Letter's

[Wayne Goodwin]

Can you remember the last time you got a real letter from a Friend or Loved one ?

Do You Miss Getting One ?

[Lifesighs]

I get a few every year, frankly I appreciate emails as much as a letter. It's easier for everyone.

[Wayne Goodwin]

I know it is so much easier but to me it would mean more to me as a written letter ....

[Karin M Fichtner]

I have an aunt who takes time to write to me occasionally.  I look forward to it, and enjoy reading them.  I must admit I don't write too often, either.  I think it's sad to see us lose the written word in correspondence.  Even our emails and texts are poorly constructed, often grammatically incorrect, abbreviated, and unpunctuated.  I get texts where the sentences run together so much you have to interpret them rather than read them. 

In days gone by.....history's blanks were filled in with letters written by people who lived during those days.  We would have lost so much historical detail and perspective if it weren't for the eloquent correspondence written between friends, family and loved ones back then.  We have a book upstairs.....a book on manners and proper etiquette, written by 14-yr-old George Washington.  It is written in the King's English, and very well written, indeed.  I have an honor roll granddaughter who can't write nearly that well.  And George was never a product of public school.  He and his contemporaries were, for the most part, home-schooled.  Or, at best, taught in some rural one-room schoolhouse by someone who never went to college. 

I think it's too bad that so few of our high school graduates can write well.  It's becoming a lost art.   

[Merry]

Recently went through and sorted out boxes of paperwork mixed in with pics and mementos and was really happy with the fine stash of letters written to me by my Dad and my children. I have a pen pal who writes in assorted colored markers and they look like ransom notes and I treasure them because I know that she put her heart into them. I have email pen pals too and my fav of all time to write to is my grand daughter. She's collecting letters and post cards and she isn't even three years old yet. I think of it as an excellent way to introduce a tot to the whole concept of written language, there's a lot of dyslexia in the family on both sides and she may have to overcome that. She's extremely active too so I'm sending her a beautiful little desk I picked up through the Met Museum of Art to get her adjusted to doing things while sitting down and give my daughter a little break. I have a wonderful stash of cards and stationary, a lot of it I picked up through thrift stores. There's always stickers and notepads to put in there too for Layla, my grandchild.

[Snagg]

A few christmas cards. Everybody else e-mails or Faceschnooks.

[Kim]

Every time my 28 year old son gets a gift (from me or ANYONE), he makes a "personalized" card usually with his latest photo (nothing fancy...just printer paper) with a very newsy letter inside every time. No one ever told him to do that although I DID make my kids write a thank you note every time a gift was received since they were little. My 25 year old DAUGHTER is "terrible" at it now that she is "on her own".

Every year I write at least a few Christmas cards and I write a long personal letter to about 4 of my recipients. TWO of those people always write back. One is an old friend of my grandma's and I use to be best "summer" buddies with her son.

When I was 10, I began writing letters to people all over the world...had ABOUT 50 penpals and just a few weeks ago, I pulled out some of those letters.  (couldn't keep them ALL so I had one or 2 for each person.) My daughter and I enjoyed reading them.

[Karin M Fichtner]

That's what I want to know! And how do young people who don't have access to a computer and printer write themes and essays for school? How about something as simple as copying a recipe out of a magazine.....or writing a shopping list? And if it is assumed every child will have Spell Checker.....do we now stop teaching spelling? I, personally, have been criticized for my concern about such things. When I was on Eons, and wrote about this.....I was called the "Grammar Police". Is it too much to ask that we, as Americans, learn to use our language properly? I hear some people complain that we need to make English our official language....and my question is....why? We don't use proper English ourselves! And then young people don't understand why prospective employers don't read their resumes. And office personnel are occasionally required to compose papers, reports, or correspondence. Without a command of the English language, including proper punctuation, they will not be successful. The computer can correct your spelling, but it does not automatically insert punctuation, or decide where your paragraphs should begin and end. We need to see to it the graduating classes are literate. I personally know three people who graduated from high school, yet cannot read well enough to read their children a bedtime story. And their emails to me are almost indecipherable.
I know; I expect too much.

[Snagg]

No you don't.

[Kim]

I homeschooled my kids for a "few" years. (Well, I only planned to do it for ONE or TWO YEARS and it turned into 10!)  My son was starting 7th grade, my daughter was beginning 2nd. We THOUGHT she might have Rheumatoid Arthritis at the time because her hands would get so fatigued from writing. When my friends were discussing curriculums for cursive, I was QUIETLY embarrassed because I had made the decision after a "painful" 2 months of trying to teach Melissa the BASICS of cursive that I would JUST teach her to sign her full name. Because AFTER ALL, when in LIFE has anyone said to you, "this MUST be written ONLY in cursive"? She CAN write in cursive if she had to but there has never been a necessity for it.

[Karin M Fichtner]

That's a perfectly acceptable option for her; she has a good reason.

[Kim]

Karin...I am considered the "grammar police" in MY social circles too.....LOL!! The spelling errors I see come JUST short of making me crazy!! I even see TYPOS on really nicely designed websites, billboards, and MENUS for heaven's sake!! I don't know how much that affects the general population but as far as I'm concerned if you spent all that money and time to make something LOOK GOOD, it only seems sensible that you would spell it RIGHT

[ProblemAgain]

why should people get paid to do things wrong? that's a free do-over in my book....you don't get paid if you make your company, boss, client or other entity paying you look like an illiterate dipshit until you make it right.