The LWA has its first pair of pen pals! Hopefully, they are the first of many to come. I’ve been on a real pen pal kick lately. I’ve signed up for Postcrossing which has been really great fun. I’ve gotten cards from all over and from all manner of different people; from eight year old boys in Germany to young mothers in Japan. I don’t tend to keep the cards, but I do keep the cancelled stamps. It’s a holdover from when I collected stamps as a child. Each one is a tiny, wonderful work of art.
I attempted to look up a bit about the history of pen paling for everyone’s edification, but I found surprisingly little information. I’ve put in a request with my contact over at the National Postal Museum to see if she has any information. Wikipedia did mention that Charlie Brown had a pen pal in the 1960s, but I’m sure there were pen pals before then. The entry also mentioned a book by Geraldine Brooks entitled Foreign Correspondence about her quest to rediscover the pen pals from her childhood. Read an excerpt from the book here. I believe it should be added to the LWA mandatory reading list. Furthermore, I believe that the LWA should have a mandatory reading list!
In other news, the illustrious Kathy is off on an Italian vacation, but I am still manning the fort. Send me your letters about pen pals or other readings you would recommend about the wonderful world of letter writing.
Postally yours,
Donovan
Yay! Penpals! Yippee!
Thanks again! Hugs!
Posted by: vegasandvenice | July 20, 2007 at 12:23 PM
am i one half of the first pair? so honored...
Posted by: diane @ thejotterblog.com | July 20, 2007 at 01:12 PM
Hey Donovan!
I've been out of town, had a visit from my in-laws, and moved twice in the last month, and I have apparently not been as vigilant with email as I should--it seems I missed an email from you. So sorry!
I will check on the penpal question ASAP and let you know what I find out.
And, uh, I'm sure I was given this information but...I don't know my password for the Members Only section. Do you mind emailing it to me?
Cheers to all,
Allison
Posted by: Allison | July 28, 2007 at 08:19 PM