letters Archives - Social Correspondence

Underwater Post Offices Throughout the World

Post offices around the world can be charming, unique, or simply functional, but few places feature underwater post offices. Swimming and letter writing are some of my favorite pastimes, but not necessarily together! Only a few underwater post offices have survived, but they have their place in history. Twenty years ago, the small town of Risør, located in the south of Norway, constructed an underwater post office as a novelty for tourists. Established by the local scuba diving club, it was billed as the only dry underwater post office in the world. Constructed in the form…

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October 16, 2023

2023 / Letter writing

The Art of the Condolence Message

While a simple card or handwritten note is a meaningful way to express sympathy on the loss of a loved one, the art of the condolence message comes in many forms. People send flowers, prepare food for the bereaved, attend memorials and funerals, make donations to charity. Bereavement and loss can come suddenly and unexpectedly, as it did for me last year (2022) when I lost my husband of over 52 years. Condolence messages came in all of the above forms. Friends and neighbors brought meals, flowers, honey, and plants, made donations. During Murray's brief illness,…

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August 12, 2023

2023 / books / email / Handwriting / junk mail / Letter writing / Mail / Pandemic / Post cards / Postal Service / U.S. Postal Service

What’s in Your Mail?

National Postal Worker’s Day was July 1, which seemed like a good time to check out what’s in your mail. As people have moved from doing business through the mail to electronic communications, first class mail has declined. Banking, including bill paying, and personal communications have largely moved online. Only occasionally do I receive handwritten notes, cards, letters, or postcards, and I suspect that I am not alone. Even event invitations are conveyed electronically, through sites that track responses (RSVPs) and comments from invitees. Since 1926, the USPS has tracked mail volume by type of mail.…

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July 22, 2023

Mail / Pandemic / Post Office / Postal Service / U.S. Postal Service

Slower delivery, higher costs projected for holiday mail

Holiday mail in 2021 will have slower delivery, higher costs, especially if you are shipping gifts or letters and cards across the country. Global supply chain issues, elimination of most air mail delivery, and labor shortages due to the pandemic all add up to slower processing and delivery times. Industry experts project that states west of the Rockies and mainland extremities states, including Texas and Florida, will be the hardest hit. But according to the USPS, new high speed package sorting equipment and facilities will improve service reliability and efficiency (albeit at higher cost and slower…

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November 8, 2021

email / Handwriting / Letter writing / Mail / Note cards / Pandemic / Pen Pals / Post cards / U.S. Postal Service

Pandemic Pen Pal

Many of us are experiencing a new normal – perhaps working from home, avoiding theaters, dining outdoors – and with these new Covid restrictions, what better time than now to develop a written correspondence with a pandemic pen pal? Commonly, pen pals are people who seek friendships and new experiences through the exchange of letters, often among people who have no previous connection. Many people favor international correspondence in order to learn and better understand the culture and customs of another country. In the early days of Social Correspondence, I often read sweet stories about long-term…

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September 24, 2021

Archives / Handwriting / Letter writing / Mail

Lost and Found Letters

The percentage of letters lost in the mail is relatively small, but still there are times one wishes for a Lost and Found Letters Department. Sometimes you either sense or know that something is missing. That promised invitation to a literary event that never arrives. The letter listed in Informed Delivery that does not materialize. Where do these letters go? Were they delivered by accident to the wrong house? Perhaps they fall on the ground and get swallowed up in the trash. Technically, there is a Lost and Found Letters Department. It is called the Mail…

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August 2, 2021

Digital Publishing / Handwriting / Letter writing / love letters / Mail / Technology / War letters

A Box of Old Letters

One day, while in my mid-teens, I came across my mother looking through a box of old letters. This box, always on the top shelf of her closet, had followed us from house to house and from town to town, but this is perhaps the first time I expressed curiosity. The letters, it seemed, were written during World War II, letters that my parents exchanged with one another during those war years. Most likely, some of them would have pre-dated their marriage in 1943, while others may have been written later. I wanted to read them, but my mother said that they were personal, and she did not want to share them.

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May 17, 2019

Handwriting

Onegin Ballet

The San Francisco Ballet has concluded its repertory season, ending on a high note, even for this world-famous ballet company, with the magnificent production of the Onegin ballet. The story, based on the poem Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin, with libretto by John Cranko, is performed to the beautiful music of Tchaikovsky. References to letters are significant to the drama. The Onegin ballet enacts the story of Tatiana, a young woman living in rural Russia, and her love for Onegin, the worldly, elegant friend of her sister Olga’s fiancé, Lensky. In the opening act and scene,…

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May 12, 2016

Mailbox, Annapolis, MD

Digital Publishing / Handwriting / Letter writing / Mail / Postal Service / Stamps / Typefaces / Typefaces

Social Correspondence: 2015 in Review

As 2015 draws to conclusion, it is notable that the most read post of the year in Social Correspondence was Letters to Myself, the story of the amazing Alan Blackman and his exquisitely designed calligraphic envelopes featuring stamps from around the world. On Gratitude, published for Thanksgiving, attracted hundreds of readers, as did Letters from France 1917–1919; Office Supplies; Postcards from Notables; and Letters from Wisconsin. The commonality among these posts was that they focused, for the most part, on stories about people, as reflected in their letters. Many people write letters and/or send cards to…

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December 31, 2015

email / Handwriting / Letter writing / Mail / Mailboxes / Typing

Letters from Wisconsin

Kay Christensen Roberts and her sister Jane grew up in Cumberland, Wisconsin, a rural town with a population of slightly over 2,000, then and now. Growing up in Cumberland in the 1950s, Kay became a devotee of the public library and especially of the town librarian, Katherine Robinson, who may have been her namesake. Katherine the librarian and Kay’s mother Aleda Christensen were good friends. The Christensens lived fairly near to Katherine’s mother and, as Kay recalls, “when I was very little I would toddle up to Engesether’s, where I think I spent as much time as…

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December 23, 2015