While looking for the 1972 letter my cousin wrote me while serving in Vietnam (for my blog post), I found a bunch of aerogram letters that my grandmother had written me from Sendai, Japan.
Even though we lived far from each other (I lived in Chicago at the time) we had a loving relationship ever since I met and stayed with my mother's family for the first time on a college trip to Japan in 1970.
I've never been able to throw these letters away. I even brought them with me when we moved to Hawaii.
I showed them to mom and she spent the whole afternoon reading them all.
She was amazed. I guess I'd never mentioned writing to Aachan (nickname for grandmother). Mom was happy to know that I'd been sending gifts to Aachan and how happy it made her. She also loved seeing that some of the letters were written before my grandfather passed away in 1972.
How could I toss any of them when he spent so much time writing some of them in extremely fancy calligraphy? I don't know how he does it. He is a remarkable artist with steady fingers.
The long extremely hilarious letters in calligraphy were written before he got married and had a family to take care of. But he still continued to write after that joking about the change in my accent and anything else he could think of just to keep me in the loop.
Nowadays, we text or email. Besides, since we moved to Hawaii, we don't need to write actual letters to each other.
I love texting. I love emailing. Technology is absolutely magical and amazing how it keeps us all connected no matter where in the world you live.
I can even text my cousins in Japan now. I can also type in English, use Google Translate to change it to Japanese and send that by email to my aunt and uncle. Like I said, technology is awesome!
However, there's something so very precious about being able to hold these missives in your hand and imagining loved ones taking the time and effort to send a part of themselves to you.
It's a lost art that my grandchildren won't even know to miss.
That is wonderful, all those letters.
ReplyDeleteJB just sent notes to several of his friends. Just to say hi. It was fun.
Before I was born (and I am almost 72 now) , my parents went to the US on a then Bombay Government scholarship. My Mom went to Teachers College at Columbia Univ in New York for an M.A. And my older brother who was then a year old stayed back to be looked after by his maternal grandparents and uncles/aunts. My Mom wrote letters to him which were preserved for many many years. I have seen them. He clearly could not read at age 1 but they were read out . It was all about how she was attending school and the fun things she observed in the country. These letters would take 15 days to reach. That little boy has now been in the US for more than 50 years , having come first for grad school and then staying on. Truly letters were a great way to preserve family memories.
ReplyDeleteSuranga Date
Mumbai
Wow! You certainly have an adventurous, accomplished family. And hey! We're the same age. :-)
DeleteI love this. You have such special memories. I used to go every Friday to my grandmother's retirement home and sit with her to record her memories of growing up. Those little cassette tapes are treasure.
ReplyDeleteThings have certainly changed!
ReplyDeleteWhen Oldest Son left for college in 2003 we primarily communicated by email. Over the four years I printed out all of our messages and put them in a binder, which I gave to Oldest when he graduated. He thought it was fun to read about things he had forgotten.
I tried to do the same thing for the other two boys, but by then we were communicating by text and there wasn't anything to print out.
It is a lost art, even emails are now texts.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in gr 4 (circa 1966) our teacher introduced pen pals to us. I still "correspond" with my pen pal from England, more via email than actual letter writing. However, handwritten correspondence is exchanged at Christmas. We've managed to visit IRL 5 times through those 55 yrs. We were able to spend our 60th birthdays together in Portugal. Sadly, the pandemic derailed a visit in 2019. I often write letters to my granddaughters. I still find it more personal than an email or text. There's something about receiving something personal in the mail besides a bill or advertising although even much of that occurs digitally now. While clearing my mother's home last winter, I found letters written to my maternal grandpa from his dad. There was a cousin once removed who was happy to see those handwritten letters. Love handwritten letters. I have no intention of giving up handwritten letters and notes any time soon.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful for your Mom to be able to read those letters. It is strange how we no longer write letters. It has been years since I recieved or written one. The last I got was from an older cousin who had no computer. I have found my handwriting has really deteriorated because of that. Even Christmas cards are falling by the wayside. The sad part with the computers, is no permanent record.
ReplyDeleteI still send birthday cards too even though I seldom receive any. I send them to everyone in the congregation of our church too.
ReplyDeleteMy Dad, who traveled frequently for his work as a research biologist, wrote to both my sister and I and we wrote back. I only have a couple of those letters but I treasure them. I should ask my sister if she still has any of hers. I used to write many letters especially to my grandmothers. Miss getting what the family calls "real mail."
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother and I wrote letters to each other when I was a child and wanted a pen pal. She had such gorgeous penmanship and wrote beautifully. It truly is a lost art.
ReplyDeleteSO wonderful that you've kept them all. I bet a few would be nice for "show and tell" for your grandkids. They still do "Show and Tell" in schools, don't they?
