https://www.loc.gov/item/98508422/
In October, 1938, Babu writes:
Monday, October 3rd, 1938
It’s nice to ride to work in company in the morning. Three of the girls go to Bay Path and Jamie’s sister goes to civil service. This is National Letter Writing Week so I answered two letters. Mom is still taking Evelyn’s place at the shop. She started my campus suit today.
Tucked right in the middle of this dairy entry is something at the extreme of nostalgia: National Letter Writing Week.
We all know the feeling of getting a letter in the mail, right? Gawd, some of you might be too young, have you never gotten a personal letter in the mail? I’d like to think: not possible! At least a birthday card? But now I think, when was the last time I got a letter or card in the mail?
I wanted to know more about this week and as far as the 1930s goes, all I could find after a half day of research was the above, no surprise here, WPA poster. The link can tell you a little more.
I wondered, does this celebration still exist? I did some more research and found that it…does? I found conflicting dates, days, months, weeks in a simple Google search, which was honestly all I had time for. It seems true that, like every thing else, April is the month we now celebrate not a week but a month long love affair with letters. Like all affairs should be, yet rarely are, this affair seems like a well kept secret.
Here is what I did find in my research besides a few – you’d think I’d have found more – blog challenges:
USPS had special stamps in 2015:
This post by USPS which was actually written after the month was over:
National Card and Letter Writing Month
This link provided me with the most information but I still have many questions:
https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2001/html/pb22046/cover.html
If you know or learn anything thing else, comment and let me know! I’m thinking there needs to be a movement to make this a better known celebration! April is too many things, National Poetry Month, April A-Z, Camp NANOWRIMO. I plan this year to bring this week back the first week of October! #BringBackTheLetter! Who is with me?
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I miss hand-written letters. Any friends I used to get them from I now interact with via social media or email, and yet… no, it’s not the same.
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Letter writing is such a lost art. I would love to see it revived and become common again. What are we going to remember the history makers of our time by–tweets?? UGH!
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Oh we will certainly remember one by tweets! I’m sos insecure about the mess my handwriting is and how much of a mess what I send out is. I never do! Trying to work on that!
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No words right now, except WOW! I love handwritten notes and things even if for nothing but the different colors that envelopes and paper/cards come in these days. Quite interesting to learn about a National Letter Writing Week, I would never have imagined that there was such a thing.
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Letter writing is something that certainly deserves to be kept alive. I must admit I can’t get back to it and wish I could! Thank you very much for stopping by!
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It was a pleasure!
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