Letters? Stamps? Mail?

I grabbed hold of a brief moment of inspiration to start going through our garage and “cleaning out”. We moved last year and I felt the boxes that were left were just begging for my attention. So what began as a brief overhaul of a few boxes began a trip that lasted all afternoon.
My mom was diligent at keeping scrapbooks. That’s right I’m the grown up that still can find a 5th grade report card and a flattened balloon from my sixteenth birthday party. I have notes from teachers and plaques from sports banquets still at my viewing disposal. Once I made the move to a house, my mom gladly shifted all of “My Boxes” into my capable hands.
I was amazed at how much of my life was in those boxes. Do you remember the hand written letter? You know the one I’m talking about. You get out a sheet of paper, you take a pen and you spend time writing to someone by hand. Then, when you are done you stick the paper in an envelope, find a stamp, address the envelope and take it to the mailbox. Crazy huh? Well, I found notebooks and shoeboxes filled with letters from friends. Many of them were passed during high school Biology class, but a number of them came in the first couple of years of college. I couldn’t believe how long some of those letters. I haven’t written an actual letter in some time. Email, Instant Messenger and cell phones pretty much keep me in touch with the outside world. There was something different about holding all of those letters from friends and family and I realized I was gawking at them. Who would sit and do this now? As much as I love my friends and family, I know I would succumb to the convenience of an email. I wondered if I should set up some sort of museum for my children. I would have to grab a couple of glass cases and install some mood light to reflect that “long ago” concept. Inside those boxes I would put a handwritten letter and envelop side by side. Along side the letter perhaps a VHS tape and a cassette tape. I still have my “boombox”, perhaps I could get that in there. There would be a Walkman, a rotary telephone and a camera that actually uses film.
I would run a red rope around the glass encasing and we took take time to ooh and ahh. “Mom what’s that?”
“Well, when I was young and I took pictures with a camera I couldn’t see the picture instantly on a screen. I had to take at least 24 pictures, rewind the film, drop it off at the store and wait three or four days to get my pictures back.”
“Wow. That is just silly”.
“I know can you imagine?”
Of course if anyone’s interested, I do have a physical address with a box that accepts mail… the kind you have to put stamps on 