pen pals, no the regular mail kind

[kratsayra]

Did anyone else have pen pals, pre-internet? Or not strictly pre-internet, but I had many pen pals, from around 1993-1997. Once people started getting email more and more, the volume of letters started to decrease.

I was like 10 or 11 when I started writing to people, and I would write to other kids my age - we'd talk about what we liked reading and what movies we liked, what we did on vacations, our pets. There was this whole world - ways of exchanging addresses, things you'd write at the end of letters. Instead of ttyl it was w/b/s (write back soon). Or you'd write "Sorry So Short" or "Sorry So Sloppy." I have boxes and boxes of these letters, it's like a strange archive of what american girls did in the early 90s. haha.

Just wondering if anyone else was involved in this stuff?

[SleepyWitch]

Did anyone else have pen pals, pre-internet? Or not strictly pre-internet, but I had many pen pals, from around 1993-1997. Once people started getting email more and more, the volume of letters started to decrease.

I was like 10 or 11 when I started writing to people, and I would write to other kids my age - we'd talk about what we liked reading and what movies we liked, what we did on vacations, our pets. There was this whole world - ways of exchanging addresses, things you'd write at the end of letters. Instead of ttyl it was w/b/s (write back soon). Or you'd write "Sorry So Short" or "Sorry So Sloppy." I have boxes and boxes of these letters, it's like a strange archive of what american girls did in the early 90s. haha.

Just wondering if anyone else was involved in this stuff?

yep, of course.
I had a snail mail penpal who I met through an off-line penpal club before we had internet at home. she was from England and we wrote for 4 years (14 - 18 y/o). but when she started univ all she was interested in was booze and guys and she stopped writing.
I've still got a handful of snail mail penpals, who I got to know through online penpal pages

[LadyWentworth]

I used to have LOADS of them. It just seemed, though, that as time went on, it ended. I don't know how but it did. I guess it is kind of like when you're really good friends with a bunch of people in school and little by little you don't talk anymore. You really don't know how/why it happened but it did.

I still keep in contact with about 6 people. Out of those 6, 5 still write regular letters. We have each other's email, but I guess this is just the way that it will go on. The 6th person and I now email each other. We actually started it to keep in contact more, but it ends up taking just as long for us to get around to writing to each other!

[Virgil]

Did anyone else have pen pals, pre-internet? Or not strictly pre-internet, but I had many pen pals, from around 1993-1997. Once people started getting email more and more, the volume of letters started to decrease.

I was like 10 or 11 when I started writing to people, and I would write to other kids my age - we'd talk about what we liked reading and what movies we liked, what we did on vacations, our pets. There was this whole world - ways of exchanging addresses, things you'd write at the end of letters. Instead of ttyl it was w/b/s (write back soon). Or you'd write "Sorry So Short" or "Sorry So Sloppy." I have boxes and boxes of these letters, it's like a strange archive of what american girls did in the early 90s. haha.

Just wondering if anyone else was involved in this stuff?

I always wanted to, but never knew how to hook up with a pen pal. Perhaps that is why I have taken to this forum. I think it would have been neat.

[jon1jt]

i am a proponent of pen pal-ing. the experience is more real, as some have eloquently described here. i had a pen pal from Alaska when i was eight years old. i actually think i met her through a comic book ad. we both liked Spiderman and Richie Rich. :)

[LadyWentworth]

i actually think i met her through a comic book ad. we both liked Spiderman and Richie Rich. :)

I once met someone through Star Wars Insider! :)

[Niamh]

I had penpals from Malaysia and France.:)
Now i keep in touch with people i've met via email or msn.

[Shalot]

yes! My pen pal was awesome. but I messed up. he wrote me a letter about when he figured out he was gay, or rather when it came to his classmates' attention that he was gay, and he was ridiculed for it

in my response to him I was totally insensitive and completely off base. I completely misunderstood what he was telling me, and I thought that they were just picking on him - I didn't understand that he was telling me that he was gay. Really i was too immature to be his pen pal and I didn't come to the realization until later (after he politely stopped writing me letters) of how I was just a complete jackass in my response.

I haven't had a pen pal since. I think I am too retarded to have a pen pal.

[kratsayra]

I'm amazed by those of you who have kept in touch with or kept snail mail pen pals. I have completely lost all of my old pen pals. Well, actually, one of the girls I wrote to for 4 or 5 years found me on facebook, although we haven't actually corresponded even though we are facebook friends. There are a few others who I really wish I was still in contact with - unfortunately I can't find them on facebook and don't know what else I could do.


yes! My pen pal was awesome. but I messed up. he wrote me a letter about when he figured out he was gay, or rather when it came to his classmates' attention that he was gay, and he was ridiculed for it

in my response to him I was totally insensitive and completely off base. I completely misunderstood what he was telling me, and I thought that they were just picking on him - I didn't understand that he was telling me that he was gay. Really i was too immature to be his pen pal and I didn't come to the realization until later (after he politely stopped writing me letters) of how I was just a complete jackass in my response.

