Remember when you would actually write a letter?

[Bikeguy]

My sister was helping my 91 year old dad clean out some of the stuff in his home.  She found several letters I wrote from college (Marquette University in Milwaukee) in 1973.  OMG my mother kept all the evidence....

This was the first paragraph in a letter I wrote.  This is appropriate for a cycling forum...     What a letter to write..        This was my first month at college for mechanical engineering.  

9/17/73

Dear Dad and Mom,

  I’m having fun riding around on my bike.  Just the other day I was going about 35 mph east on Wisconsin Ave near 35^th St when a car pulls of in front of me.  You almost didn’t have to pay for my college expenses, it was close.

[Parr8hed]

10 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

My sister was helping my 91 year old dad clean out some of the stuff in his home.  She found several letters I wrote from college (Marquette University in Milwaukee) in 1973.  OMG my mother kept all the evidence....

This was the first paragraph in a letter I wrote.  This is appropriate for a cycling forum...     What a letter to write..        This was my first month at college for mechanical engineering.  

9/17/73

Dear Dad and Mom,

  I’m having fun riding around on my bike.  Just the other day I was going about 35 mph east on Wisconsin Ave near 35^th St when a car pulls of in front of me.  You almost didn’t have to pay for my college expenses, it was close.

I was 5 months and 9 days old when you wrote that letter.  

[MickinMD ★]

I remember some of my undergrad college friends, especially the girls. writing to me when I went to Chicago to grad school and their handwriting made me feel closer to home.

[Bikeguy]

52 minutes ago, Parr8hed said:

I was 5 months and 9 days old when you wrote that letter. 

When I got a new boss towards the end of my career, he was holding his first staff meeting.  The other 9 of my peers introduced themselves first.  The all gave the 'usual' list of what they did so far in their careers.  

I waited to be last.  I was the 'old guy' of the group.  I looked at my new boss... waited a bit...  and said...  "Peter I've been working here longer than you have been alive."  He kept his poker face... and asked, "I was born in April of 77, when did you start here?"   I told him... "OK... so you win.  I was hired in June of 77."  We got along just fine.

[ChrisL]

1 hour ago, MickinMD said:

I remember some of my undergrad college friends, especially the girls. writing to me when I went to Chicago to grad school and their handwriting made me feel closer to home.

I remember after leaving for the Army my HS GF spritzing letters she sent me with her perfume.  Oh man that made me miss her that much more. 
 

[Kirby]

In college and for years after, my parents  each wrote me a letter every week.   I looked forward to them!

[JerrySTL ★]

My penmanship was, and is, poor. I bought a manual typewriter when I was a freshman in high school back in 1967. Teachers liked my reports as they could read them.

WoJSTL still has most of the letters that I typed to her when we were dating. I was stationed in New Mexico and she was going to college in Cincinnati. We had a long distance relationship for almost 3 years seeing each other about 3 times a year.

[Longjohn ★]

I came across letters that I wrote to Esther while we were dating and from when we we apart for a week for different reasons (me usually a bicycle adventure) (her usually working as a camp counselor or visiting her sister in Virginia). I couldn’t throw them out, I put them back where I found them.

[Bikeguy]

7 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

My penmanship was, and is, poor. I bought a manual typewriter

I eventually had a manual typewriter too.   Some of the letters to home are typed.   

I remember typing reports for my engineering lab courses.   A few typos and an over aggressive eraser,..  I got to do it again.  

When my daughter was in college..  we had an Apple 2E computer.  in addition to the dot matrix printer, I got an electric typewriter that had a RS232 port.   She used Apple Works and always had perfect typed papers.   (having a geek dad helped) 

 

[Ralphie ★]

I used to exchange letters with my maternal grandmother who took care of me as an infant when the rest of my fambly was in Europe for the army. 

[Further]

I doubt I've written a dozen letters in my life.   

[Bikeguy]

17 minutes ago, Further said:

I doubt I've written a dozen letters in my life.   

You can start now.... 

WoBG has a pen pal that turned into an email pal.    Twice a year... they send each other gifts / packages thru the mail.  I get the opportunity to go to the post office and fill out the customs form and mail the package to the United Kingdom (Wales).    I've done this for WoBG for years now...   What a PIA... the last time there was a new guy at the post office.  First thing he asked... "What's the ZIP code for the address?"    I told him it's right there....  CF5 1BB   He was confused...  I had to explain that works just fine in the UK. 

[BuffJim]

At the boys summer camp I worked at, there was a tradition that if you got a letter you had to run laps around the dining hall before you could read it. Typically a camper getting a letter from his parents would have to do one lap. But the staff members, counselors, who got letters from their girls from home had to run multiple laps. My fake girlfriend, Molly Brown (2 years older and 4 inches taller) sent me a letter addressed to Snookums BuffJim and doused in perfume. I think I got 20 laps. I got my revenge on her when I had knee surgery for suspected torn cartilage while playing basketball. She visited me in the hospital and I told her I was saving the life of a toddler who had wandered into the street but got hit by a car in the process. She went home and shared my blarney with people who knew it was a basketball injury.  There were times that I wished it was more than goofing off, I really liked Molly Brown.