Letter Writing
When was the last
time you wrote a letter?
Please note typing
and sending an email is not the same as writing with a ballpoint pen, filled
with blue ink, on a plain sheet of paper.
In an age
like ours, which is not given to letter-writing, we forget what an important
part it used to play in people's lives. ~Anatole Broyard
Tonight it was
raining and I was eating dinner or was it supper (Supper is the last meal of
the day, right?? But what about those
snacks I might eat at midnight?) I was watching reruns of The Newsroom on
television. There were four deer outside
my window eating the field corn I put out so my time was divided between
looking out the window, watching the show and trying to write when I decided I
would complete a few e-mails I had waiting for me. It occurred to me that I never write letters
to anyone anymore. I am lucky if I get
the chance to answer a few emails every now and then. Come to think if it, over the years I have
never really been a letter writer. I
guess I should thank the person who came up with e-mails.
I remember back to
my youth where the family gathered around after a sit down dinner every night
and we would talk briefly about our day (family time together) and if there was
a letter in the mail we would sit and listen as it was read aloud by my daddy
or mama. The scene might be where a
relative or friend writes a letter to the family and daddy is reading it aloud. This always amused me back then as all of my family
members were listening intently and so was my mama.
I found this hilarious, not sure why, but I did and I pointed this to my mama during my recent visit, "Hahaaa . . . they are still writing letters, can't they just use the phone or the internet". I shake my head . . . I was still in my "Ping you've got mail" mode.
While we were talking my mama had this "far off" look and says "Hmm . . . I remember when I was newly married, I used to write home regularly and you know all my friends and neighbors would gather around my brother as he read it aloud. I would always make it a point to include everyone's name in it."
Mama was born and brought up in the South and had moved to downtownAtlanta after marrying my
dad. She was always writing to people
almost everyday. Some were to family and
others to friends. She also wrote
letters for all of our school activities as she was president for the PTA. I always wondered what she wrote in those
letters.
I found this hilarious, not sure why, but I did and I pointed this to my mama during my recent visit, "Hahaaa . . . they are still writing letters, can't they just use the phone or the internet". I shake my head . . . I was still in my "
While we were talking my mama had this "far off" look and says "Hmm . . . I remember when I was newly married, I used to write home regularly and you know all my friends and neighbors would gather around my brother as he read it aloud. I would always make it a point to include everyone's name in it."
Mama was born and brought up in the South and had moved to downtown
This was in the 1950’s.
Maybe something in the lines of . . .
"Atlanta is
beautiful and the climate is very hot in summer and quite cold in the winter
months. We have to wear woolen sweaters
to stay warm.” She said she saw a double
decker bus one day and my dad took her regularly to the cinema (Yep it was
called cinema in those days. I think she
would then write about the latest comedy film that she saw).
"
We went to the
drive-in theater on Saturday nights several times a month at the Piedmont
Drive-In when they changed the movie that was playing. It was our ‘family time’ each week and we
would sit outside in the warm (hot) evenings eating popcorn, drinking a Coca
Cola, and watching the people who were also at the drive-in. It is now the Lindberg MARTA rapid rail
station. Times they do change for us
all.
I remember her
telling me about Star Wars years later after she had seen it long ago. “That film was so boring because it had these
weird guys fighting with color light tubes." I remember we all loved that movie but could
see why she thought it so ‘campy’.
My mama was always
writing letters in those days, maybe I should ask her what she was really writing
back then. To this day at eighty eight
years old she still writes and send cards of all types to everyone, all neatly organized
so she doesn’t miss anyone’s birthday, anniversary or holiday.
Comments