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Post by gillyp on Jun 21, 2024 13:42:18 GMT
Or maybe you still do?
I think it's a dying form of communication/friendship, taken over by social media. That's a shame as it was always lovely having an envelope from a foreign country land on the mat. Even more so for the stamp collector I was then.
My first pen pal was arranged by primary school when I was 9 and was a collaboration with a Canadian school. I've forgotten her name and we stopped corresponding after about a year. I had many more after that including girls in Spain, France, Germany and boys in Africa and Japan. I still have a lovely set of mother of pearl inlaid chop sticks sent from my Japanese correspondent. All the friendships fizzled out by the time I was at the end of high school. The longest I wrote to someone was probably 5 years to Maria in Sweden. I wrote in English to them all apart from the French girl where our letters were half English and half French, but every single one of my pen pals wrote excellent English.
Anyone else enjoy this?
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Post by Restless Spirit on Jun 21, 2024 14:39:10 GMT
How to tell you how old I am, without telling you how oldI am. Ha.
All three of us sisters had penpals at various stages of our life, while we were in school. I’m pretty sure they were all sponsored by our (what we in the US called jr high) school.
My oldest sister had a French penpal. That sister went on to become a high school French teacher for over 45 years.
Our middle sister, had a Spanish penpal. She majored in English and Spanish in high school, but was never able to teach due to her cancer.
I had a British penpal, we bonded over British rock ‘n’ roll groups. Particularly the Dave Clark 5. Ha.
All of us continued with our penpals until each of us graduated from high school.
I always wondered what happened to my penpal. It was a lovely experience. I also think that was when I first started using fountain pens. I’ve just recently rekindled that hobby. Very fond memories of the lost art of writing letters.
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Post by epeanymous on Jun 21, 2024 14:44:16 GMT
I had a German one who sent me cut-out paper art! She and I only lasted maybe a year or two.
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Post by librarylady on Jun 21, 2024 14:46:45 GMT
I attempted to have one. It lasted about 1 year.
My sister has kept hers. Last time I asked they were still in touch--about 20+ years.
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Post by lainey on Jun 21, 2024 14:48:42 GMT
I still have a pen pal, we've known each other for over 30 years now. Letters aren't as frequent as they used to be as we keep in touch via messenger mostly, we've met a couple of times and I consider her to be one of my best friends. We've been there for each other through lifes ups and downs, I really need to sit down and write her a proper letter soon.
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Post by quinlove on Jun 21, 2024 14:54:30 GMT
I always wanted one badly when I was in elementary school. I tried it a few times and it was a one response and while that was exciting, it didn’t move any further. I was envious of those who had one.
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Post by gillyp on Jun 21, 2024 15:00:05 GMT
How to tell you how old I am, without telling you how oldI am. Ha. All three of us sisters had penpals at various stages of our life, while we were in school. I’m pretty sure they were all sponsored by our (what we in the US called jr high) school. My oldest sister had a French penpal. That sister went on to become a high school French teacher for over 45 years. Our middle sister, had a Spanish penpal. She majored in English and Spanish in high school, but was never able to teach due to her cancer. I had a British penpal, we bonded over British rock ‘n’ roll groups. Particularly the Dave Clark 5. Ha. All of us continued with our penpals until each of us graduated from high school. I always wondered what happened to my penpal. It was a lovely experience. I also think that was when I first started using fountain pens. I’ve just recently rekindled that hobby. Very fond memories of the lost art of writing letters.  Ah, The Dave Clark Five.  What about The Hollies? |
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Post by Prenticekid on Jun 21, 2024 15:00:44 GMT
I did. I bought an 8-cent stamp off of eBay to scrapbook about it. A penpal's parents made her stop writing to her penpals because stamps went up to 8 cents!!
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Post by atomicdog on Jun 21, 2024 15:37:04 GMT
When I was in, probably 4th grade, I was a pen pal with one of my best friends who lived 3 short blocks away! For whatever reason, we never would hang out together (we did much later on) but we wrote back and forth! LOL!! I guess it just suited us. Now, 57 years later, we're still kind of pen pals - she lives hundred of miles away and we don't call each other, but we message each other all the time!
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scrappert
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Post by scrappert on Jun 21, 2024 15:41:26 GMT
I did! From the Philippines and her handwriting was so nice an pretty! I can't even remember what grade it was.
I do not have a pen pal any longer.
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Post by sunnyd on Jun 21, 2024 15:46:16 GMT
Yes, there was a show in the 70's called Big Blue Marble on PBS that shared stories about children around the world. At the end of every show they gave an address you could mail your name, age and address to and they would match you up with a penpal. I got matched with a girl in England. She was 7 and I was 8 so we've been in touch for nearly 50 years. I still have the first letter and many of the little trinkets and gifts she sent me. I have a 1977 Silver Jubilee Crown silver coin issued to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Queen's accession to the throne. That was one of my greatest treasures growing up. We wrote to each other until Facebook became a thing and now we are Facebook friends. I have never met her but I love her dearly.
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Jun 21, 2024 16:01:30 GMT
What interesting timing! Yesterday my young son read the words "pen pal" in a story and asked what it meant. Completely foreign to him.
When I was in early elementary, our teacher set up pen pals between our class and one in England, but for safety, the letters were only addressed to the schools (and sent as a large package, instead of individually). It only lasted a few letters worth and ended at the end of the school year.
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Anita
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Post by Anita on Jun 21, 2024 17:01:00 GMT
I had a pen pal from Japan when I was in grade school. I still have her letters 45+ years later. We only wrote to each other for a few years. It was set up through my school because they wanted to practice their English writing skills. She just suddenly stopped responding and it made me sad!
