Bringing Letters Back

I have a few memory boxes in my house, holding artifacts from life with enough sentimental value for me to keep. One of the boxes is mostly filled with memorable documents, like important papers from school or special holiday cards. Most of what you’d find in this particular box would be old letters.

Maybe you’re old enough to remember a time when people sent each other letters through the mail. Not text messages, not email, but actual sheets of paper folded up, jammed into an envelope, then addressed and stamped. Exchanging letters was maybe the most practical way to stay in touch with people if they lived far away and you didn’t see them very often, especially considering how expensive long distance phone calls were. Having a letter addressed to you showing up in your mailbox was at least a minor thrill. Not only did it give you a chance to hear about what was going on in the lives of the people important to you, but it was a small piece of evidence that you were important enough for them to take the time and effort to write.

The last person I probably exchanged letters with regularly was my grandmother. I had a good run of a year or two when I would try to write her at least a couple of times a month. College was probably my peak letter-writing period. I had regular exchanges going on with my older sister (who lived the furthest away from me and I saw the least frequently), a number of high school friends who were at different colleges, and a lot of my cousins. 

Our cousin letters were epic. We almost always wrote them by hand, and sometimes, just to amuse ourselves and each other, we’d ignore the lines on the paper and wrote at the wrong direction or angle, or built the text up to surround some kind of illustration, or even have parts of the letter continue onto the outer envelope. (My cousins are the type of people who would think it was a great joke to use pi as the point spread in a weekly football pool. The nerdery is both strong and proud in our genes.)

I was looking through one of those memory boxes a few days ago while hunting for my Best Dude wedding program. Seeing what might be hundreds of letters in the box got me thinking that maybe this could be the summer to start bringing letters back. Here’s what I’m proposing: If anyone reading this would like me to write them a letter sometime this summer, just message me the mailing address you’d like me to send it to. I’m not sure if I’ll write it by hand like in the old days; I’m sure you’d get a longer and (hopefully) more satisfyingly rambling letter if it’s typed, just because of the time save. I won’t say anything about when to expect it, because the surprise of seeing it arrive is half the fun. However, if I do write to you, I will hope, but not expect, to receive a reply. I’ll even let you off the hook of replying through the snail mail, since getting email letters would be just as fun for me. 

Who’s in? I’m not even kidding about this. Message me an address, and start keeping an eye on your mailbox!