On a pen-pal related note (pun intended of course), my wife and I stole this idea from somewhere and began writing letters periodically to our kids and mailing them but storing them up for a gift upon their 18th birthday. They made for lovely time capsules and were received with profound gratitude. Hand written notes were also a big part of our family business communications but the appreciation of them is universal and powerful.
I love this!!! I have a landline too! Actually I never stopped having one. HaHa. The phone company in our area still has lines so I didn’t have to have VoIP. I just have local calling only which makes it cheaper, and I can call anyone in my State.
Same for me. Always have had a landline with our small local phone company. Remember when we used to have to pay for long distance calls? At 78 I still remember picking up the phone and an operator would say "Number please." A real person. And numbers were like 518. The good old days!
I briefly had a french penpal who was the daughter of a friend my friend's au pair - it didn't go well as my French was basically non-existent at the time so my mum mainly had to dictate what I wanted to say. but it felt super cool to have a mysterious french friend :)
I did rachel syme's penpal club during the pandemic, which someone else has mentioned!! sadly none of them stuck, but it was such a fun idea and i was just thinking today how i wanted to write more letters - they're so much more romantic than long voice notes! thank u for a lovely article xx
This made me reminisce about the pen pals I did have as a child- including one I remember best from Mali Africa, whose every few monthly rice paper air mail white and blue bordered envelope’s appearance in the mailbox was like Christmas morning. Talk about teaching patience…! Thanks for reminding me to explore this for my kids!
I have pen pals now! Earlier this year I read an absolute delight of a book about letter writing by Rachel Syme (Syme's Letter Writer) and started writing more letters. It's such a nice way to spend time (can't look at my phone when I'm using pen and paper) and it makes the mail something fun again.
I love these ideas. I am still in touch with my pen pal from third grade (we are noe in our 60’s). She lives overseas but we have met several times. Now we mostly email or chat on messenger but its been an amazing experience.
I have a pen pal now! Of course, she and I are women in our early 50s. We went to college together in the 90s. That’s when I discovered the internet when a high school friend wrote me a letter describing this new thing called “e mail” and recommending I find out if my school had it yet.
Anyway. My pen pal and I text when the situation calls for it, but we enjoy writing and receiving real letters. She’s in Germany right now and I can’t wait to get a letter all about it!
Personally - I love voice-only calls. I love making facial expressions that no one can see (well, maybe my wife sitting in front of me who then makes a scolding face back).
Someone said we didn't have this personal image issue until mirrors were invented. Not sure if this is true, but it makes sense. Just like we don't know how our voice sounds until we heard a recording, but yet we cringe when we hear it. What we interpret as ourselves is not always how it's presented. But those receiving it know nothing different about us either. So, both sides are unaware.
Great piece and I love the retro princess phone.
On the pen pal note - I never had one. I did write many, many letters from 4-week summer camp to my parents and many, many more to my long distance girlfriend for the four years I was at undergrad school. She would send them laced with perfume. I look back and lot of that writing probably helped me stay grounded being 1500 miles from home. Especially since my mom passed at the end of my freshman year in college. So, yes, writing is therapeutic in both sending and for the receiver. Forward to my graduate school years and I met my wife in an IRC chat room. We started emailing outside of the chat because scheduling time to sync up was difficult. We talked on the phone but never saw any photos of each other until we met in person 3 weeks after meeting online and writing a lot of emails back and forth. Unknowingly at the time, we both printed all the emails. We got married and discovered what we had done and we combined them into a 3-ring binder which we still have today - 30 years later.
As much as I find myself a tech/engineering nerd - I seem to enjoy writing. I think it was all those letters I wrote in undergrad to my girlfriend that developed that muscle. After five years we broke up because I didn't head back home, but instead went off to grad school. I learned a lot from her and her family - something I will always cherish for many of what I learned I use today in my marriage. Thus, writing is good. Typed or handwritten. I find I can get my thoughts down faster with typing but I often find my thoughts flow more smoothly when handwriting, but not always.
An antique phone line and rotary dial as well. For security dial pulse lines better because they use mechanical relays. When the EMF pulse from nuclear war happens you’ll be able to use your phone! BTW, my apartment isn’t even wired for one which is not good…
Landlines and pen pals! Yes! Still have a landline. My pen pal in England and I still have contact. We began writing letters to each other when we were 11 years old and now into our upper 70s still have contact. We mostly do emails now but still send each other birthday cards or small gifts. What a treasure! We did get to meet one time in Germany when my German husband and I lived there and she came to visit us. I had many pen pals as a young teenager and kept the letters in shoe boxes all organized by names. I wish I still had those letters. It was great fun.
As someone who just bought their kid a LAMINATED CITY MAP for them to get around their hometown, I wholeheartedly endorse this. (Ok, technically my husband bought it but I thought it was a genius idea and it gave me lots of nostalgia for using it to navigate around pre-smartphone).
Whooray Catherine!
I love these ideas.
Stepping back from technology allows our humanity to reclaim center
stage, where it needs to be.
Gold stars for our team!
Thanks YOU❤️
On a pen-pal related note (pun intended of course), my wife and I stole this idea from somewhere and began writing letters periodically to our kids and mailing them but storing them up for a gift upon their 18th birthday. They made for lovely time capsules and were received with profound gratitude. Hand written notes were also a big part of our family business communications but the appreciation of them is universal and powerful.
