So, I hand write letters to people and post them in the mail and rarely seem to receive a letter in return. And that’s OK. Perhaps, I’m one of the last hand writers left on earth. My grandmother used to write me back though. But she passed away a couple of years ago. Her handwriting was elegant and old style and it made me smile when I opened a letter from her to read. And, I notice as the years progress my own mother’s cursive handwriting is taking on that same scrolling form as is my own.
I tend to print in all caps though, and avoid cursive, as it’s slower to create and more cumbersome to lay down. My own handwriting is fast and deliberate; the letters flow seamlessly into one and other first forming sentences then paragraphs and pages and hence, volumes of journals.
While I lived in Vancouver from 2001 to 2005 the only medium I used was ink; more specifically Pilot G-tec C4 pens. I settled on that pen for writing after trying out a stupendous amount of pen brands. I spent that four years of my life purposefully writing and drawing in only ink. I wanted to eliminate the use of pencil and become adept at using only pen and ink on paper. At it’s height, it was all consuming; and emptying dry on average two pens per week. That is a lot of writing and drawing in this day and age.
I have saved ALL the greeting cards and letters anyone has ever written/sent to me over my lifetime which are all tucked away into a few shoe boxes. Writing is a lost art.
I think I’ll turn handwriting letters into a business… wait, I already did that. Each order I send out gets a handwritten thank you note attached to it. I even hand address the envelopes. This practice keeps my handwriting in good form.
I have even gone so far as to begin writing fictitious letters to fictitious people (pictured above) and am pondering a new art form that would involve writing letters to you. It would cost you. Would you pay for a one of a kind hand written letter posted in the mail especially written to you from me?
And I can remember in the early nineties, a college instructor which I can’t be sure who but their words stuck with me: hand crafted items and hand painted or hand drawn images will be in demand in the very near future as many folks are loosing their ability to hand create items from scratch with the increasing advent of digital technology and to just hold on; in other words, struggle to survive the incessant 1990′s and early 2000′s obsession with cheap mass produced goods. And, I survived. Did you?
Do you hand write letters?
Do you expect to get a letter in return?
Do you print in small caps, caps and/or write cursively?
I posted a Facebook update and was ever so surprised at the response it received.
The opening photo is a shot of a page from a Spelling Test booklet from 1981. I would have been 8 years old. Yes, I’m one of those people who saves memorabilia. And Nuno your letter is being written this weekend!
