' content and print it in no time?

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I know emailing or whatsapp is instant but it really is so impersonal, just not the same. Pick up those pens and start learning the art of writing again and see what a difference it makes to your loved ones far away!

Original Content by @lizelle
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