Photo courtesy of Free Digital Photos
Note, this is a repeat of an old blog post.
Does the title of this blog post bring back memories? Have you ever had pen pals? If so, do you remember their names and where they were from? How long did the writing relationship last?
Pen pals is a somehwat “archaic” term. The reason I say this is because with the advancement of the internet, I don’t think people write letters to one another anymore using pen, ink, envelope and stamp. When I was growing up, I believe my fascination with pen pals was one of the indications that I’d become a writer when I got older.
I recall reading the Archie Comic books and there was a list of people from which to choose pen pals listed in the book. Also, you could send in money to the comic book people and they’d mail you the address for a pen pal. I recall taping approximately 75 cents onto the order form and mailing it out to the comic book people. In return, I received pen pals.
I recall two of my pen pals quite well. One was named Karen G. (I won’t reveal the last name, but I remember it.) and she lived in Jacksonville, Florida. The other one was named Tammy K. and she lived in…Maine, Montana, Massachusetts? I only recall that Tammy’s home state started with a M. I exchanged pictures with both of them. Karen had short curly dark hair and Tammy had long brown straight hair. Sometimes, we’d exchange gifts. Tammy sent me a necklace once and it had a pendant in the shape of a chocolate ice cream cone! 🙂
I wrote to these girls for about a year or so? Then, the relationship just tapered off to nothing. The letters stopped suddenly and when I wrote, I finally received no response from either of them. I wonder where these ladies are today and if they even remember writing to me back in the seventies.
So, have you ever had pen pals? If so, do you remember their names and where they were from? How long did the writing relationship last?
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Back in the early nineties, I put a request in the Writers Digest newsletter for African-American pen pals. I was in my early twenties and trying to get established as a writer; I wanted to know how many other African-American writers read the Digest newsletter. I got about 18 replies, mostly from women. I’m still in touch with four women: Kim from Nebraska, Samella from Illinios, Brenda from North Carolina and Natalie from Ohio. I recall keeping up with Tammy from Texas for over a year- we actually graduated to phone calls before the letters and occasional calls stopped.
Between Facebook and LinkedIn, I keep up with Kim, Samella and Brenda. Natalie and I do better. We graduated from letters to phone calls to an exchange of visits, and we’re still friends to this day (almost twenty years now).
I have to admit, when I heard from so many women so quickly, I was hoping one might be a love connection :-). That never happened, but I did make some really good friends.
Maurice, it’s great that you made some great friends via pen pals! My connections didn’t last as long as yours. However, I was a child when I was writing to my pen pals regularly. It’d be interesting to see what would’ve happened if I’d contacted some pen pals in the early nineties like you did. At that time, I was just a couple years out of college, and starting to work at my first job. I was meeting new people and getting acclimated to the working world. I think it’d have been fun to have a pen pal back then since the internet was not around at that time.