Although this poem brings me back to fourth grade reading class and Beverly Cleary's Dear Mr. Henshaw, I have always loved communicating by old fashioned snail mail. When I was younger, I loved to poke through the day's mail delivery in hopes of getting some letter or package addressed to me. More often than not I didn't have a single letter, until fourth grade when my cousin and I began to correspond as pen-pals after spending a week of our summer vacation together. We soon talked about everything through our letters and I would eagerly await the day when a letter would come addressed to me from Florida. It's such a novelty concept that I have grown up loving: a white truck drives to your house's box, drops off parcels, and moves on to the next house.
Snail mail is also a simple alternative to all of the new technology out these days. With all of the social networking media on the Internet, it becomes easy for people to lose that sincere and personal touch of a letter. At camp this year, I always anticipated checking my CIT mailbox for mail from friends and family. A letter reflects extra time given addressing the person to whom you're writing. Hand-written thank you cards, although sometimes a nuisance, are suggested for a reason. Why not try writing a friend a letter? Although, I wouldn't recommend putting the urgent and childish poem on the envelope.
I agree! Your generation won't have a bag full of love letters, or letters sent between all your college friends (you wrote because you weren't allowed to run up the long distance phone bill, and back then there was no internet, no cell phones). I like getting mail too, especially from my son when he's at camp (I only got one this year!) - Liz
ReplyDelete