Cursive Writing

All bundled up in a drawer at my house are some very old letters. They were written at the beginning of the last century, in the early 1900s, by my ancestors. Some were written by my great-great-grandfather; some were written by my great-great-great-grandmother to my great-great-grandfather.

To tell the truth, it takes a little bit of work to read the letters. The handwriting is very flowery with lots of flourishes. They were obviously written with a fountain pen and are just beautiful, but the 100-year-old writing is quite a bit different from what I learned.

And, I did learn to write cursive. I don't remember when...third grade or so, it seems. I remember it was a big deal. For so many years (and to a 9-year-old, one or two years is a long time!), we kids had been forced to write in the babyish "print." We couldn't wait to learn to write — and read — cursive. Finally! We'd be able to figure out what our parents were writing.

From the looks of it, I learned to write cursive in the D'Nealian style. Although, I never was very good at slanting my letters. And, as I got older, I started adjusting the standard handwriting I was first taught, morphing it into something with my own style. Now, I'm not saying it was artistic or anything like that, but back in high school, we thought our way of writing was much more "cool" than the standard way. Nowadays, I suppose I write in some hybrid of cursive and print, a simplified handwriting that uses a print-style Q and S, for example.

Within the past few years, there have been several articles and studies done about how today's youth isn't learning how to write cursive. One Associated Press article in the past few months details the decline in cursive writing and explains some of the reasons and discusses the potential future of handwriting.

I've read such articles but never really thought the topic had much of an effect on my life. I know how to read and write cursive, and my 9-year-old daughter practices her handwriting at home, no matter whether or not they teach it at her school. But, earlier this week, I received a letter from a young, high school-age pen pal I met online through one of the letter writing blogs. She commented that she had some trouble reading some of my last letter to her — because she doesn't read cursive handwriting very well.

Wow. That kind of jolted me a little bit. I didn't expect my way of communicating to be obsolete so quickly. I do write some letters in print, especially to pen pals whose first language isn't English, in an effort to make sure my words are readable. Maybe I should write them all that way...

I do wonder what the future of handwriting is. I used to be a "Star Trek" fan, especially the "Next Generation" episodes of the sci-fi TV series, and I don't remember much handwriting going on there. It will be an interesting experience to witness first-hand the rapid evolution of written communication.

One of my favorite letters

Even before this year and this project, I've written lots of letters.

When I was a kid, we moved several times. So, I wrote to friends in Muskogee, Oklahoma; Monroe, Louisiana; Plainview, Texas; and, Winnsboro, Louisiana. I also wrote to family...my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins...after I left for college, my parents and brother and sister. Even though my husband and I have rarely been apart for long in the 20 years we've been a couple, I've written quite a few love letters to him. And, in my daughter's almost-nine years, I've written several letters to her.

But, I must say one of my favorite letters to write was the one inviting friends and family to our wedding in May 1991.

We didn't have what many people would call a traditional wedding. Our ceremony was in a park in Lubbock, Texas, on a bright spring morning. Lace and pearls really wasn't my style, so I had a simple but beautiful wedding dress made from a cream-colored cotton brocade. Instead of a veil, I had my hair up in a bun and the bun was encircled with cream-colored roses and baby's breath flowers. Those same fresh flowers made up my small bouquet. They also decorated our wedding cake, which I made myself. We didn't intend to have a wedding cake, but my mom insisted, so I said, "Well, if I have to have one, I'll just make it myself." And, I did, from a recipe we found in Country Living magazine. Instead of traditional music, our friend, Lubbock-based musician D.G. Flewellyn, played the guitar and sang. I walked down the "aisle" with my parents as D.G. sang "The Wedding Song (There is Love)." We wrote our own vows, of course. Afterwards, we all gathered at my little duplex for barbecue and wedding cake.

With all of that planned, fancy, engraved wedding announcements would have been out of character. So, I found some nice cream-colored stationery with a pretty deckle edge. And, with my cartridge/calligraphy pen loaded with brown ink, I hand-wrote each invitation in the form of a letter. At the time, it had been a few years since I had done much calligraphy, so I was a little out of practice. Additionally, with our less-than-formal style, we didn't want an overly flowerly lettering, so I combined a few different scripts until I came up with a Celtic-like look we wanted.