ReplyDeleteI still have 3 letters from first hubby that I can read....he put his aftershave on one....that threw me when I received it!
Linda in Kansas
I love the sweet aftershave idea. What a lovely thing to do. If my grandsons ever ask me for one, I will send it to them.
DeleteMy grandma's handwriting is something special to me. My mother's differs so much that I can visualize her writing her notes. Your brothers calligraphy is just like that to you. So very meaningful. Your grandmother's letters too. How wonderful you still have them.
ReplyDeleteI have a drawer filled with mementos from the past, and many of them are letters written to me from old boyfriends and family, many of whom are now gone. I don't want to go in there and take a look, just thinking about it makes me sad. But I am so glad I have them for that day in the future when I want to enjoy them. Love your post today, Kay. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI have a few letters that I have kept over the years, but not many. I did have a bundle of letters that my dad wrote to my mom when he was away in the Army when I was very young, but I loaned them to my sister and she lost them in a move. I fear they are gone.
ReplyDeleteI have a stationary box or tow of letters from my parents and others. I have all the letters Dan wrote to me and he has mine to him (there were more of those). One day I'll go through them.
ReplyDeleteI definitely have written very few letters
ReplyDeleteFor a number of months I wrote letters and notes to the grandkids, sending them a word of the week for them to ponder. Then we got into Facetiming on an almost daily basis. Now, though, may be the time for letters again. I just bought Halloween cards to send to them with some money, but perhaps as a prelude, I will send some notes, leading up to the cards.
ReplyDeleteWhen I moved to Pittsburgh in the 1980s to go back to school, I didn't have a lot of money to make long distance phone calls so I wrote a lot of letters to friends, my sisters, Mom, Grandma. I used to draw a lot and always included hand drawn comic strips in my letters too. I keep a shoebox in my closet with letters going back to high school, a couple years ago I scanned several of them to have digital copiea. My mom had such beautiful handwriting, it hurts my heart to look at them but I sure am glad I have them.
ReplyDeleteOh gosh, Doug... I'm so glad you have those tangible mementos of your mother's love for you.
DeleteThis is so true. The lost art of writing. I shall keep this in mind and write letters to my grandsons as they grow up and ask that they write back to me. Of course, when they are older, each letter will have some monetary gift so they will look forward to the mail.
ReplyDeleteFor these sorts of things, I scan them and save the digital files with all my other genealogy files in the hopes that somehow someday they survive for one of my kids to find and read them.
ReplyDeleteI did scan letters my son sent from Mali when he served in the Peace Corps. :-)
DeleteHave you considered sending real letters to your grandchildren, and if anyone looks any interested, follow up with real note paper and stamps?
ReplyDeleteYup. I sure did. However, my grandchildren are 3 and 6. The 6 year old is too intimidated about writing so I'm FaceTiming with him to show him how to write. I did send him a self addressed stamped envelope with writing paper, but we'll see how long it takes for him to be comfortable. :-)
DeleteIt's a long time ago that I received a written letter in the maul. When I first left home my Mom wrote me every week. I wish I had saved just one of those letters.
ReplyDeleteI do a creative writing class every other week and one exercise we have done is writing letters. This idea came from a book of writing I have that was published around 1995, but I still like to use it ;) There are two letter-writing exercises, Letters That Will Never Be Sent and Letter From a Place You've Never Been (have to imagine being somewhere). When I did this exercise a while ago, one person who participated wrote a latter to his brother in North Carolina (don't know if he sent it). Sharing what you wrote is optional.
ReplyDeleteThe thrill of opening a letter.
ReplyDeleteI love this and the comments. My mom and I used to have the same passion for stationary stores. I loved letter writing and getting letters! When my grandson turned 13, I wrote him a long letter. It talked about his mom at various ages and had pictures of her 1, 5, 13, and included pictures of my grandson at those ages and talked about similar things they had experienced a generation apart. He texted me (the way of the current generation) a great thank you note for the letter. Said it meant a lot to him. How special that you have those saved letter. As the world moves on, those things become more and more precious.
ReplyDeleteHello, Julie! It’s so nice to meet you. I’ve been talking to my grandson once a week on FaceTime and I’ve been writing letters to him too about his dad. My son says he loves getting letters and can read them easily. He’s 6 which is the grade I taught so it’s extra fun.
DeleteI'm doing my best to keep letter writing alive.
ReplyDeleteI do enjoy writing letters and I'm sure people do enjoy receiving and reading them.
There is some wonderful stationary available and it is so cheering to receive a letter or just a note though the mail.
All the best Jan
What a lovely post. You certainly are a teacher.
ReplyDeleteThat is wonderful, all those letters.
ReplyDelete