I haven't had a pen pal since. I think I am too retarded to have a pen pal.

That is a fascinating story. As I was looking through my old letters I was wondering if any of my pen pals were gay and how/if they would have conveyed that eventually.

I'm sure you aren't too retarded to have a pen pal. Everyone makes mistakes like that sometimes. I have reacted insensitively to someone in the reverse way - I thought an old friend was coming out to me, but I don't think he was actually ready to come out to anyone yet. So he probably just thought I was making fun of him. Luckily, he was able to forget about that incident . . .

[SleepyWitch]

I'm amazed by those of you who have kept in touch with or kept snail mail pen pals. I have completely lost all of my old pen pals.

most of my penpals are relatively new ones, too. there's a lot of coming and going in the penpalling world.
I think part of the reason is people have become so superficial. when you read the penpal ads of some folks on the net you get the impression they are looking for themselves or their mirror image rather than another person. it's like they can communicate only with someone who is their clone. or they list 25 lines of hobbies (which makes me wonder how often they actually do these) and materialistic things they like, which usually are the same ones everyone likes (e.g. cofffee, tea, chocolate, scented candles and so on), but tell you nothing about themselves (if there is anything beyond those hobbies and scented candles to tell about)

[jon1jt]

yes! My pen pal was awesome. but I messed up. he wrote me a letter about when he figured out he was gay, or rather when it came to his classmates' attention that he was gay, and he was ridiculed for it

in my response to him I was totally insensitive and completely off base. I completely misunderstood what he was telling me, and I thought that they were just picking on him - I didn't understand that he was telling me that he was gay. Really i was too immature to be his pen pal and I didn't come to the realization until later (after he politely stopped writing me letters) of how I was just a complete jackass in my response.

I haven't had a pen pal since. I think I am too retarded to have a pen pal.


so basically what you're saying is that you traumatized the poor kid for life. :p

you're too retarded? :lol:

[Niamh]

yes! My pen pal was awesome. but I messed up. he wrote me a letter about when he figured out he was gay, or rather when it came to his classmates' attention that he was gay, and he was ridiculed for it

in my response to him I was totally insensitive and completely off base. I completely misunderstood what he was telling me, and I thought that they were just picking on him - I didn't understand that he was telling me that he was gay. Really i was too immature to be his pen pal and I didn't come to the realization until later (after he politely stopped writing me letters) of how I was just a complete jackass in my response.

I haven't had a pen pal since. I think I am too retarded to have a pen pal.

Come on Shalot! Dont be so hard Maybe you had a lot on your mind at the time. Have you ever thought of trying to find him and write him a letter saying sorry?

Retarded to have a penpal?:lol: shalot sometimes you crack me up! Just because you made one mistake with one penpal. God only knows how many times i've made an arse of things!:p

[NikolaiI]

I'm not sure if I have any friends that are gay but not bi. Can't think of any right now, anyway.

I'm almost positive that I had a penpal or two back in elementary school (age 6-11), but if so we only wrote a couple times, and I forgot all about them pretty quickly. When I was about that age I met a few people on-line that I've stayed friends with, notably a friend from Malaysia who's now going to school in Australia.

No, no, yes I do; lol. And I should have thought of him sooner since he's so flambuoyant !

[Pensive]

Nope, no pen-pals in a traditional way through letters. Aren't IM-pals/forum-pals enough? (and I am such an internet freak that I sometimes solve mathematical sums while sitting near computer not to mention practising other 'simpler' subjects) :p

[Bakiryu]

No. Back home kids don't really write and my parents here would be freaked out if I actually gave my address to someone. I usually chat with some forums pals with PM or my regular e-mail.

[Mortis Anarchy]

most of my penpals are relatively new ones, too. there's a lot of coming and going in the penpalling world.
I think part of the reason is people have become so superficial. when you read the penpal ads of some folks on the net you get the impression they are looking for themselves or their mirror image rather than another person. it's like they can communicate only with someone who is their clone. or they list 25 lines of hobbies (which makes me wonder how often they actually do these) and materialistic things they like, which usually are the same ones everyone likes (e.g. cofffee, tea, chocolate, scented candles and so on), but tell you nothing about themselves (if there is anything beyond those hobbies and scented candles to tell about)

My letter to you was sent back. So I have to re-mail it to you! My bad!!