Those letters were a joy to write, inviting our closest friends and family members to a very special day for us. Many came to celebrate with us, and this year we'll celebrate 18 years of marriage.

Life Lessons from Letter Writing

I suppose there are quite a few things we can learn from writing letters...how to communicate in writing, proper format for different types of letters, improved penmanship, etc. But, one thing I find myself learning as I progress on this letter-writing project is patience.

In this day of e-mail, Instant Message, Text Message and Twitter, we have learned to expect instant replies to the messages we send out into the world. We send out an e-mail, and in a matter of minutes, sometimes only seconds, a reply is back in our inbox.

It's been hard for me to remember how to think differently with the letter writing. I'll write a letter, seal it up in the envelope and drop it in the mailbox. Then, I'm already waiting for a reply; I'm used to my recipient receiving my messages instantly. I've had to get used to (again) realizing that the recipient won't know what I said for days. And, then, I'll have to wait until they have time to write back and send me a letter in the mail.

I grew up before e-mail, so I have plenty of experience with mailing letters, but I've been corresponding electronically for almost 20 years now. Instant communication gratification has become the norm.

There's something simply satisfying, though, about connecting with friends and family with an old-fashioned letter. It's just as thrilling to drop an envelope in the mailbox as it is to take one out of the mailbox at home.

Make someone's day...write a letter today and mail it!

What makes a letter better

After writing lots of letters and receiving several in return, I think one reason that "real" letters are so appealing has to do with the connection that the letter provides between the sender and the receiver. I want to use words like "intimate" and "sensual" or "sensuous," but I don't want to imply a romantic feeling, just a sense of closeness.

When you receive a personal letter in the mailbox, you know that the sender thought about you enough to put her (or his) thoughts on paper and mail them to you. You know that the sender held the paper in her hands, that she held the pen, that she sat somewhere in the world and thought about what to write to you. She found (or remembered) your address and wrote it on the envelope. She found (or bought) a stamp and affixed it to the corner of the envelope. She so wanted that letter to get to you that she went to a mailbox and deposited the letter in it, and then she went home and awaited your reply.

If it is a romantic letter, maybe she spritzed the paper with a little bit of her perfume or even put a big lipstick kiss at the end, or more subtly added a couple of X's and O's to send you kisses and hugs.

If it's from someone you know very well, you can imagine her voice, as you read her words. You know when she was smiling as she wrote and when she was angry or sad. You remember the memories she's writing about and it makes you think of more good times you shared in the past. The letter may make you wish to see her soon or to pick up pen and paper and write back as quickly as you can.

Oh, sure, phone calls, e-mails and text messages are great for immediate conversations, but they lack the warmth of a hand-written or -typed letter. Yes, even a hand-typed letter says something personal. Over time, you come to recognize a person's typewriter's characteristics, and you know that even a typed letter is put into an envelope, just the same.

I can't remember how many times I've read about how important it is to be careful with e-mails, how an innocent comment in an e-mail can be misinterpreted. That's what they invented the "smilies" for...indicating the emotion that an e-mail can't convey.

Somehow, a hand-written letter manages to convey those feelings. Maybe the letter writer spends more time crafting a phrase than does the e-mailer. Maybe it's the handwriting itself, maybe you can see the happiness in the softness of the letter or the anger in the harsh slant of others.

I know we're all busy people in this day and age. It seems like there's never enough time to get it all done. But, just try it. Find some paper and a pen. Write a letter and mail it. You'll make at least two people happy...you and the receiver of your letter.

Handwriting, typewriters and other interesting things

While doing some research lately, I came across a couple of interesting articles. The first one is a BBC story about the impending demise of handwriting.

Among other things, the article says:

She argues that children - if not this generation then one soon to come - may grow up using only a crude form of printing for the rare occasions in life they need to communicate by pen.

The other story is about a typewriter lover.

I found both stories when I was researching fonts/typefaces. I ran across this site with the links to the articles.

Don't forget to write a letter this weekend!