I got rid of all my old letters (having kept all that I have ever gotten) because my (soon to be ex) boyfriend found them and started reading them. I should have just kicked him out right then instead of continuing the relationship a few more months. Live and learn I guess.
So potholes. I remarked on my pothole experience a while ago, but I didn’t relate this:
Some people started planting small trees in the potholes, and found that tended to get them fixed right away. In New England there are always small tree because squirrels. Lol
Oh Julie, I love, love, love that you'd kept every letter you had ever received, and hate, hate, hate that your then-boyfriend took it upon himself to nosy through them. 😠
I love the sound of planting trees in potholes! And yay for those New England squirrels being part of that process! 🤣
I still have a few letters from when I was a child.
I kept nearly all of my kids work from school, and a few years ago made scrapbooks for each one of them. It turns out their kids were more interested in the memorabilia than their parents! But it was fun to do, took a long time as I have six kids! Now I am working on a couple for 2 of my granddaughters. I tried to get them started on making their own but I am not sure if they will continue.
I sent my old scrapbook that I kept in school of school events to my classmates (instead of going to a reunion). They appeared to enjoy it. They can keep it lol
Oh, what wonderful gifts for your children, Julie - I absolutely love that!
Jim has a scrapbook which he'd been made to keep on a weeklong school visit as a child. A few years ago we found ourselves working at one of the tourist attractions he'd visited on that trip, and we re-shot one of the photographs he'd taken back then - this time with him holding his scrapbook in the foreground! 🤣
LOL - thanks, Carissa! I reach for hyperbole more than is necessary, but you know me, always going 110%..... 😉
I love that you've called footnotes 'footlights' - that's stunning!
I wonder whose job it IS to keep those pothole statistics? Do they literally count every single one? Or just the ones which irritated road users have reported? Is it like counting birds - where if there's a flock you count ten and then estimate the whole from there - and if so, might the counters be tempted to round up, or to round down? Or just nip into the nearest pub to keep warm/hydrated and make something up? (which after a long hour or two of pothole-noting I would be likely to resort to....).
I've often thought about the tea in Boston Harbour. I don't enjoy drinking tea that's been brewed for any length of time - I love it really strong (teabag mashed to near-oblivion by the power of a hefty teaspoon), but not stewed - and given that over 250 have passed since those tea chests landed in the harbour I'm not tempted to sample the tea-y water. 😉
Where can I apply to be a pot-hole counter? Because I think it's a job I could totally do! Like gluing those little stickers on the produce in the market. Now THAT is a job I was made for.
Anne Tyler! I love her books. And writing letters, I'm all in. I'm fluent in post office and its procedures and mail at least one card with a hand-written message in its interior, per week. I love sending the written word and believe most love receiving it, too. Your letters to Terry and back are one of the favorite parts of my Wednesdays. Receiving them in my In Box is like seeing a friend at a coffee shop. Same feeling!
Oh, how lovely, Mary - '....like seeing a friend at a coffee shop'! 😊
I can't believe I hadn't come across Anne Tyler before - I'm now a third of the way through 'Spool', and I'm loving it. 🙌
When I'd read 'Where the Crawdads Sing', a friend of Mum's had suggested I read 'Crow Lake' by Mary Lawson, and having enjoyed it more than 'Crawdads' I've now read four of hers. My ears had then pricked up when I was listening to a reading-related radio programme, and the presenter had said 'if you like Mary Lawson, you'll like Anne Tyler' - and lo and behold, another connection I've been really happy to explore.
'Crow Lake' and 'Road Ends' (in that order) are two I'd definitely recommend! The other one of hers which I've read is 'A Town called Solace' - it was brilliant, but took me absolutely ages to get into - it was absolutely worth it, though, so I'm glad I stuck with it.
I just put 'Road Ends' on hold at the library; 'Crow Lake' is only available as an e-book and that copy is "in use". I'll check it out when it becomes available. Thanks, RH! 'A Town Called Solace' is also available, so I've put that on my "Later" list in my APL (Austin Public Library) account. Yay! Reading!
