The letter writer

Last month, I attended a high school class reunion. Actually, the reason for traveling cross country was more to visit family (and a few bookstores) than to see how much my old mates could "lie" about how great everybody looked and how much they haven’t changed.

What surprised me about the gathering of old graduates was a “gift” from an old bud … a packet of letters I’d written during my first few years in college.

Reading them, I was surprised that my letter writing style mirrored my fiction writing, and that it remained similar decades later.

I used to write letters all the time, to friends and relatives, because back then, I enjoyed the process. I used fountain pens, ballpoint pens and pencils and carved my feelings and thoughts into lined and unlined paper. Sometimes I wrote on the inside and/or outside of the envelopes.

I recall hearing from some letter recipients about how my messages inspired or created a smile.

I don’t remember when I stopped writing letters; I think I’ll blame the electric typewriter since I don’t recall typing letters. But, reading these epistles created in another life made me smile … and made me wonder: Does anyone write letters anymore?