The dying art of letter writing
Painting by George Goodwin Kilburne (source: Wikimedia Commons ) When I was growing up one of the activities we were allow to do on Sundays (the Lords Day) was letter writing. It wasn't a day for playing with toys, mucking about outside, being silly or noisy. It was the one day of the week where, as children, we needed to "really" behave ourselves. In the morning we attended a family meeting, followed by lunch (either at home or at my uncles house) and a quiet afternoon. Letter writing was considered an appropriate activity. If we stayed at my uncles house for lunch, my cousins and I would sit around the kitchen table and write letters to pen friends then we would walk to the local letter box and post all the letters written that day by everyone (our little bit of exercise). Quite often for birthdays we would receive pretty writing paper and on these Sundays we would trade with each other and I would end up with some very nice cards/paper from my cousins. Th...