I checked “can’t remember that far back”. but then i wasn’t counting “notes” or “thank you notes”. I was thinking good old fashioned letter. the kind where you tell someone what’s going on in your life and ask them what’s going on in theres? that is all done by e mail in my world and has been for years. i wonder how the votes would look if no one counted “notes”.

When I discovered The Graceful Envelope contest (http://calligraphersguild.org/envelope.html) a few years ago, I started creating “envelope art” and segued into “mail art” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_art). Sometimes I just mail a decorated envelope or object to a friend or relative with short message or some memorabilia inside. For special occasions, I usually make some stationery or a card to accompany the envelope and often include a poem I like. With the advent of email, I regret to say that for the most part my actual letter-writing has gone bye the bye. But I’m still faithful to the artistic side of communication by mail and purchase a sheet of every new stamp issued by the Post Office.

I’ve never been good at keeping up written correspondences and I’ve gotten much worse with the age, carpal tunnel syndrome,(I have a hard time gripping a pen) and the convenience of email.

I’ve always loved receiving handwritten note cards and letters. I think most people appreciate the time and thought love ones and friends take out to send them. Therefore, I frequently send family and friends handwritten notes, choosing beautiful note cards or lovely stationary, and I also choose lovely stamps; stamps which I think the sender will appreciate. For example, I send some friends African American Heritage stamps, others, I send nature stamps - birds, flowers, lighthouses, etc.; or I choose other theme stamps. The USPS issues so many lovely stamps. I’m surprised more people don’t take the time to ‘shop’ when buying stamps. Email is certainly convenient. However, no matter how often I stay in touch with family and friends via email, I still send a lovely note card at least twice a year.

For years my mother and I wrote letters to one another and I can’t begin to tell you how I miss that. I have saved much of her correspondence and reading over some of these as I do every once in awhile brings her back to me in a very particular way. One of my sons, because of his many travels, and I also wrote reams of letters and I have saved these also. However, like many of you email is our way of communicating now, but I, too, will always write my own notes on lovely cards to express my thanks or express my sympathies. The art of letter writing, I fear, has left us, but like all winds of change, we gain something and we lose something.

This from Alexander Waugh re: his father, Auberon (son of Evelyn): In October 1977 my father received, out of the blue, a letter from Lionel Grigson–––son of the famous poet Geoffrey Grigson––complaining that he had read in the Guardian Diary that Papa was among the signatories to a letter attacking the Catholic Institute of International Relations for its ‘alleged pro-guerilla’ stance in Rhodesia. ‘Your views are becoming more and more odious every day. You seem to be turning into a grotesque parody of your father,’ Grigson wrote, ending his letter. ‘I’ve noticed a similar pro-Rhodesia tendency in other things of yours. I would like to have thought that you were at least a pleasant person to know, but you have finally convinced me that this cannot be so. Yours coldly, Lionel Grigson.’ Papa was, as I say. a very polite person, but when kicked, he liked to kick back and, as a self proclaimed ‘master of the vituperative arts,’ invariably came out on top. His reply below: How queer that I have no recollection of signing any letter about Rhodesia and I think it most unlikely that I did so, but as I have not seen the piece in the G.D. to which you refer, I do not really know what you are talking about. I seem to remember signing a letter complaining about the impertinence of the Catholic I of I R in presuming to speak for the Catholic Church. I should also suppose that only a moral cretin would support terrorist activities in Rhodesia, however just their aims. but I have never written on the subject of Rhodesia, despite writing three articles a week on current affairs for the last ten years, for the good reason that, unlike you, I have never been able to decide the exact rights and wrongs of the situation there. So when you say you have noticed a pro-Rhodesia tendency in my writing, you are talking rubbish. You are right when you suggest that whatever gratitude I may owe to your father for his devotion to English literature over the past 50 years does not extend to his son, of whom I have never heard until this moment. I would write in stronger terms except that I suspect you may be mad, when you write these pompous, twerpish letters to complete strangers and sign them ‘Yours coldly.’ So I will end with a cordial invitation to piss off. or as the Americans say, go fuck yourself. Yours sincerely, Auberon Waugh

I have a number of people I write to regularly, here and abroad: Germany, Sri Lanka, Australia , England. I like to use interesting stationery and stamps. Lately I have been making my own notecards from old photos. Some of these correspondences have been going on for over 20 years. I have learned a lot, it is more personal than email. Like Frannie Em said: “a present in the mail”

I don’t remember when I last wrote a handwritten letter, but I’ve handwritten short notes (two today) typed longer letters recently & mostly e-mailed.

I felt that a personal letter was needed in this situation. I have 2 large boxes of an ex-friend’s children’s baby pictures. I do not know where she is ,but I know where he is So I wrote to the Father and asked if he would like to pick them up. They are in our closet and taking up a lot of room that we could use.

I decided about 2 years ago that I needed a hobby. So I started making my own cards. My friends and family say that mine are the only birthday / holiday / any day cards they actually save, which means a lot!