When I was a youngster, back in the days of dinosaurs and cave men, I had my first pen pal. She was ten, I was eleven. We met when she came for a visit to her grandmother, who lived two doors away from me. Since she was a self-proclaimed "Air Force Brat", she moved around a lot, and when she left for parts of the world I've never see, we wrote letters to keep in touch. Then, another friend from the neighborhood moved to Colorado. We wrote letters for many years.
Because I like to write, my correspondence was newsy, detailed and long. One of the above-mentioned gals has always teased me about the details in my letter, especially when I would describe every item of clothing was being worn by whoever I was telling her about. She said I'd not only give a people report, but a fashion one as well. (I think I learned that as a result of reading teen magazines where the threads of our favorite celebrities were described in detail. Maybe it was because I was interested in fashion design at the time. Who knows? Anyway, it filled the pages!)
I spent hours writing letters in those days, passing the time while babysitting for many local children who slept as I shared my life. I loved to surprise my correspondent. Sometimes I'd use pretty papers, sometimes just loose leaf notebook paper, but occasionally I'd write on something unique....like paper towels or long strips of toilet tissue! At that time in my life, I had a number of pen pals, having added a male friend who was away in Military school and another who had left his job on the British cruise ship where we'd met. He'd returned home to England to have foot surgery and we shared an on and off correspondence for many months.
As a young wife and mother, I continued to share bits of my life. Another letter writer and I compared notes on mothering of two little girls who were the same age. Our lives were pretty routine, but somehow, communing with someone made it a bit more exciting. I looked forward to her long letters, describing her life as a pastor's wife in a youth ministry on the West Coast.
Lives change and we let some things go and add things that we never thought we would. Letter writing became a thing of past as, in 1996, I learned how to use a computer, something I'd always said I would never do. ( I didn't have a choice, as I was working for a computer repair business!) Letter writing became letter typing as I became an emailer. Others did too, and my mailbox rarely saw a hand-written envelope filled with news, except at Christmas time.
How I missed it...and I still do! I've reconnected, via a computer social network, with my earliest pen pals and many others with whom I shared my younger years. It is truly a blessing, but I'd so love to see a letter from one of them in my mailbox like there used to be in the old days. Some things, like friendships and old-fashioned letter-writing need to kept. Life has enough changes of it's own...and I'm resistant to much of it. So, I wonder if I can get those early pen pals to actually write me a letter....just for old-time's sake. 'Think I'll give it a try, you never know, I might be surprised!
