WHERE HAVE ALL THE PEN PALS GONE?

Back in the "Good Old Days" (my kids think during the horse & buggy times), I loved getting a letter in the mail. My Texas Grandmother would occasionally write me and I had a few "camp friends" that wrote, but I was always excited and pleased to receive some "mail" when Daddy made his daily post office run. This was the standard form of communication during those days. Long distance telephone calls were expensive and saved for special times and emergencies. You didn't just pick up the phone and dial the number. You had to go through the "Long Distance Operator". The call went sort of like this:

Dial 0
"Operator"
"Operator I would like to place a long distance call to name or number"(If you wanted to talk with only one person-which was called person to person it was more expensive. A call just to a number without that option was cheaper)
"Hold while I place your call"
If the call was "person to person", the operator would say, "I have a long distance call for ______." If that person was not available, she would ask would you like to call back.

As a teen, with many friends who lived out of the city on another cities' exchange, there was a little cheating going on (POOR MA BELL). The teen would place a person to person to their number to some bogus person. When the call was received at home, it was a signal to come pick them up, I'm alright, etc. etc.

I digress!!!!!! It was quite the highlight to get a letter. The children's magazines I read all had listings in the back for people wanting to be penpals. You could start a long distance conversation via the US Mail. By writing letters, you could see what life was like in another part of the country or even another country.

Those days of letter writing are long gone-well at least letter writing via US POSTAL SERVICE. E Mail has now become our mode of written communication. I am just as delighted to get an email from a friend as I was a letter via snail mail. Communicating is communicating and email provides a wonderful method to keep up with your loved ones. We can now pick up a telephone or cell phone and have a conversation, but the email can be sent when it is convenient and read when it is convenient. The best of all worlds and FREE!

The blog has become one of my favorite forms of communicating. Much like an email, but many can read the communication without the dreaded "Forwards". As an added bonus, you may even end up with a few "E Pals" along the way. I have discovered new friends through my blog and reading the blogs of others. I enjoy hearing about their lives, struggles, and blessings. I have learned new recipes, cooking tricks, trials and joys of living in different parts of the country, family trials, and on and on. It is fascinating reading blogs from all segments of society and I am glad our former presidential candidate invented the internet.

The one Huge Down Side to the internet and email and blogs is the lack of parental control. My Daddy knew who was sending me a letter before I even saw the envelope. He was in control. I feel for today's parents and their struggle to maintain this same level of control. When I reflect back, I am glad that I was raised during "The Good Old Days!"