A reader sent this musing:
Dear Editor,
Reading about preppy notecards and such, it strikes me that the term preppy has become rather like grok in Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. It seems to mean so much as to defy definition. To my mind, things like notecards, dogs, cars, sailboats, etc. fit, along with traditional natural fiber clothing, into an ethos of appreciating the old, the simple, the utilitarian, and the traditions that hold up well, the thing before preppy if you will. How do notecards fit into this? Simple. You send notes, thank you notes, sympathy notes, and thinking of you notes, sitting on a chair at a desk, using an old fountain pen with blue black ink. You don't dash off a text. The list goes on and applies to pretty much all of the items and clothes that surround us. Doing things in the old ways may ultimately be our salvation. Slowing down is so good for all of us. Being able to slow down is a disappearing skill.
Inveterate cursive note writer. Shaded Roman. Plain. Black Ink. Disposable Pilot Varsity does a better job than Mont Blanc Diplomat. Old School courtesy.
ReplyDeleteRecipient is surprised with the gesture. End of an era.
I am another, despite my cursive being so spidery as to be indecipherable without great effort. I once had a Mont Blanc Diplomat myself. I could never connect with it. An inexpensive, or at least much less expensive, Pelikan Souveran is a much better pen for me. It has served me well for decades. My wiping rag, with half a century of inks, might be worth framing to show who I was.
DeleteAgreed!
DeleteOn the budget end of the spectrum, try twenty-five dollars on a Pilot Metropolitan and a converter (i don't like the squeeze fill on that Pilot pen). Nice pen, irrespective of price. if you favor a Pelikan Souveran, I use an M800, try a broad or stub nib, the ink flows nicely and looks better on the page. I don't do note cards, but I always have a box of Crane's stationery, heavy cream-colored paper with my name embossed across the top, and matching envelopes.
DeleteI use my father's old Parker 51 fountain pen. It writes like a dream on good paper. Crane note cards and letter paper engraved with dark gray ink, almost black but not quite.
DeleteA handwritten note is a gift. I have almost every birthday and anniversary card my husband ever gave me because they are all handwritten notes.
ReplyDeleteYes, a handwritten note is a gift. In the same way, we must not exclude the fact that a well written text is also a gift. Eras come and go. We must move forward bringing the past with us but also stepping gently into the future. Tread lightly but do move forward.
ReplyDeleteThe recipient of a gift, or a thank you note, values the gift or the note based on the perceived inconvenience expended by the gift giver or the note sender. Move forward if you will. But which would you value more, a text message that pops up on your smart phone, or a hand addressed envelope containing a handwritten note you find in the mailbox at the end of your driveway? Absolutely guaranteed; that hand addressed envelope will be either the first piece of mail you look at or, it will be set aside, with anticipation, to open and read at a quiet, relaxed moment.
DeleteVery true! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
ReplyDeleteKind Regards,
Heinz-Ulrich
Note writing is a matter of respect and consideration not limited to prep culture at all. Re handwriting, my son works at a long-standing "preppy" lib arts college in the NE and says that students are so used to and skilled at texting, typing e-mails and posts that handwriting is a lost skill, as is manual calculation ("Long division? What's THAT!??") Being asked to use the old blue books for exams would lead to cramping of the hands, illegible essays and outraged complaints.
ReplyDeleteI understand, and obviously embrace, the concept of moving on, witness my using my iPad to post this, but I think the point is not rejection of progress but posing the question of whether aspects of progress interfere with our ability to slow down. Riding in a ski boat puts me in a very different frame of mind than sailing or rowing a dinghy does. Walking a golf course with my bag over my shoulder is much more tranquil than criss crossing every hole with my playing partner in the cart. Sanding a boat with a sanding block wrapped with sandpaper is quite a change from an electric sander. I am not saying that one or the other approach to these or other tasks is better, but for me the more relaxed frame of mind of slow ways is usually preferable. Sometimes technological progress is both better and not incompatible with such a mindset. My fuel injected Mini is a lot more environmentally friendly than old carbureted Triumphs and BMWs were and can be perhaps a tad more carefree. I look forward to the solving of range and recharging issues with EVs.
ReplyDeleteSomething that I learned from my next door neighbor, aka Aunt Pittypat Hamilton was delivering notes through the mail slot or mailbox. Inscribed below your name was "By Hand". Does not get any better than that. Aunt Pittypat had the goods to back it up. Unreconstructed Confederate, she brought out her scrapbook, attended the premier of "Gone With The Wind" in Atlanta in December 1939. Showed me program. Made the Society Section of the Atlanta Constitution, I read it. Attended the Cotillion Ball. Met Clark Gable & Oliva De Havilland. Thereafter, I christened her Aunt Pittypat Hamilton. I miss her, they don't make them like that anymore.
ReplyDeleteI prefer to write notes on plain, excellent stationery which may or may not be monogrammed. Very occasionally, on good-quality waterfowl or Labrador notecards. When I see a card that is too fussy, or precious, or ditzy, while I appreciate the sentiment behind the writing, an image remains of the person writing it.
ReplyDeleteImagine the image of them receiving a note written on a waterfowl!
DeleteMy mother and hers wrote letters to each other every week from 1935 when she went off to boarding school until (it seemed) 1958 after she had her fifth child. It only seemed so because we found all the letters from her mom tied up in ribbons in a trunk upon my mom's passing and we were going through things from her past to share among my brothers and sisters. The most surprising and intriguing item we found was a marriage certificate that showed she and my dad eloped in front of a Revere Beach justice of the peace a year before they had their 'official' wedding ceremony for family and friends. An amazing secret they kept for more than fifty years of marriage, only revealed after her passing. The certificate was in a secret compartment in her desk. that we only came upon by sheer good luck
ReplyDeleteYou and I share a similar story - my parents eloped several months before the “official” wedding. Aside from my father’s closest WWII comrade, no one knew until my parents told me just after their fiftieth “official” anniversary. Dad got around to telling my brother thirteen years later during his final illness. Yep, a I kept their secret too.
DeleteWhen you are in Venice don’t miss the opportunity to visit Gianni Basso and his son Stefano. They use ages old linotype presses to custom print notecards.
ReplyDeleteThe presses were “inherited” by Gianni from an Armenian monastery that existed on one of the islands in the Lagoon. We’ve been visiting their shop in Canareggio on Calle de Fumo for over twenty years. Gianni and Stefano are very personable, and speak some English. They are eager to exchange with you ideas for design and color. When you send one of their cards you send a hand made Venetian gift. You also send a card that will evoke memories of your visit to the city that is, without question, unlike any other in the world.
I send handwritten (cursive) notes to my elementary school age granddaughters and have been doing so for years. Just found out they have a hard time reading them because no one teaches or reads cursive anymore. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteMy daughter is trying to encourage writing over texting with my thirteen year old grand-daughter. Try being the operative word. I don't criticise. Years of keyboarding and more lately, arthritis in my fingers means my own cursive is nothing like it once was.
ReplyDelete"Handwritten" means different things to different people. For my mom with Parkinson's, it meant dictating texts to us to say hi to our siblings when we visited her, so they could be in touch real-time. For my aunt, it meant long chatty letters that were easier on her eyesight to type (when peeps learned to touch type) and print. For my elderly cousin in a convent, it means emailing from her iPad, so she doesn't need to track down cards and stamps. I'm good with hearing from anyone anyway they want :)
ReplyDelete