A Reason For Real Letter

[Charles Rice]

I just came upon about 60 letters my father wrote from England during WWII to his brother. Will e-mail let us look back 70 years like that?

[Sailor Kenshin]

That's a treasure trove.

[TheRealScubaSteve]

lets hope it doesnt because if it did wed find lots of spelling errors. c u l8r

[Pickwick]

emails will never have the same personal feelings and expression a handwritten letter conveys. I write letters to my Sister and she replies by email. Somehow they are lack luster. I have tried printing them and saving them, but end up throwing them in the trash can.

[Paddler]

In 70 years, the technology will have changed so fast and so often, the people in charge of maintaining the archives will have dropped the ball at least once and everything will be lost.

 

When I was drafted in 1969, I tried to write home every week. I didn't always make the deadline, but I later inherited all those letters. There are 72 of them. They were kept locked in a fireproof box. Now, I can read one of those letters and think of about five more stories that could have been included and weren't. I am writing them down now. Letters to the World.

[Charles Rice]

What an odd feeling, holding his old letters. Like he was still alive and talking directly to me.

 

Just read three typed pages of a Buzz Bomb Attack.

Edited June 19, 2015 by Charles Rice

[Pickwick]

What an odd feeling, holding his old letters. Like he was still alive and talking directly to me.

I can understand your feeling. Your Father had written down his his thoughts and emotions at his time of writing those letters.

 

I have a book titled "War letters" collected by Andrew Carroll. The letters are from The Civil War thru Vietnam. Even reading these letters written by individuals I've never known stirs my emotions, particularly realizing what they were going through at the time of writing.

[prophoss]

That is way cool! To the point no I don't think e-mails will be kept for 30yrs. Why would you keep an e-mail that long? Though I could see keeping letters that long, as you well know. enjoy those letter. What a gift!

[eduardp]

Forget and pardon this. Is late into the night and I should not write in the forum.

Edited June 20, 2015 by eduardp

[Drawing61]

Last year while sorting through my deceased mother in law's belongings I found a box full of letters from her four children.

The ones from my husband are a vivid description of his experiences in the navy during the Korean War. I'm very glad she saved them.

[openionated]

Most emails and texts don't survive 70 days, much less 70 years. What will historians have to base their information on once all the documentation is lost?

[Rocket1]

Most emails and texts don't survive 70 days, much less 70 years. What will historians have to base their information on once all the documentation is lost?

The FPN diary writers of course!

 

In all seriousness, though, we must seek to preserve what we can...

[domnortheast]

Most emails and texts don't survive 70 days, much less 70 years. What will historians have to base their information on once all the documentation is lost?

OK, playing Devil's advocate here, while vast quantiles of emails and electronic documents will undoubtedly be lost in no time at all it must, of course, be remembered that the sheer volume of correspondence produced now makes all the written material produced in the last 1000 years pale into insignificance. So, by the law of averages alone there will still be more written stuff out there in the future....it just won't have that same class or appeal.

 

Dom

[Charles Rice]

OK, playing Devil's advocate here, while vast quantiles of emails and electronic documents will undoubtedly be lost in no time at all it must, of course, be remembered that the sheer volume of correspondence produced now makes all the written material produced in the last 1000 years pale into insignificance. So, by the law of averages alone there will still be more written stuff out there in the future....it just won't have that same class or appeal.

 

Dom

 

Guess I'll wait another 70 years and see what happens.

[FLZapped]

Such a rich topic. I have some very old emails and in one case I took the chance after probably a decade to see if they were still around and we have since graduated to writing real letters and keeping the snails employed.

 

On another topic, I found some letters in my father's house after he passed, written in Lithuanian, to his father. Ultimately, they led me to my family there and an opportunity to visit with them! It just doesn't get any better than this.....

 

-Bruce

[DrDebG]

In 70 years, the technology will have changed so fast and so often, the people in charge of maintaining the archives will have dropped the ball at least once and everything will be lost.

 

When I was drafted in 1969, I tried to write home every week. I didn't always make the deadline, but I later inherited all those letters. There are 72 of them. They were kept locked in a fireproof box. Now, I can read one of those letters and think of about five more stories that could have been included and weren't. I am writing them down now. Letters to the World.

 

That is great that you are writing those stories down. Well done!

 

My father wrote some letters during WWII that he sent to his mother. My grandmother was the historian of the family. When my grandmother died, my aunt ransacked my grandmother's home and took pretty much anything of value. She then burned all of my grandmother's collections out of her hatred for her mother. The rest of the family was incensed. We have all have tried to recreate the family history, but so much was lost. Thankfully, my father was persuaded to once again write down many of his stories. He also wrote several book chapters chronicaling his experiences before he passed away. My family treasures those writings, and we are adding our own.

 

I am excited that some many FPN members are excited about keeping the art of writing alive!

Edited June 27, 2015 by Penfection

[missuslovett]

There's something tremendously evocative about the written word. My mother wrote many stories. She never published any and finding binders full of her writing after she died was very affecting. Seeing her handwriting was just like having her speak to me. Type script wouldn't have been the same.

[En passant]

It must be amazing to read those letters from your father. Money couldn't buy that and I agree it is so much more personal than an email.

[linearM]

My wife and I were in Peace Corps in Bolivia, South America in the 70's. We wrote letters back and forth to our families and when we got back they gave them back to us. They became a journal of our thoughts and feeling during a special time in our lives. Just reading them brings us back to that time over 40 years ago.

 

We just had our grandsons visiting us. The oldest is six and just learning to read and write. We wrote two letters to his father and one to is other grandmother. He really seemed to enjoy it we included a drawing he'd done. I'm sure his parents and grandmother will cherish the letters and writing the letters reinforced the reason for learning to read and write. So perhaps there will be another generation of letter writers.

 

I doubt that emails will make it over time.

[Charles Rice]

It just got a little more interesting. A few days ago I got a packet from my brother. There was some bad news in it - he and his wife are calling it quits (or is that good news?), but the good stuff was a letter my grandfather sent to my father on the eve of my father and mother's wedding. Seems that pop was a bit inexperienced (he was 23 back in 1941) so gramps is giving him some advice on the duties of a husband. Not at all what I would have expected. Seems as though old George Rice (pop) got it right. I guess people were just about the same 75 years ago.

Edited July 12, 2015 by Charles Rice