When did you last write a handwritten letter?

[horseless carriage]

 

[Pepper]

I made a Valentine's Day card for my grandson instead of buying one and I think I want to do this more often. It was fun for me to make, and he liked that I made it myself.

 

[PeppermintPatty]

Last week I wrote a letter to my niece. I usually write her twice a month.

 

[Tommy]

I'm not much of a correspondent but my wife probably writes, on average, about a letter a day. She always uses a fountain pen and has beautiful penmanship.

Different mental processes go into hand-writing versus word processing. I wonder if the fact that the "writer" cannot easily change what has been committed to paper might promote a more organized thought process?

 

[Mr. Ed]

My hand writing is atrocious because of mental illness. Now my hands shake and ache so bad because of arthritis I cannot see me writing again in this life.

 

[horseless carriage]

My hand writing is atrocious because of mental illness. Now my hands shake and ache so bad because of arthritis I cannot see me writing again in this life.

Thank you to all for responding, arthritis I had forgotten about. Clearing out and shredding some old files I noticed how much more uniform my handwriting was only ten years ago. Nowadays I hold a pen in a way to reduce the painful twinge in my knuckles.

 

[C50]

Last month I wanted to send a personal letter to an old neighbor. I started out using cursive and made so many sloppy mistakes I threw it away, then I tried printing and it looked just as bad. I finally had to accept I have lost the ability to write nicely, so used the computer and printed it out.

Makes me sad, I always had such nice hand writing. I'm not sure if it's age related or lack of practice but I simply don't have the dexterity necessary now.

 

[Alizerine]

I make my own Christmas cards and I do not include a common message. Each card has a personal hand-written note. There are fewer friends each year so as my penmanship diminishes so does the number of notes I need to write.

 

[iksentrik]

My handwriting has never been nice, I do appreciate it when I see it though, like reading a piece of art.

 

[George1959]

It was only three years ago, that I've had a penpal in Austria. It was a couple we met via email, we visited them after some time and I corresponded with the male part only via email. But after his death his wife and me sent handwiritten letters since she wasn't able do do it online. Unfortunately suddenly she didn't answer anymore. I don't know what happend. She may be dead or in a nursing home.

 

[Murrmurr]

It was only three years ago, that I've had a penpal in Austria. It was a couple we met via email, we visited them after some time and I corresponded with the male part only via email. But after his death his wife and me sent handwiritten letters since she wasn't able do do it online. Unfortunately suddenly she didn't answer anymore. I don't know what happend. She may be dead or in a nursing home.

Wonder if you could find out anything by googling her name? Type in her name, a comma, and the word Australia and see if you get anything.

 

[Senior Jean]

I used to write letters all the time. I had pen pals in Australia and England. I do write a letter every December for family members so they can keep up with what's going on with my immediate family.

I now write a letter once a month to my aunt in Florida. It is typed, not hand written. She is 89 and the typing allows me to print it in large legible print. She does not get on social media so this is my way to tell her how we're doing in Texas. She does not respond, but my cousins let me know on FB that she received it and enjoyed it. She is my last aunt.

 

[fuzzybuddy]

When I was a kid, making a long distance phone call was a big and extremely costly thing. Today, nobody in Maine thinks twice about calling California, or to other continents, so letter writing is becoming a lost art. The last letter I wrote was in 1972, mailed from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

 

[Lilac]

I don't use a fountain pen, but I use pen & paper everyday.

I hand write my thank you notes. At Christmas, a personal written note is included to everyone. They may not be letters, but I'm always writing my to-do & grocery lists. My recipes are handwritten in my personal cookbooks. I keep ledgers for taxes by handas well as for my checkbook.
All of my cell phone numbers & addresses are in a rolodex so when the cell phone croaks, I have them.

My daughter does have fountain pens & uses them all the time. She is always cleaning them & trying new inks. She even has hubby using one.

 

[Paladin1950]

Last time I wrote a letter? Seems like a century ago.

 

[George1959]

Wonder if you could find out anything by googling her name? Type in her name, a comma, and the word Australia and see if you get anything.

I've tried it, even on the obituary notice and on the funeral list of the cemetery. Nothing!

 

[911]

You do have very good handwriting. I had trouble with a few words, but it’s still better than I could do. That’s quite a talent with being able to write in Italics. I remember when I started working for the state police, I had to use a typewriter for all my reports, then a word processor and finally a computer.

The last time I wrote a letter was probably when I was in the service. I wrote a letter home about 2-4 times a week. I got a letter back one time marked “Moved, No Forwarding Address.” I thought my parents moved and didn’t tell me. I didn’t even know they were wanting to move. After I found out the post office just made a mistake, it was a relief. I figured it was probably a mistake.

I also wrote to my girlfriend and in her last letter, she said she was at my parents the day before, so I figured it was a mistake.

 

[birdy]

I can't recall. Was most likely a thank you card. Something very personal. My handwriting was large and easy to read but it is less neat these days.

 

[Purwell]

Probably in the late 1960's.

Any notes etc. that I write are done in block capitals anyway because I spent 30 odd years as a draughtsman.

 

[Fyrefox]

My last real letters were written in the 1970’s. They were a lifeline when I was in college to the people and life that I had once had before going off to college. I suppose that I first began to develop a sense of having a past at that time.

Writing a letter was a sweet communion with that past and those people, a sacramental sharing. You‘d sit down and invest time in it, filling several pieces of paper…on both sides! Then you’d drop it off at the mailbox and wait, knowing that it would be several days to a week before you could hope for a reply.

The waiting time was sweet anticipation, too. Every day you’d troop to the student mailboxes, hoping that perhaps a reply would be there. A few lucky ones would get them, and they were treasures, tangible things that you could hold, keep, and carry around in physical form.

There were no cell phones or personal computers then, and while there were landline phones, long distance calls were expensive, and so limited in the time that you could spend on them, and they were relatively rare and purpose-driven. A written letter was a communication from the heart, and modern society is the poorer for having moved away from them…

 

[caramel]

I can't remember the last time I wrote a letter to send to someone that I sent.

I write a lot of letters to people that I don't send.

I love fountain pens. I have a couple dozen really cheap ones. I used to write exclusively with them but ran out of ink. It's not so easy to get fountain pen ink here. I have to order it online from a pen store or get it on Amazon, neither of which I've done lately. I hope to get some soon.

 

[horseless carriage]

 

[timoc]

A young couple wrote to me (in their own writing) asking for information about the place where their grandfather worked. I responded by writing back to them (in my own writing) , telling them all about the company we both worked for and enclosed some pictures of the inside of the complex.

 

[barbarak333]

My last two handwritten letters with handmade envelopes went in the mail last week. I subscribe to a website called "sendsomething" (you can find the group and their web address easiest on Facebook). I send and receive letters from random letter-writers through that group. Sometimes little things will be included in the letters, like a packet of tea or bits of handmade art, stickers, seed packets, basically anything interesting and flat

Pocket letters are also fun to correspond with. They're plastic binder sleeves used to store baseball cards and can also be used to store artist trading cards (ATCs) and small bits of whatever your imagination can come up with. The first one I received had a folded handkerchief souvenir from a foreign country, a single dangle earring, and small pieces of tourist brochures. A letter is often tucked into one of the pockets as well. The plastic sleeves fold up in thirds and fit into a business-size envelope.

 

[Pinky]

The last handwritten letters I sent, were to my late ex mother-in-law in Australia, a year ago. I always included one with a birthday and Christmas cards