When was the last time that you hand wrote a letter?

 

I chanced upon a penmanship contest, the topic of which was "When was the last time that you hand-wrote a letter?" Sadly, my handwriting skills have gone unused and have rusted. The topic interested me, but with underused handwriting, what chance did I stand? 

Today, I generally only handwrite cheques and grocery lists. If the grocery shopper happens to be my better half, then the grocery list is often sent through WhatsApp. Today, receiving invitations to celebrations on social media is no surprise.

There are many happy memories associated with handwriting and receiving handwritten letters. As a child, I wrote to my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins scattered across the country. The schoolgirl in me practiced what I had been taught, paying great attention to punctuation, spelling, and grammar when writing. So much thought went into the penning of the letter.Then came the actual scripting in my best handwriting. If those blue inlands could talk...they would have quite a few tales to tell.

The treasure trove of memories also includes an excited little girl crafting that mandatory letter to Santa, Christmas after Christmas, until she finally grew up.

There was always a stack of blue inland letters and a half-dozen or so postcards lying around the house. Mom and Dad wrote to their parents, siblings, and relatives.

 

 The letter-writing continued all through college and extended to college friends, too. We were a bunch of crazy college girls living in different parts of the city, hanging out together and writing letters and postcards to each other during vacations, telling of the movies we were watching, the books we were reading, and other chit-chat.

I wrote to my mom when I took a job outside my hometown. Then there was the odd letter to friends and relatives after marriage in the mid-nineties. It was around that time that the handwritten letter began to lose ground. 

I don’t quite remember when I completely stopped handwriting letters, but after I tied the knot and the boys came along, the letters were few and far between. 

I have a bunch of precious handwritten letters that send me skipping down memory lane.

When was the last time that you wrote a letter?