Hiya!
So I've never posted anything to a blog before. Not someone else's and certainly not my own. I got alot of new stuff to learn! My daughter says it's what everyone does now so I better get up to speed.
I remember once upon a time when all we had to do in order to share news with someone was to send them a letter if they lived far away or call them on the phone if they were out of walking distance, or just go over to their house if they were in the neighborhood.
Writing a letter was easy. First, you searched through your junk drawer looking for the tablet of scratch paper that was glued along the top. Once you dug it out from under the old cough drops, eraser bits and paper clips you ripped off a page and sat down at the desk. Or kitchen table if you didn't have a desk. But first, you grabbed the pencil by the phone. Yes we had phones back in the old days. The phones were stuck to the walls. Or on a table. And each phone had a pencil by it. Not much paper, mostly old mail, but always a pencil. So you grabbed the pencil and sat down to write.
Let's say you rescued a new dog. And you wanted to tell your cousins from the suburbs to come get it because it was tearing up the house and your live-in boyfriend was gonna kill you if you didn't get rid of it. Ok, well, let's not use that example. Too close to home.
Let's say you wanted to write your grandmother and tell her about the new recipe for shrimp lasagne you created. So you sit down at the table or desk and write a nice letter to grandma. In cursive:
Dear Grandma,
Hi. How have you been? I hope your arthritis is leaving you in peace this spring. I know how it always acts up when it rains. Luckily we've had some really nice weather recently. You should come up and visit.
I made a great lasagne that I thought you'd like. Here's the recipe:
(LASAGNE RECIPE)
I hope your flowers bloom early this year. They are always so gorgeous. Sorry about last year when Rover dug up and ate all the tulip bulbs. Next time we visit, we'll leave him at home.
Love,
Donna & Rocco & Rosa
THAT'S how you write a letter! Note the opening and closing? The proper full-length words? Yeah. We used to write like that all the time.
ANYHOO, once you were done with the letter, you folded it up nice and neatly, and started searching for an envelope. It usually was nowhere near the tablet of paper, so a thorough search of the desk area had to be done . Sometimes they were hidden under the phone book (that's another blog entry in itself ) or back behind the piles of opened mail. Once you had it, you stuck the letter inside, licked it shut and addressed it to the person you wrote the letter to. We memorized important addresses back in the old days and important telephone numbers too. Then it was back to the junk drawer to find a stamp. I remember when a stamp to send a letter was .22 (oh my god there isn't even a keyboard key for cents!!). So you licked it and stuck it on the envelope and ran out to your mailbox and put it inside. And - now this was key - you LIFTED UP the red flag on the side so the mailman knew there was a letter inside to pick up. That's right, the mailman would pick up letters right from your house.
Grandma would get your letter in a few days and she would write one back. It was a nice way to communicate with people. You had to wait when a letter was coming and it was always a little bit like Christmas when one did come with your name on it ... one that wasn't a bill anyway. We had all sorts of different stationary to choose from, there were actual stationary stores out there. They are all gone now. Pretty paper and pens and envelopes. None of that is left now.
I should tell you about going to the paper store with my friend and buying stuff...remind me to share with you later.
So here is my blog, with no pens or pencils, no pretty paper, envelopes or even stamps (Forever stamps?? Where were those when they cost less than a quarter?). Maybe it will get read and maybe it won't. But at least my daughter will get off my back about not being up with the times.