I'm reading 'Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museum' by Jason Felch & Ralph Frammolino. It's a quick read and really interesting.
Now I understand why loose leaf tea is so flavourful! All those added extras. And I used to write home too when I spent a year working on a remote Australian island. When Mum died I found the stash. Ah the memories…. Letters truly take you back to the time of writing. Just like art - one drawn or painted en plein air piece is worth at least a hundred photographs. Happy sigh.
Gosh, Beth, that's so interesting - I hadn't thought of letters and art in that way before - but you're absolutely right. I look at things in much more considered a fashion when I'm writing about them or painting or drawing them, and you're right - those pictures are so much more significant and representative of an experienced moment that a photograph can ever be. Ditto letters! xxx
I laughed at your pothole extravaganza! I agree wholeheartedly about the value of letters-- I wrote a letter to my daughter every six months when she was tiny and then every year on her birthday. I bound them into a book and gave them to her (along with some collected notes to Santa, etc) when she turned 18. In the letters I tried to talk about her favorite activities, new skills and enthusiasms, and endearing qualities.
Thanks, Kerry! And gosh, what a beautiful gift for your daughter - well, the letters themselves in the first place, of course, but to have them bound for her when she turned 18 is an absolutely gorgeous idea. I love absolutely everything about that. 😊
"I expected to find a ‘blue plague’ being spread across the capital by a reckless writer of my own acquaintance." Thank heaven, another catastrophe averted. Although I imagine a blue plague would not be as significant as a black one? And about those "self healing roads"? How stupid do they think we are? ( Very stupid.) And, regarding "Franglais", it is not something we hear about across here in the US, but we do have tons of speakers of "Spanglish". I hear code mixing all the time, things like, "Abre la window." and "Vamos a pushar el carro." ( Instead of Abre le ventana. and Vamos a empujar el carro.) Those finicky French are going to have to let it go. Nobody cares. It is a big world...
That made me smile a lot, thank you Rebecca! The creative struggle to write letters home, letters preciously kept and ironed, and it reminded me how much I used to love sending and receiving letters, in times very much gone when there was no other option but to write...:)
Thanks, Mya! It's extraordinary, isn't it, how letters sent in the post were much more of a feature of day-to-day life decades ago than they are now?
My first 'boyfriend' (we were twelve!) used to write to me every week from boarding school. He was so prolific that I'm very sorry to admit that the frequency and scale of his letters rather put me off him - there'd always be pages and pages to respond to!
😂yes, finding the balance is quite a skill! Death by words...was he as talkative in the flesh, I wonder? I am often intrigued by the gap, or match, between someone's writing style and in person connection so to speak.
I don't think he was all that talkative in the flesh. He wrote the most fantastic letters, but gosh, the pressure!!! It was an all-boys boarding school, and in their 'prep' (homework) time they'd have to use the WHOLE time, even if they'd finished all their homework. He was really bright so worked fast.... hence plenty of (too much?!!!) time for writing letters. 🤣 He was so sweet. 🤭
LOL at that reminder about Rebecca and her exaggeration tendencies 🤣
🤣
I appreciate you a million percent, Punit!!!! 😉
I mean, 60,000? Seriously?
😂
Did I mention that I'm prone to exaggeration...?!
Oh, fear not, we already knew that about you, Rebecca, and make allowances.
Ha ha!!!!! 🤣
I got rid of all my old letters (having kept all that I have ever gotten) because my (soon to be ex) boyfriend found them and started reading them. I should have just kicked him out right then instead of continuing the relationship a few more months. Live and learn I guess.
So potholes. I remarked on my pothole experience a while ago, but I didn’t relate this:
Some people started planting small trees in the potholes, and found that tended to get them fixed right away. In New England there are always small tree because squirrels. Lol
Oh Julie, I love, love, love that you'd kept every letter you had ever received, and hate, hate, hate that your then-boyfriend took it upon himself to nosy through them. 😠
I love the sound of planting trees in potholes! And yay for those New England squirrels being part of that process! 🤣
I still have a few letters from when I was a child.
