Razzmatazlady

Category: Letters

  • A Memory of Ireland

    In 1955 my mother, my sisters and I went back to Belfast, Northern Ireland for a visit with my grandparents and all of our other Irish relatives. I was 11 years old. We were away all summer and had a wonderful time. We faithfully wrote letters to my father and this is an excerpt from one my mother wrote (Pegs was our golden retreiver) :

    June 7th 1955
    Dearest Daddy and Pegs,

    Here I am again and a little bit overdue at that, but as you know we’ve been having a hectic time. It’s about 9 o’clock now and Cheryl is drawing up dress designs. She got tired of knitting. Valerie and Joan are still at theirs.
    It rained all day today and this afternoon they played up in the attic with big hats and high heels and shawls with fringes plus Grandma’s old dresses and handbags….
    One of my favorite memories of that summer were the days we spent at a real thatched cottage in a little seaside town called Donaghadee.
    We swam in the icy water and made sandcastles on the beach and collected little snails called willeks (not certain of the correct spelling). We would collect as many as we could in a little bucket and take them back to the cottage where my auntie would boil them up. We’d pick them out of the shells and eat them with bread and butter! Yum! Sort of poor man’s escargot, I guess.
    We had those rosy cheeks that all little Irish children are famous for and were probably healthier than ever that summer.

    I never went back to Ireland, although my sister Valerie has made several trips. I just remember the

  • The Art of Writing Letters

    We went to Port Angeles on Thursday and my sister and I went through a big box of old family letters from the 1950’s to the 1970’s. It got me thinking about how differently we communicate today. Back then, writing letters was no big deal. That’s how families communicated with each other. Birthday cards, thank you notes, holiday cards of all sorts were just so routine. The mail was something everyone looked forward to getting. There was fun stuff in the mail, for heaven’s sake!

    There was a letter that my mother wrote to my father and my sisters and me while she was away in Ireland after her father had a heart attack. It was 19 pages! 5 x 7 stationary. Nine full sheets. It was great!

    Now, it’s all junk mail. The occasional card or thank you note but even those are going by the wayside. Of course, sending letters costs much more, now. And it’s s-l-o-o-o-w. We don’t have the time for the art of letter writing. I mean, writing, as in handwriting. So the art of writing letters is a thing of the past.

    Well, I submit that it doesn’t have to be. In this age of the internet, why not start writing letters via a personal blog? Sure, the letters wouldn’t be handwritten but they’d still be meaningful and family members would stay in touch. That’s the crux of it – we don’t stay in touch. Maybe a phone call now and then or an email with a couple of pictures attached. I’m totally happy with phone calls and emails; don’t get me wrong. But there’s a level of communication that’s just missing, that way.

    Think about it. A blog can be a private, family message board. I’d send a “letter” telling all the news about Jack and me and maybe post a picture or two. I’d probably ask some questions about what the grandkids are up to and tell about our plans for the next few days or weeks. Then I’d post it.

    Hopefully, somebody would reply with a “letter” about the comings and goings of that particular branch of the family….swimming lessons, spelling bees, sports activities, bumps and bruises from playing too hard. What the weather is like. Pictures of your garden, the kids, your trips, the new paint job in the kitchen, whatever.

    How the pets are doing. Happy Birthday messages. Anniversary messages. Whatever. Hopefully, more than one person would post letters, too.

    There could also be “letter blogs” between friends. Especially far away friends. Yep, I like that idea.

    Something to consider…