When I was six, we moved away from the street where I had lived for my entire life. We had lived in 3 different apartments there before life as I knew it shattered forever. It seemed that my two best friends, one, a girl named Roberta, and the other, a boy named Michael O’Hara, were lost to me. But Roberta and I started to write letters. As you know, most 6 year olds aren’t very good at writing, so we drew each other pictures. I was never one for good penmanship, I am sure her mother recoiled in horror at what I sent, but we both enjoyed making and receiving the letters. It was a correspondence that continued until just a few years ago when she became aligned with a very radical right wing movement and went off on immigrants.
But I digress. As we got older, we quit drawing pictures, so the letters became just letters. Then, in the 1970’s my cousin Cindy started writing to me, as she too had left home and changed coastlines. She made her own envelopes! Oh they were gorgeous. Nothing could incite me to write a letter faster than getting a letter from Cindy. And then I just took off.
I found that envelopes could be decorated with pencil, ink, stickers, watercolors. I decorated my love letters to Donald with fanciful drawings, each of which he saved.
Today I am even more into decorating my mail. Unfortunately, I have only a few correspondents who likewise spend time making their mail to me beautiful. Cindy is one of them and Elle, a great niece who shares my love of horses is the other. I need to write some letters today!
How about you? Do you do snail mail?
ps. I still occasionally exchange letters with Michael O’Hara, who is living a good life with his wife and kids on the east coast.
One response to “Mail art – a life long love affair”
Dear Mimi, sad to say I seldom do snail mail letters any more. I do have one friend who will be 90 in mid-October. She lives in a nursing home and has no computer, so I do send letters to her. Peace.