I'm pretty busy...its not the writing part that I forget, its the mailing. I'm always welcome to penpals, and my friend actually wants one...she isn't on this forum or anything.

[SleepyWitch]

My letter to you was sent back. So I have to re-mail it to you! My bad!!



weird :) make sure you put the right postage :) do you want me to PM you my address again?

[Koa]

I had tons and still do. No wonder I'm addicted to the internet,it's the modern version of penpalling.
At home I have 2 or 3 drawers full of letters, I don't even remember how many. One or two of this drawers are from the same person. This is year is our 10th year of correspondence. Yes, 1997, I was 15 and barely knew how to switch a computer on.
Although lately we write much more rarely, even 4-5 months between letters. She has a full time job and recently decided to do University so it's understandanble. Around 1990-2000 we wrote each other pretty much every week... We met only hmmm 3 times I think (last time last 31st December as I happened to be in her city) even if we are only like 100km apart. The beauty of it was the writing....we used to write huge letters, even 20 pages (for page I mean one side of a sheet) or more. Although in the past 2-3 years I haven't felt so involved, she talks a lot about herself and every letter is a list of how many men she had to reject...

I also have a penpal from France at the moment, I found her on a penpalling website a couple of years ago, she's also really into penpalling. The idea was to practise my French but we ended up writing in English...

I never liked people who wrote like half a page... it bored me. Hi how are you I'm fine the sun is shining tomorrow I'll go to a party what is your favourite colour goodbye. :rolleyes: I'm a graphomaniac...

[Shalot]

My favorite part of writing letters was the stationary. You used to be able to go to the mall and buy it by the sheet. Sometimes I would write on purple paper and mail it in a blue envelope. I had paper lined with scottied dogs, balloons and hearts. So did my pen pal :lol:

I liked to buy special pens with a good tip that made writing neatly easy. I liked turquoise or purple ink. and of course, sometimes I sealed my letter with a sticker.

But the pest part was reading a good long letter, no matter what it was written on. Sometimes, I would not use my stationary just because I was in the black ink and legal paper kind of mood.

I know I kept my letters and i liked reading over them again and again. I wonder what happened to them? I am sure at some point I made the conscious decision to throw them away, but I can't remember that part of it.

[Mortis Anarchy]

weird :) make sure you put the right postage :) do you want me to PM you my address again?

I got your address right, but they sent it to Conneticut! How crazy is that! I'm sending it tommorrow though. Promise;)

[SleepyWitch]

I got your address right, but they sent it to Conneticut! How crazy is that! I'm sending it tommorrow though. Promise;)

hahahahha :lol: that's too cool :)

[kratsayra]

I had tons and still do. No wonder I'm addicted to the internet,it's the modern version of penpalling.
At home I have 2 or 3 drawers full of letters, I don't even remember how many. One or two of this drawers are from the same person. This is year is our 10th year of correspondence. Yes, 1997, I was 15 and barely knew how to switch a computer on.
Although lately we write much more rarely, even 4-5 months between letters. She has a full time job and recently decided to do University so it's understandanble. Around 1990-2000 we wrote each other pretty much every week... We met only hmmm 3 times I think (last time last 31st December as I happened to be in her city) even if we are only like 100km apart. The beauty of it was the writing....we used to write huge letters, even 20 pages (for page I mean one side of a sheet) or more. Although in the past 2-3 years I haven't felt so involved, she talks a lot about herself and every letter is a list of how many men she had to reject...


It sounds like you did the whole pen pal thing as much as I did. But you seem to have kept up with it better than me. I had a few pen pals that wrote very long letters too, it was great. Their lives always seemed so much more interesting than mine!


My favorite part of writing letters was the stationary. You used to be able to go to the mall and buy it by the sheet. Sometimes I would write on purple paper and mail it in a blue envelope. I had paper lined with scottied dogs, balloons and hearts. So did my pen pal :lol:

I liked to buy special pens with a good tip that made writing neatly easy. I liked turquoise or purple ink. and of course, sometimes I sealed my letter with a sticker.


Oh man I loved stationary. Yes I think the name of the artist or whatever was Lisa Frank. Dogs and cats and dolphins and bright colors. My goodness. It's not so appealing anymore, but it was then. And I also had a collection of stickers, to stick on letters and envelopes and also to trade with pen pals.

[aabbcc]

Yes, and I still have got them. :)
With most of the people I keep in contact via internet, but there are a selected few with whom I stayed in contact with letters, and that is truly something special. I have also gone once or twice through an opposite process, i.e. I shifted to traditional letters with people whom I met online.