Thursday, August 7, 2008

Letter Writing

My parents were very avid letter writers. After my Mother lost her sight, she would dictate her letters to Daddy, and he would send them. Her family used to write once a month to each other, as the "family letter" to keep up with happenings. After they started to die, their family letter died with them. All of them were written in their hands and mailed. Oooo, what a concept! Letters that were in envelopes and put in a real mail box. My parents never had a computer or access to e-mails. If they had, I suspect that they would have spent their entire day writing to their friends. It was important to stay in contact with others. When I was in college, I used to write to my friends, and they would write to me. Except for Sonny Smith, who I used to send cassette tapes, and he would send them back to me. We would record music and talk about whatever was on our minds. The "Walter Durst Radio Hour" was born on station "WOW", which stood for "Walter Oh Walter". Yeah, they were pretty funny, and I still have some copies. They were classics. With the advent of e-mail, letter writing has become something of a thing of the past. I have found that if someone doesn't have e-mail, I will not write to them. If I do, it is rare. I can count on one hand the number of people I write real letters to. It is an art that is slowly or quickly going away. The art of letter writing. Maybe because you don't have to pay for a stamp. Maybe because you forget how to write. At any rate, it is a lost art. Years from now, letters on paper will be collectible, if they aren't already. How much do you bid on a letter from Mary Frances Durst to Walter Durst? $500? Sold American!!

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