I love this!!! I have a landline too! Actually I never stopped having one. HaHa. The phone company in our area still has lines so I didn’t have to have VoIP. I just have local calling only which makes it cheaper, and I can call anyone in my State.
Same for me. Always have had a landline with our small local phone company. Remember when we used to have to pay for long distance calls? At 78 I still remember picking up the phone and an operator would say "Number please." A real person. And numbers were like 518. The good old days!
I briefly had a french penpal who was the daughter of a friend my friend's au pair - it didn't go well as my French was basically non-existent at the time so my mum mainly had to dictate what I wanted to say. but it felt super cool to have a mysterious french friend :)
I did rachel syme's penpal club during the pandemic, which someone else has mentioned!! sadly none of them stuck, but it was such a fun idea and i was just thinking today how i wanted to write more letters - they're so much more romantic than long voice notes! thank u for a lovely article xx
This made me reminisce about the pen pals I did have as a child- including one I remember best from Mali Africa, whose every few monthly rice paper air mail white and blue bordered envelope’s appearance in the mailbox was like Christmas morning. Talk about teaching patience…! Thanks for reminding me to explore this for my kids!
I have pen pals now! Earlier this year I read an absolute delight of a book about letter writing by Rachel Syme (Syme's Letter Writer) and started writing more letters. It's such a nice way to spend time (can't look at my phone when I'm using pen and paper) and it makes the mail something fun again.
I love these ideas. I am still in touch with my pen pal from third grade (we are noe in our 60’s). She lives overseas but we have met several times. Now we mostly email or chat on messenger but its been an amazing experience.
I have a pen pal now! Of course, she and I are women in our early 50s. We went to college together in the 90s. That’s when I discovered the internet when a high school friend wrote me a letter describing this new thing called “e mail” and recommending I find out if my school had it yet.
Anyway. My pen pal and I text when the situation calls for it, but we enjoy writing and receiving real letters. She’s in Germany right now and I can’t wait to get a letter all about it!
I absolutely LOVE this!!!
Personally - I love voice-only calls. I love making facial expressions that no one can see (well, maybe my wife sitting in front of me who then makes a scolding face back).
Someone said we didn't have this personal image issue until mirrors were invented. Not sure if this is true, but it makes sense. Just like we don't know how our voice sounds until we heard a recording, but yet we cringe when we hear it. What we interpret as ourselves is not always how it's presented. But those receiving it know nothing different about us either. So, both sides are unaware.
Great piece and I love the retro princess phone.
On the pen pal note - I never had one. I did write many, many letters from 4-week summer camp to my parents and many, many more to my long distance girlfriend for the four years I was at undergrad school. She would send them laced with perfume. I look back and lot of that writing probably helped me stay grounded being 1500 miles from home. Especially since my mom passed at the end of my freshman year in college. So, yes, writing is therapeutic in both sending and for the receiver. Forward to my graduate school years and I met my wife in an IRC chat room. We started emailing outside of the chat because scheduling time to sync up was difficult. We talked on the phone but never saw any photos of each other until we met in person 3 weeks after meeting online and writing a lot of emails back and forth. Unknowingly at the time, we both printed all the emails. We got married and discovered what we had done and we combined them into a 3-ring binder which we still have today - 30 years later.
As much as I find myself a tech/engineering nerd - I seem to enjoy writing. I think it was all those letters I wrote in undergrad to my girlfriend that developed that muscle. After five years we broke up because I didn't head back home, but instead went off to grad school. I learned a lot from her and her family - something I will always cherish for many of what I learned I use today in my marriage. Thus, writing is good. Typed or handwritten. I find I can get my thoughts down faster with typing but I often find my thoughts flow more smoothly when handwriting, but not always.
An antique phone line and rotary dial as well. For security dial pulse lines better because they use mechanical relays. When the EMF pulse from nuclear war happens you’ll be able to use your phone! BTW, my apartment isn’t even wired for one which is not good…
Landlines and pen pals! Yes! Still have a landline. My pen pal in England and I still have contact. We began writing letters to each other when we were 11 years old and now into our upper 70s still have contact. We mostly do emails now but still send each other birthday cards or small gifts. What a treasure! We did get to meet one time in Germany when my German husband and I lived there and she came to visit us. I had many pen pals as a young teenager and kept the letters in shoe boxes all organized by names. I wish I still had those letters. It was great fun.
I would love to write letters again, but Danish post does not send letter post anymore. Imagine that. After 400 years it’s over.
The only possibility I have is sending a package with a letter inside. It’s sad.
That is sad indeed!
A lot of technology is overhyped and overpromoted, and not good for our kids:
Please help spread the word,
The FDA Doesn't Test Vaccines For Approval
Testing is Responsibility of Manufacturer Only
https://open.substack.com/pub/jamiea811023/p/fda-doesnt-test-vaccines?r=2mxnno&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Vaccine Safety: Explained, and How To Explain It To Others
https://open.substack.com/pub/jamiea811023/p/vacine-safety-explained-and-how?r=2mxnno&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
As someone who just bought their kid a LAMINATED CITY MAP for them to get around their hometown, I wholeheartedly endorse this. (Ok, technically my husband bought it but I thought it was a genius idea and it gave me lots of nostalgia for using it to navigate around pre-smartphone).