The Joy of Snail Mail

Love this! My husband gave me the “You are doing a fucking great job” one for my first Mother’s Day six weeks after our daughter was born. It was in that period where you often wonder if you are perhaps a terrible mom – in my case, breastfeeding wasn’t going well, I didn’t handle minimal sleep well, and my baby naturally wasn’t a cuddler so I secretly felt kind of rejected by her. Even the baby knew I sucked! It was exactly the right card for the moment and he wrote me the best pep talk inside.

Love this! I’m one of those people who loves Valentine’s Day, so I always mail valentines to my family and closest friends. It brings me so much joy to prepare and send them! <3

I love love love sending snail mail. I pick up postcards everywhere I go and send them to whomever pops into my head. In 2018 I wrote one postcard for every day of the year, and I did the same again this year for the month of May. Some of my notes are only a line or two long, but it’s so fun to think of the joy each card will bring to its recipient. Long live snail mail.

Almost 10 years ago, I became friends with another traveller in Peru. After going back to our respective home countries, we started sporadically sending each other random postcards. He loves to doodle and sends the best postcards full of colourful doodles and super tiny script to he can catch me up on his life. They make me so happy, I keep them displayed in my kitchen. We don’t necessarily write about the big life events, but just the fun little things that have recently brightened up our days.

Another friend who has also always lived on a different continent and I regularly send each other little packages (books, tea, chocolate, funky socks, earrings, souvenirs from our trips…whatever!). I think we originally started with the idea of sending each other birthday and Christmas presents…but affordable overseas mail delivery can be *very* unreliable so now it’s just a whenever thing. Christmas presents in April! July birthday presents in November! It’s actually more fun this way because you’re never expecting it. How fun to get a surprise parcel on a random Tuesday!

I have been massively into snail mail since childhood – when our school did Japanese pen pals I had over 10 pen pals I wrote to for YEARS!

I always have my cel phone pics printed and sent to my grandparents after family functions (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter dinner, Summer BBQs) because it’s SO cheap and easy to do. They don’t have computers or smart phones so it’s the only way they get to re-live those memories and they LOVE it so much. We have a huge family and haven’t seen them since March so I texted all of my cousins to send me pics from their summer and had a big bunch sent to the grandparents. They were overjoyed to be kept in the loop and they look at the pictures every single day, bless their hearts!!

Love snail mail. Big fan.

We moved to a new home early this year, so when the pandemic hit in March we hadn’t yet met all our neighbors. I left short “let us know if you need anything! Here’s our numbers!” notes for several neighbors right at the beginning of the first shut-down. Several texted me. And one, and 89 year-old woman named June, called to thank me. Since then, she and I have exchanged letters weekly (I walk mine over to her house, she mails hers). We’ve also exchanged books, small gifts, vegetables from my garden. She’s lived in her home since the late fifties, and I’ve learned so much about the neighborhood and the city’s history through her. We both can’t wait for the day when we can meet face to face – she is particularly keen to meet my 18 month old son.

I know this is not a political account, but it is worth mentioning that inexpensive, convenient snail mail isn’t going to exist that much longer if the Post Office is run into the ground. Maybe COJ could encourage its readers to buy as many stamps as possible and to call their representatives so that we can still get cute cards like this in the very-near future?

Quarantine has been tough for me this week. I’ve been missing the relationships that I used to be able to nourish regularly — with my church, my friends, my family, my community, my co-workers, even the cashiers at Trader Joe’s! I’ve been wanting to write letters this week to maintain these relationships.

I am 52 and have been sending postcards for as long as I can remember! Whenever I’m on holiday, in my country or another, I always look out for more postcards for my stash. ? During Corona lock down I sent postcards to all my uni students (144!) as well and I encourage students and lecturers to send postcards to us from their holidays (we now have a Postcard Door Of Fame in the central hall ? where those postcards have pride of place). PS I love your cards, but would never send a card with a swear word on it, but that’s just me. ?

I send tons of mail and people love it. If I have stayed with someone as a houseguest sometimes I print a photo from the stay and mail it along with the note. My little nephews love getting mail ?. My 92-year-old grandma sends me letters and I love this too. I moved away from where I grew up so getting a birthday card or package from someone I miss is so special.

We’ve been sending SO MUCH mail since the pandemic started. We were always a thank you card family but we’ve even started getting on birthday cards in addition to the just because cards. I love having an excuse to buy the cool new stamps.

I love these cards! My cousin is an ER doctor in the Bay Area and could barely keep her head above water in March/April, COVID was that bad at her hospital and keeping her away from her husband and baby most of the time. I sent her the “You Are Doing A F*cking Great Job” and she was so touched. I highly suggest this card for medical and other essential care professionals in your life! These are rough times for our essential workers.

My sister makes the most beautiful, funny handmade cards. They are great for just-because notes and keeping in touch.
https://www.queenfayzel.com

I’ve had a close friend since college who has always been the best at snail mail! She always send the most thoughtful cards and we even maintained our penpal friendship during my year abroad in Greece. To me it’s one of the marks of true friendship and compatibility if you can just write someone a card saying “hey, what’s up?”

Also, if you’re like me and bad about not keeping cards on hand, Trader Joe’s always has a great selection, including blank and thinking of you cards, and I always grab a few while I’m waiting in line to check out. :)

I sent real, snail-mail letters to celebrate my quarantine birthday this year! I couldn’t celebrate in-person with friends near or far, so instead I bought beautiful cards and wrote letters to all of them over the course of my birthday month. It was so celebratory for me to be reminded of all the wonderful people in my life and to spend the time writing notes to them – just little cards saying how happy I’ve been to have them in my life for another year. I’ve heard from so many people who loved receiving them and a few friends even wrote letters back. It was also a low-key way to reconnect with people who I’m not good at keeping up with regularly. I think I might make friend-love-letters a birthday tradition!!!

I’m here for the setters! (also an avid letter-writer, but … setters! on Cup of Jo!)

I love sending and receiving snail mail.

Kind of like sending flowers to yourself… I send myself postcards when I’m on vacation with notes like “Remember this.” or “You’re so adventurous!”. Then when they arrive in the mail after my trip is over it brings a huge smile to my face. :)

And yes, a Cup of Jo penpal program would be amazing!

This post made me sad with everything that is going on with USPS. PSA: Because of the massive delays and sabotage of the administration, I have heard that you should avoid mailing your ballots in and rather drop off at your board of elections, or your City Clerk’s Office to be safe. What’s happening is scary.

I love getting mail. My best friend and I have been pen pals for over 30 years. Those letters are like a present when they arrive. I love all those cards You featured too! My fav is the snow hiking one. That always makes me laugh.

Love this! Off to buy some fun new stamps as well.

Also, we must do more to save the USPS.

https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/board-of-governors-of-the-united-states-postal-service-remove-louis-dejoy