Hand written

Remember when you were younger, and you’d write letters to your friends?

Through primary and high school I did just that. Write then seal the letter in an envelope, add the recipients name in whatever form of bubble or cool lettering I could muster by hand. Write an acronym begging the postman to Deliver the Letter the Sooner the Better. Because, the Later the Letter the Madder I Getter.  Or SWALK – seal it with a loving kiss.

Letters would sometimes be given to the recipient by hand at school the next day. Or on the same day, depending on how much of it could be written by stealth in class.

Writing to a friend was a joy. Even if we saw each other daily, as we often did in a small rural town. Planning out weekend adventures. Writing in code about boys we liked. Imagining being married with kids. It was all written down with pen on paper.

I wrote for years to a friend interstate. Even when we both got married and had children we wrote. Back when no one really had email. Now I can’t even find her on facebook.

Growing up no one had computers. Phones were dialed with fingers. Only one friend had a cordless phone, it was such an amazing and exciting thing to talk on. So for me, for my friends communication was hand written.

I loved getting letters. Hand addressed to me. I’d read the pages then settle in to write a reply. Beginning out with neat teacher approved script, then as the words and pages mounted, messier, more me writing winning out.

My children still receive hand written cards from their great grandmother. She is going on 92. These treasures are kept, bundled together in a drawer. Hand written notes pointing out something on the card, be it an animal, a print of a famous work of art, something funny. Hubby and I keep saying we must get the kids to write back. It never happens.

There was something so comforting, so personal about handwritten offerings. A little piece of the person there in pen on the page. Time, thought and effort. No backspace or delete key.

In November last year I wrote about this very topic. Vowed to do something about it. Here we are in April and still nothing has been done. Then today, I saw a post from Clairey Hewitt. She is issuing a hand writing challenge. The gauntlet has been thrown down and I have accepted the challenge. I think I may see if I can get the kids in on it too.

Just one handwritten card, letter, note a week, to six people over six weeks. I am looking forward to it. You can join in too, blogger or not. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get writing.

Tags: hand written challenge, handwritten script, letter writing, The art of letter writing