You've Got Mail

I'm old fashioned. I love to get mail. 

I'd rather get one good long old fashioned letter than three dozen emails.

And postcards! I so love them! I ALWAYS sit down on vacation and jot a few lines to friends and family. I purchase post card stamps the week before we go, then when I write them, I have the stamps ready in my billfold to grab.....and throw those cards in the mailbox! Fast and easy. And postcards don't cost all that much to mail.

 I have noticed in recent years that it's getting increasingly harder and harder to come across postcards though....unless you are in a resort area, there are not as many postcards in small towns or cities anymore. Heck, several times IN RESORT/VACATION spots, I've asked where the postcards are and I've been given a look by a much younger person like "postcards? not.........sure.......what that is?"

I love to receive postcards as well, and have a pretty big collection from over the years. Fun to sit down with them on a rainy day. Colorful and exotic postcards from all over....wonderful little mementos to keep and treasure. Pieces of the world--from all over.

Thank-you notes. So important to take the time to write them and to send them. They are short and sweet...it doesn't take much effort to properly thank someone for a gift, a lunch, a party, a job interview. It's just good manners. And isn't it just SO NICE to receive one?---for a book loaned, a one dish meal taken to someone who just had surgery, a ride you gave someone on a sizzling hot summer day. 

Catalogs---fun to receive. Fun to sit down, take a coffee break and look at your favorite fashions, home furnishings, shoes, jewelry---whatever catalogs come to your mailbox. Fun to look at the seed catalogs in the dead of winter and start planning our gardens and making out our orders and looking at all the pretty pictures of plump red tomatoes, peppers, marigolds, fresh corn, green beans, scented rose bushes, squash, and big bright sunflowers. In the old days I loved to receive the Sears Roebuck and JCPenny and Speigel catalogs....loved to look at all the fashion! When I was little I made paper dolls from them.  And around November the coveted "Wish Book" from Sears would arrive---we sure had fun poring over those toy pages and making our Christmas lists! Sometimes while watching "The Grinch that Stole Christmas" or "A Charlie Brown Christmas" ....or the "Rudolph" movie. Those were very special presentations....and only aired once a year! Just
like the Wizard of Oz---once a year!  We had no VCR'S or DVD'S or rentals or Netflix.

Magazines...ah yes........good old fashioned magazines. I know we can read them all online nowadays...but I will never give up my real magazines. I love to receive my favorites in my mailbox each month. Look forward to seeing how they've styled the covers on each issue according to the seasons.Just like a brand new fresh book, I love the way books and magazines smell and how they feel in my hands, turning the pages. Love to carry a magazine or two in my purse in case of long lines or office appointments. 

Cards.....cards are very nice to receive aren't they? You know somebody was thinking of you, or that they remembered your birthday or anniversary. I love to send cards and I so enjoy sitting down and making cards and valentines, the old fashioned way. Give me a box of photos, tape or glue, stickers, lace and ribbons...and I'm in my happy place! And while the end result is probably NOT going to look 'professional'...who cares? Isn't the thought of the card and the sentiment with it--thats what counts, right?

Christmas cards are the best! Sadly, that is a tradition that is fading away. I never thought I'd see the day when people no longer desire to send Christmas cards. I know we are all busy. And I know so many say it's "expensive". It's not really....if you buy ahead, a little at a time, or even make your cards. We've had to get more selective in how many we send out anymore....but I hope to never give it up entirely. 

Back in the old days...I remember during the holidays people hanging up their cards and there would be SO MANY! They were fun to look at and so festive. Hanging on a string (or two or three!), taped to the door or the staircase or even on the frosty winter windows---Christmas cards were part of Christmas. The mailman's arrival each day bearing mysterious packages from far away and stacks of colorful envelopes  plastered with Christmas seals and postmarks was something to look forward to, especially if you had friends or family who lived far away. Sometimes that Christmas card greeting was the only thing you would hear from some people all year, so it was a nice way to catch up on everybody's lives....plus pictures!--many cards had portraits or snap-shots tucked inside! 

Back when our kids were little, we would usually take them to the "photographer" to get their annual holiday portraits made. We would dress them in their holiday best...reds and greens were the most popular of course, and get them into their brand new little clean un-scuffed shoes and boots and scoot off to our local Sears/Wal-Mart/Olan Mills/J.C.Pennys/K-Mart Portrait studios.
 Children and even little babies were put in front of all kinds of "background" choices....it was fun to pick! Snow scenes, fire place with stockings hung, Christmas wreath, wrapped packages, toy-land, etc.  About four weeks later, our "proofs" would come in and we could go view them and choose our packages to buy. It was a custom and a tradition I surely miss. I just don't think young families do that anymore, do they? I think most of those portrait studios closed down.
I sure miss alot of the old traditions. 
And I sure miss getting good mail.