I recently received a letter in the mail. A handwritten
letter on stationary. Written in ink with cursive handwriting. What a
delightful surprise! Part of the letter read:
I really miss this old fashion
letter writing, remember in the old days when that’s how most people communicated?
Long distance phone calls were to expensive & no internet was available. Oh
the good ole days.
The letter was from my cousin. It brought me back 40 plus
years to our childhood. Her father worked for International Paper® and one of
the perks was defective paper. I don’t know if he got it for free or if
employees got a discount on these “seconds” but he would give us packages of “not
good enough for distribution” paper. Oh, how I loved those reams of paper. I
never knew what I would find inside.
The paper was colored. Sometimes the parcel contained paper
of all the same color. Other times it was a rainbow of colors. Sometimes the
paper was thick; almost like cardboard. Other times it was so thin it was
almost tissue paper.
It was that paper that taught me to write letters. My mother
and grandmother taught me to fold the paper just the right way so that it would
fit into a small envelope for mailing. I would fold it in half before picking
up a pen so that I had four sections to write on. Sometimes I would add
stickers. Sometimes I would draw a flower or sun in the corner to give my
letter a little style and elegance.
It was that paper that taught me to say “thank you” for
gifts; birthday presents and Christmas presents. It was that paper that let me
tell my grandparents what had happened in school. It was that paper that kept
me close to my Aunt and Uncle. And it was that paper that taught me about connections.
Thank you, dear cousin, for the walk down memory lane.
Thank you for reminding me to make connections. Thank you for the old fashion
letter.
