Tuesday, June 8, 2010

The Letter

When I bought my antique typewriter a few weeks ago I never dreamed that it would be used for anything more than a few one-liners on a scrapbook page. Last week, after having our 2 young houseguests from England leave our home, I found a letter on the table. It was a thank-you letter typed on my typewriter and I couldn’t have been more moved.

Growing up my mother always had me write thank you notes for gifts I received from friends and relatives. These short notes would be written immediately after receipt of the gift or service that was provided, no time wasted. There was something urgent about letting the giver know how touched I was with the generosity and thoughtfulness.

There is something special and very personal about receiving a personalized old fashioned typed letter. Someone actually took the time to hit each key precisely in the middle, contact between the key and ribbon must be quite hard to leave the imprint of the letter on the page, one key at a time…. typing (usually with 2 fingers) and returning the carriage after each line. Typing a complete page without any errors, God forbid you got an error and had to start all over again. There is no such thing as spell check, paragraph justification, fancy fonts, auto formatting, letter sizes and different text colors. It’s just black ribbon against white paper, only upper and lower case and you have to take your time to type the letter. Not a 30 second email, but quite possibly a 15-20 minute letter….I am most appreciative of this special letter and the love that it holds.
Before it is too late, offer a letter of love to someone you know. The joy of receiving this letter will most assuredly make their day.
Most of my favorite memories are stories;
 there are no photos of Ed typing me this letter.
The letter is inside of the envelope attached to the layout.
How could  I put off scrapbooking a layout just because of a missing photo.

Travel safe Ed and Lloyd "one wheel in front of 'tother"

2 comments:

Lynn said...

Love that typewriter and Love what you posted!I Love that it is the small things that make us so comletely happy!

Sheila A. said...

I want to tell you something special about my mother. I just read your post about the typewriter and the thank you note. A beautiful post. My dear 85-year old mother is the queen of the handwritten thank you note!! She has never let a day go by to write a thank you note for a gift or a kind word or deed. She is remarkable! I'm always hearing from people about those notes from my mother and that she has never missed one of their birthdays. What a wonderful trait. It made me so proud when I read what you wrote. "Mothers, teach your children well." Thank you for this meaningful post.