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caangel
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Post by caangel on Jun 21, 2024 17:04:09 GMT
I think it's a dying form of communication/friendship, taken over by social media. While letter writing has become a dying form of communication, I think social media has actually made it much easier for people across the world to connect and develop relationships. IMO that was a significant goal of having a pen pal, the relationship not the form of communication (outside of a lesson in writing letters in school 😉). I had one in Japan that I think was the daughter of a friend of a friend of my parents. I moved in the 4th grade and kept in touch with a friend through about HS. I tried to find her/her family on FB and sent a few messages but I have never heard back. |
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Post by katlady on Jun 21, 2024 17:06:38 GMT
Yes, I had a lot when I was in the 5th to about the 8th grade. I found many of them through the teen magazines.
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Post by katiekaty on Jun 21, 2024 18:54:37 GMT
I had several a a high school kid. We eventually switched to email and now do more texting than emailing. I have met two that live in the country and one that lives in Scotland that I never met and one passed away about 5 years ago that I never met either!
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Post by lisae on Jun 21, 2024 20:54:39 GMT
I had a pen pal in High School. A few years ago on the old board, someone started a pen pal thread. I had a pen pal for about 3 years. I enjoyed our letter correspondence. We still exchange the occasional greeting card.
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RosieKat
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Post by RosieKat on Jun 21, 2024 22:19:23 GMT
I had a couple of them. The first was a French granddaughter of a friend of my grandparents. My grandmother said something about me learning French in school, so somehow everyone decided we should be penpals. She spoke no English, and the French I was learning was Cajun French with one second grade class every week or so. We tried, we really did, but needless to say that didn't last too long!
And then I had one in England when I was in junior high. We used to trade pages from the pop star magazines, but that was about how in depth our relationship was. Again, I think it was just a handful of times.
I've never been a very good letter writer, I don't think.
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Post by melanell on Jun 21, 2024 22:58:06 GMT
Yes, we wrote to kids both in our own country as well as ones in other countries.
We also had a teacher who had the kids write to celebrities. And speaking of Tell me your age without telling me your age----I wrote to Linda Evans, LOL!
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teddyw
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Post by teddyw on Jun 22, 2024 0:08:49 GMT
I had one from Australia when I was in Girl Scouts. She didn’t write nearly as often as I’d have liked her to.
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Jun 22, 2024 0:51:48 GMT
Yes, a lifetime ago...
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Post by littlemama on Jun 22, 2024 1:12:08 GMT
There was a Japanese Exchange student in my East Asian Studies class and we wrote to each other for a couple years. I often wonder what she ended up doing in life
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Post by AussieMeg on Jun 22, 2024 4:24:56 GMT
It's funny that you started this thread today. Just yesterday, I was thinking about the US pen pal I had when I was about 14yo. For some reason I still remember her address, over 40 years later! I even looked up her address on google maps yesterday. But for some reason, I cannot for the life of me remember her name. We only wrote to each other a couple of times. So if anyone knows the girl who was living at 69 Capt Shankey Drive, Garnerville NY, in the early 80s - tell her I said hi!  |
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Post by gar on Jun 22, 2024 8:54:08 GMT
I didn’t but my Mum had a Swedish penpal when they were in their early teens. They kept in touch for the rest of their lives, both got married and had a family and we went to Sweden quite a few
Times to meet them and have holidays there when we were kids . Mum’s friend came to my wedding and I keep in touch with her sons via Facebook 😊
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Post by lesserknownpea on Jun 22, 2024 9:35:35 GMT
I had a Japanese pen pal for years named Chiko. Our extra thin letters to each other traveled back and forth to each other regularly, sharing our girlish ideas and dreams.
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Post by gillyp on Jun 22, 2024 12:03:11 GMT
That's a lovely friendship for your mum gar and nice memories to have. It's so nice that a few of us continued and still have that friendship now. |
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Post by peasapie on Jun 22, 2024 12:06:50 GMT
I exchange 4x6 art cards with 10 friends around the country so yes, I have art pen pals.Also, I email regularly with a friend who lives across the country. It’s not a letter in envelope pen pal, but the content is the same as the way I’ve always written letters: update on what’s new, answer their questions and ask some of my own.
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Post by compeateropeator on Jun 22, 2024 12:27:26 GMT
In grade school I had a pen pal from Nebraska or Iowa and I am from New England. It was arranged by our teacher as a class project, where we just wrote to someone from this other school to kind of get kids to see regional differences, etc. I ended up continuing to correspond with my person for quite a few years until highschool (I think).
I also wrote to various kids I met at our family’s business (a seasonal campground) so I technically had met them but many for just a few days or a short period of time and then had a longer interaction through letters. Some I never saw again and some I might have seen briefly every summer or two.
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Post by airforcemomof1 on Jun 22, 2024 15:42:41 GMT
I somehow saw something on AOL many years ago re birthday twins. I guess it was a message board. I found a birthday twin and we wrote and exchanged gifts for several years. Something in my life happened that took all my energy and thoughts and I stopped writing her. Same thing with another lady I somehow was matched up with online. This was a scrapbook pen pal. She and I corresponded for quite awhile and also exchanged gifts. It was me again that stopped. I did enjoy both and now that I am retired and life is somewhat calmer I wouldn’t mind having a pen pal again.
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mimima
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Post by mimima on Jun 22, 2024 15:46:55 GMT
My Big Blue Marble pen pal and I are Facebook friends
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What about The Hollies?