I kept nearly all of my kids work from school, and a few years ago made scrapbooks for each one of them. It turns out their kids were more interested in the memorabilia than their parents! But it was fun to do, took a long time as I have six kids! Now I am working on a couple for 2 of my granddaughters. I tried to get them started on making their own but I am not sure if they will continue.
I sent my old scrapbook that I kept in school of school events to my classmates (instead of going to a reunion). They appeared to enjoy it. They can keep it lol
Oh, what wonderful gifts for your children, Julie - I absolutely love that!
Jim has a scrapbook which he'd been made to keep on a weeklong school visit as a child. A few years ago we found ourselves working at one of the tourist attractions he'd visited on that trip, and we re-shot one of the photographs he'd taken back then - this time with him holding his scrapbook in the foreground! 🤣
I love 1. and 3. at the bottom. Footnotes or footlights for this entertaining letter.
I think a pot hole recount is in order.
There's probably lots of tea at the bottom of Boston Harbor. America will sell it for a fair price. 😉
LOL - thanks, Carissa! I reach for hyperbole more than is necessary, but you know me, always going 110%..... 😉
I love that you've called footnotes 'footlights' - that's stunning!
I wonder whose job it IS to keep those pothole statistics? Do they literally count every single one? Or just the ones which irritated road users have reported? Is it like counting birds - where if there's a flock you count ten and then estimate the whole from there - and if so, might the counters be tempted to round up, or to round down? Or just nip into the nearest pub to keep warm/hydrated and make something up? (which after a long hour or two of pothole-noting I would be likely to resort to....).
I've often thought about the tea in Boston Harbour. I don't enjoy drinking tea that's been brewed for any length of time - I love it really strong (teabag mashed to near-oblivion by the power of a hefty teaspoon), but not stewed - and given that over 250 have passed since those tea chests landed in the harbour I'm not tempted to sample the tea-y water. 😉
Okay. You have to give the pot hole counter a name with this terrific backstory you developed. Haha.
I heard that we have an app here in WA where one can report pot holes. I’ll have to investigate.
Tea-y. Hehe.
Where can I apply to be a pot-hole counter? Because I think it's a job I could totally do! Like gluing those little stickers on the produce in the market. Now THAT is a job I was made for.
Haha.
🤣
Anne Tyler! I love her books. And writing letters, I'm all in. I'm fluent in post office and its procedures and mail at least one card with a hand-written message in its interior, per week. I love sending the written word and believe most love receiving it, too. Your letters to Terry and back are one of the favorite parts of my Wednesdays. Receiving them in my In Box is like seeing a friend at a coffee shop. Same feeling!
Oh, how lovely, Mary - '....like seeing a friend at a coffee shop'! 😊
I can't believe I hadn't come across Anne Tyler before - I'm now a third of the way through 'Spool', and I'm loving it. 🙌
When I'd read 'Where the Crawdads Sing', a friend of Mum's had suggested I read 'Crow Lake' by Mary Lawson, and having enjoyed it more than 'Crawdads' I've now read four of hers. My ears had then pricked up when I was listening to a reading-related radio programme, and the presenter had said 'if you like Mary Lawson, you'll like Anne Tyler' - and lo and behold, another connection I've been really happy to explore.
Ohhhhhh and I've not read Mary Lawson, though when I worked at the library, her books were always checked out. Thanks for the reading tip, Rebecca!
'Crow Lake' and 'Road Ends' (in that order) are two I'd definitely recommend! The other one of hers which I've read is 'A Town called Solace' - it was brilliant, but took me absolutely ages to get into - it was absolutely worth it, though, so I'm glad I stuck with it.
