....S.W.A.K.

Once upon a time, there was a little girl. This little girl had a grandma who lived right around the corner from her. This little girl's mother used to get the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes envelope and gave her the stickers to play with. So one day, this little girl wrote a letter to her grandma, placing a magazine subscription sticker as a stamp, and left it in the mailbox. The mailman carrier came to pick up the mail, placed the little girl's letter in his pocket, & continued his duties. When he reached this little girl's grandmother's home, he delivered this letter. This carried on for quite some time. This little girl... was me!

I fell in love with writing letters.

Many years ago when I was much younger, I had a pen pal. I met another little girl who wore hearing aids just like I did, and we wrote letters to each other for a very very long time. I'm talking 15+ years! I also wrote letters to my "Grandma in Texas" My "grandma in Texas" (who actually lives in Florida now) saved a majority of my letters and gave some of them to me when I got married. It was so fun to read all the fun things I wrote about! And the silly things!

Before long, I was writing letters to my friends in junior high and high school. We would fold our notes up in a certain way, passing them off. We would sign our names to LYLAS (Love Ya Like A Sister) or S.W.A.K., or Ta Ta! or Toodles!

Then, I fell out of writing letters. Hello email! Goodbye writing letters in the old fashioned way! I miss it. I really do. I miss the excitement of waiting by the mailbox to see if I received a letter! I miss seeing people's handwriting! Miss taking the time to write a personal note... just to say "hey! Thinking of you!" or "hey, let's have lunch!" or "you're so awesome, just thought you should know that!"

Speaking of mailboxes... I miss having a mail carrier. So many different kinds of mailboxes & styles of mailboxes out there nowadays. I miss seeing my regular mailman come through. Sometimes I had a lemonade on hand for him when my girls were little. It was pretty hot out there, and they do such a good work ensuring we get our {uh-hum} bills to us. Now, I see someone driving a mail car. :( They're probably happy about that, and I don't blame them one bit! If I had to walk miles & miles every day vs driving around in a vehicle, I'd probably pick a vehicle too.

Somehow, we could cutesy up our mailboxes. I remember watching "UP!" with the girls, and in the beginning of the movie, the husband & wife painted their mailbox, and accidentally left his handprint on the mailbox, and the wife stamped her handprint on it as well. Years later, it was still standing, obviously meaning something to them. Yes, I know it was just a cartoon, but still!!

I always think "it would be so cool to have a neat mailbox". When we lived in Independence, we lived in several homes that were OLD. Very OLD. But very beautiful, and this mailbox would've been perfect with the character of the homes we lived in. Look! A place to put the newspaper! At least, I always thought it was a place to put the newspaper back in the old days!

Or is this more your style? One has to have a sense of humor, obviously!

Or, this is the redneck's version of a mailbox.....

But this one? Ah, this one is my ideal mailbox.
It's red, and it's very very old looking.
Perfect!

Do you miss getting good mail?