I had several pen pals in elementary school...you know, back in the time when you could still show off your Lisa Frank stationery and the Interwebs didn't take over the world with skeezy chat rooms yet. I remember how EXCITED I would get whenever a letter came in the mail for me from these faraway "friends". So when Stormy proposed this idea, I was totally game.
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| Tell me these postcards were not THE BUSINESS back in the day. |
This month, I am paired with Katie from Doing Dewey. Her blog was new to me when we got paired, and I am happy that the exchange helped me discover it! She is trying to read one book from every number in the Dewey Decimal System. SAY WHUT? I know. Kudos to her. We've each written one letter so far, and I'm looking forward to a bit more snail-mail chatting before our month is up.
Fellow bloggers, are any of you doing this exchange? And if you're not a blogger, tell me about your last pen pal!
I love this idea! I wrote lots and lots of letters when I was a kid. I had a pen pal I got hooked up to through the American Girl magazine who lived in Texas (at the time I lived in NY) and we corresponded for a year or two before falling out of touch. I also had several shorter term pen pals, at least one of whom I met in an AOL Kids Only chatroom (I know, what the heck were my parents thinking?) and I moved in the 6th grade and started letter-writing with my friends back home. It has been ages since I've written anyone a letter... this would be a fun project to join, I will have to look for it later this month.
ReplyLOL at the AOL Kids chat room...I had a few of those too (and yes, looking back, that seems CRAZY!). I had 3-4 of them in elementary school that I think I found out of a magazine or something. Didn't they used to publish lists that you could choose from? Privacy was weird back then. Haha.
I want to play!!!!! (I have a crap ton of Lisa Frank stickers and I'm not afraid to use them!)
ReplyYou should TOTALLY do it. Your pen pal would be the luckiest person ever. I'm going to have to comb eBay for some sweet Lisa Frank paper now.
What an awesome idea! Rebecca at Love at First Book and I send each other mail all the time and I still write back and forth with another friend I've known since high school. There's something about getting REAL mail that makes everything better! I also do PostCrossing, which is a postcard swap internationally. Very cool.
ReplyI completely agree, real mail feels so much more awesome to receive than email! I will have to look into PostCrossing, never heard of it but it sounds fun.
I don't think I've had a penpal since primary school. I fail a bit at snail mail, e-mail has made me lazy; it's a shame really as I'm missing out on some interesting literature based interaction.
ReplyLove your snail mail penpal art!
Ugh, email makes me lazy too! At first I wasn't sure I would push myself enough to actually take part in this, but I had to at least give it a try. It's been fun.
Neat idea! The last and only pen pal I had was in the late 1970s through the Barbara Mandrell Fan Club. Yikes, can't believe I'm talking about this in public! I was in middle school, but my pen pal was in her 20s.
ReplyAh, the 70's...when a middle schooler could have a 20-something pen pal and your parents wouldn't call the cops...ha!
What a great idea!! I haven't had a pen pal since high school. And that was a giant fail. I was writing to a girl in Germany and she only sent me ONE measly letter. Hmph.
ReplyOh that stinks! And it would have been so fun to have an international one. Booooooo.
Woah, you totally brought back some memories with that postcard. I had a penpal from Denmark through fifth grade and it was fantastic! This is such a cool idea, I hope it ends up being fun for you!
ReplyHaha, I think Lisa Frank brings back memories for lots of girls nowadays. That, and Trapper Keepers...how I loved my Trapper Keeper.
Oh my, I had completely forgotten about Lisa Frank! I didn't ever actually use the postcards, but I had a box of stickers and more lisa frank school supplies than I'd really like to admit, haha. This is such a great post idea, I'm tempted to do something similar this week. I'm glad you got my letter and am excited to get yours. Getting things in the mail is just so much fun :)
ReplyActually, I just hadn't checked my mail since yesterday. I have a letter :D
Oh good, so glad you got it!! The mail is pretty slow going out around here, I've realized. :)
Yikes do I feel old. When I was a teenager the only way to stay in touch with friends from far away was snail mail. In 1990, my oldest granddaughter was 5 yrs old and she had Lisa Frank stuff. Recently I corresponded by regular mail with my grandson who was in prison. Sad I know, but that was the only way to tell him I still loved him. I am in Wyoming, he was incarcerated in Arizona. Now he has been released and we are back to using email. I hardly ever write letters. This is a great idea. I love getting letters or regular mail of any kind. I love the stamps too.
ReplySad about your grandson, but yes--snail mail is still the unfailing way to keep in touch when we need it. And I agree, getting letters is a lot of fun, especially checking out the stamps, stationery, etc.
That's nice! I also started having pen pals thanks to my discovery of Postcrossing. Right now, I get letters at least once a week. It's a really fun way to get to know people from other countries.
ReplyThat's so cool! I need to check out PostCrossing, you're the second commenter to mention it.
That's such an interesting idea! I don't really enjoy writing letters, though. I end up caring too much about my penmanship, and I hate not being able to erase effectively. That said, when email wasn't an option, I wrote lots of letters, and I still collect pretty cards, stationary, and even stamps sometimes.
ReplyThe only thing I don't like about writing letters is writing "mandatory" letters (namely: thank you notes). Those I could do without (especially because they usually come in batches of 20+...haha). Otherwise, I'm ok with my not-so-great penmanship these days. :)
That's a fun idea! I had a couple of pen friends, but they were all arranged by school and never lasted beyond the first letter. I remember the names of two, one from the US (I think) and another from Italy. Thinking of them here I remember their photos which is a surprise, but yes, only a couple of letters.
ReplyYes, it was always fun to trade photos! And I actually found a few of my old letters from pen pals a while back and looked them up on Facebook. I wasn't stalkery enough to friend them (haha) but it was cool to at least see their online "personas" after so many years.
When this post came up in my Feedly reader, you have no idea how much joy I felt seeing Lisa Frank stationary. Bringing back the good days of matching stationary, trapper keepers, and pencil cases. *Happy sigh*
ReplyThis seems like such a fun project, I'm going to head over and check it out!
I hope you get to participate sometime! It's been fun.