I just put 'Road Ends' on hold at the library; 'Crow Lake' is only available as an e-book and that copy is "in use". I'll check it out when it becomes available. Thanks, RH! 'A Town Called Solace' is also available, so I've put that on my "Later" list in my APL (Austin Public Library) account. Yay! Reading!
I'm reading 'Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museum' by Jason Felch & Ralph Frammolino. It's a quick read and really interesting.
Ooooh, 'Chasing Aphrodite' sounds fascinating, Mary!
It's really good, a quick read. I recommend!
Now I understand why loose leaf tea is so flavourful! All those added extras. And I used to write home too when I spent a year working on a remote Australian island. When Mum died I found the stash. Ah the memories…. Letters truly take you back to the time of writing. Just like art - one drawn or painted en plein air piece is worth at least a hundred photographs. Happy sigh.
Another lovely read. Thanks so much.
Gosh, Beth, that's so interesting - I hadn't thought of letters and art in that way before - but you're absolutely right. I look at things in much more considered a fashion when I'm writing about them or painting or drawing them, and you're right - those pictures are so much more significant and representative of an experienced moment that a photograph can ever be. Ditto letters! xxx
I laughed at your pothole extravaganza! I agree wholeheartedly about the value of letters-- I wrote a letter to my daughter every six months when she was tiny and then every year on her birthday. I bound them into a book and gave them to her (along with some collected notes to Santa, etc) when she turned 18. In the letters I tried to talk about her favorite activities, new skills and enthusiasms, and endearing qualities.
Thanks, Kerry! And gosh, what a beautiful gift for your daughter - well, the letters themselves in the first place, of course, but to have them bound for her when she turned 18 is an absolutely gorgeous idea. I love absolutely everything about that. 😊
"I expected to find a ‘blue plague’ being spread across the capital by a reckless writer of my own acquaintance." Thank heaven, another catastrophe averted. Although I imagine a blue plague would not be as significant as a black one? And about those "self healing roads"? How stupid do they think we are? ( Very stupid.) And, regarding "Franglais", it is not something we hear about across here in the US, but we do have tons of speakers of "Spanglish". I hear code mixing all the time, things like, "Abre la window." and "Vamos a pushar el carro." ( Instead of Abre le ventana. and Vamos a empujar el carro.) Those finicky French are going to have to let it go. Nobody cares. It is a big world...
I don't know, Sharron - I think blue's a rather more alarming shade of plague than black, wouldn't you say?
Ah yes, 'Spanglish'! I love that word! I'm not sure about the French 'letting it go' - the Académie Française is made of pretty stern stuff, I hear!
Ha ha ha!
That letter delivery story is priceless. A beautiful little piece of history.
And I always get such joy from your enthusiastic chatter to Terry - he certainly gets his money's worth!
Write-on, Rebecca!
It was so lovely, wasn't it? I love the letters page of my Saturday paper - there are all sorts of gems to find!
That made me smile a lot, thank you Rebecca! The creative struggle to write letters home, letters preciously kept and ironed, and it reminded me how much I used to love sending and receiving letters, in times very much gone when there was no other option but to write...:)
Thanks, Mya! It's extraordinary, isn't it, how letters sent in the post were much more of a feature of day-to-day life decades ago than they are now?
My first 'boyfriend' (we were twelve!) used to write to me every week from boarding school. He was so prolific that I'm very sorry to admit that the frequency and scale of his letters rather put me off him - there'd always be pages and pages to respond to!
😂yes, finding the balance is quite a skill! Death by words...was he as talkative in the flesh, I wonder? I am often intrigued by the gap, or match, between someone's writing style and in person connection so to speak.
I don't think he was all that talkative in the flesh. He wrote the most fantastic letters, but gosh, the pressure!!! It was an all-boys boarding school, and in their 'prep' (homework) time they'd have to use the WHOLE time, even if they'd finished all their homework. He was really bright so worked fast.... hence plenty of (too much?!!!) time for writing letters. 🤣 He was so sweet. 🤭
My revenge, I mean reply, is in the post
😁