I was cleaning out an old tin biscuit box where we kept odds and ends and found these letters that I'd saved. Two were still with their envelopes and were from a man in North Carolina. Two were written by my husband's father and were probably tucked into a package or a greeting card as there were no envelopes. Both men were quite old at the time of writing these.
Here is the Mr. Owens story: we traveled to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for vacations in the summer, when our children were young. As we neared the banks, we would pass a house located close to the road, that had wooden objects lined along the front. They were wind mills, whirly-gigs, and other items, all hand carved. They were truly folk art. One day, we decided that we'd stop and learn more about these items. We met the artist, Mr. Owen. He took us to his little workshop next to his house, and chatted with the children. On the way back home, we stopped and Mr. Owen allowed us to buy one of his objects. He was very cautious because he said that he'd had dealers from New York City come and buy his work then sell it for a lot. But he trusted that we wouldn't do that. I think the first item might have been a duck,
later on other visits, we bought an airplane and a gull. Sometimes, we just stopped to chat. We'd take photos of him and the kids, he'd mark their heights on his door frame and marvel at how tall they'd grown. The letters are about a year apart, each one after summer visits with him. The 1986 letter refers to his having been ill.
The next year, we stopped and spoke with his family. He was in hospital at the time, but his family was happy that we stopped and said they'd pass along to him that we'd been by. I wrote later on but received no reply. I assumed that he'd "passed" as they say down here. We all have fond memories of Mr. Owen.
I cherish these little notes from my father-in-law to our children.
He didn't write often. We usually spoke to them on the phone, and we drove to visit them once or twice a year, usually in the summer and then again at the children's winter school break. Everyone thought we were totally crazy driving north to Chicago in winter. We were, but it was an adventure, and the kids loved seeing the snow. At that time, we didn't get it often or for very long. (Oh how different this winter has been!) I think I'll attach Mr. Owen's letters to the bottoms of two of his pieces of art work. Look for photos of his work on the blog in a bit.
Try it, write some letters. Find a pen or two you really enjoy writing with. If cursive isn't your favorite thing, print it, or draw it. Who ever you send it to will be delighted to receive it. Trust me on this.
I was cleaning out an old tin biscuit box where we kept odds and ends and found these letters that I'd saved. Two were still with their envelopes and were from a man in North Carolina. Two were written by my husband's father and were probably tucked into a package or a greeting card as there were no envelopes. Both men were quite old at the time of writing these. 
later on other visits, we bought an airplane and a gull. Sometimes, we just stopped to chat. We'd take photos of him and the kids, he'd mark their heights on his door frame and marvel at how tall they'd grown. The letters are about a year apart, each one after summer visits with him. The 1986 letter refers to his having been ill.
The next year, we stopped and spoke with his family. He was in hospital at the time, but his family was happy that we stopped and said they'd pass along to him that we'd been by. I wrote later on but received no reply. I assumed that he'd "passed" as they say down here. We all have fond memories of Mr. Owen.
He didn't write often. We usually spoke to them on the phone, and we drove to visit them once or twice a year, usually in the summer and then again at the children's winter school break. Everyone thought we were totally crazy driving north to Chicago in winter. We were, but it was an adventure, and the kids loved seeing the snow. At that time, we didn't get it often or for very long. (Oh how different this winter has been!) I think I'll attach Mr. Owen's letters to the bottoms of two of his pieces of art work. Look for photos of his work on the blog in a bit.
Many of you know how much I enjoy writing letters. You can see on the left that I'm a member of the Letter Writers Alliance, and I follow several letter writing blogs, like Missive Maven and Ang's impression project of a letter a day. Most of us letter writers are fond of pens, pencils and the acoutrements of writing like letter openers and in my case, my antique blotter. I found the blotter in a bunch of items that my husband had. The actual blotting paper in this case is cut from packaging for flour. I didn't know this until the day I took these photos. My husband found this pencil for me a number of years ago. It's silver, with a very long chain. The writing on it says patent pending. Who would wear a pencil like this? I'm so curious about who might have owned it. A librarian? A teacher? I use it and I do use the blotter with both pens and rubber stamps.
I'm inspired to show you some of my fountain pens because I've been reading the Missive Maven's blog - here, and some pen related blogs - here & here. I found Missive Maven through a comment she made on the Letter Writers Alliance site. It's all linked together! Since finding M.M., I've written to her and received mail in return, and have been compelled to find and clean my pens and start to use them again. I'm not completely forsaking my Uni-ball Vision Elite, however.
The purple circle is the top of a tiny tin that holds 6 small cartridges of purple ink from J. Herbin. I got it in Paris and haven't used any yet.
We played this very fine game the other night, after eating some fine peach pie that Chuck had made. It's a game called Going Bananas. (Found Art confirmed the REAL name of the game for me: Bananagrams. Thanks!) The tiles come in a zippered pouch that looks like - a banana! Oh darn, I forgot to take a picture of it. It's like scrabble but with out a board, free form and you can rearrange your tiles if you see a better word or can use more tiles as you acquire them. It's a lot of fun. Noah carries it around with him and breaks it out at a moment's notice. Now I want my own Going Bananas! How about you?
