Love Letters
I wonder if anyone writes love letters any more? It would be such a shame if they don’t. You cannot beat a passionate love letter. I valued mine. But now it is all computers, phones and text. There is nothing to hold on to; nothing tangible.
My first love letters were to and from Glenys, the first love of my life when I was ten. We poured our hearts out to each other. She only lived at the top of the road and we saw each other every day but still it seemed important to write some things down. The written word has a different impact. You can reread it, ponder on it, absorb it and re-enjoy the words. You could hold it in your hand.
There were some things that we did not want anyone else to read. We did not want snooping parents or siblings reading our inner-most passion. We tried invisible ink but that was unsuccessful so we turned to code. That made it even more fun. I was keen on codes and secret agents. I devised a code using the periodic table and letters of the elements. We could spell out our love onto paper in numbers. It would be impossible to crack because you could use different elements with the same letters. It worked.
Looking back I suppose it wasn’t really very romantic. To receive a page of numbers did not exactly get the pulse racing, but it was fun deciphering he code and working out the words of love.
It all came to an abrupt end when Glenys moved and left me heart-broken. But at least I had the letters.
But then tragedy struck. I kept the letters in my bedside cabinet hidden in a box. It was ostensibly a game. I put the letters under the pieces. However, it obviously wasn’t hidden well enough. My sister who was four years younger than me went through my things and found them. She took them to my mum.
These were my precious love letters. The only thing left of Glenys. For some inexplicable reason my mum threw them away. I still do not know why she did that. I can only think that she thought I was just a kid. They can’t have meant much to me. But they did. I was bereft.
I would love to have those letters now and to read them aqnd peer through that little window into the mind of that ten year old that I was. I poured my soul into them and so did Glenys. They were worth more than anything to me.
But my passion for writing love letters did not stop there.When I was courting my wife as an eighteen year old cavalier, I regularly wrote letters. We were both at college different sides of London so there were times when we did not see each other too often. I was always looking for a way of impressing her. I was forever the young romantic. She’d receive an unexpected telegram delivered to her college classroom.
The biggest ploy of all was when I had this idea of swamping her with love letters. I wrote fifteen in one day, all sent adorned with orange half-penny stamps so that they’d stand out. The next day I sent another thirty and the following day another batch. Her pigeon-hole at college was crammed with them. They made quite a splash.
I am not sure what I wrote in them. It wasn’t easy writing so many. Each one was two pages long. I simply wrote everything that came into my mind.
We still have those letters. They are stored in a box upstairs and haven’t been read for forty years.
I’m going to rummage them out and re-read the romantic thoughts of the young fool I was. I’m sure it will be fun visiting with that naive idealist again.
Long live the love letter!
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I have the “Love Letters” my Father wrote my Mother, my Father was a very shy reserved non drinking Irish man. I read one or two and had I not known they were from my Father I would have concluded they were written by someone very shy. As for my mother’s letters to my Father I don’t have them but I am sure they would have been the complete opposite she always had enough to say!! As for my late husband and myself, no Love letters, we worked in the same building!
I think there is something special about love letters. I still miss those!
Reblogged this on Opher's World and commented:
About time for digging up a few anecdotes.
It’s so sad that people don’t write letters anymore!
I know. I sent fifty in one day!
I’ve never sent a letter😓😢
Well you should start right away. Letters are special. I sent my girlfriend 150 letters (all two pages) covered in halfpenny stamps, in 3 days when she was at college. Her pigeon-hole was crammed to overflowing.
She dumped me straight away of course.
Haha you may have come on a little too strong for her 😂
I need to find a pen pal if that’s still a thing.
It’s my romantic nature.
I’m the opposite. I’m the least romantic person ever 😂
I’m sure that can’t be true.
No it’s true I am not a serious relationship kind of person
When the time’s right.
Ours was a long distance romance for the first few years. I was in boarding school, spending only the holidays at home several thousand kilometres away. No mbl phones back then! So letters it was. Then we broke up. I got really angry and tore up all the letters. Then we reconciled and started writing again. Somewhere I have a pile of his tucked away – mine are lost.
I still like to write letters and cards the old fashioned way – I think there is a personal touch and elegance to it that is not possible electronically.
I had a long range romance too! Fun!
It’ll be good to read those letters in your old age.
Not there yet – I wonder when age becomes old?
I think that for many people it never does – until they look in the mirror.
I have got few love letters. The first ones I got when I was about 13-14 from a boy I had a crush on. Then later I got two letters from a man I had left. Letters where special then! I also have had many pen pals younger but now the time is different. What’s nice about computers is that you can communicate with whole world and you can easily take photos and put those in your texts.
There are a;lways good and bad things about new technology. There is something special about a handwritten letter. It’s personal in a way that an electronic message can’t be.
I know what you mean!
I smiled all the way through this anecdote, Opher. I wrote love letters to a girl who lived about an hour away when I was about 15. I don’t have hers anymore. When courting my wife, I wrote some poems – they weren’t good, but she loved them! I wonder if we would have written letters if we had had the computers and other devices that we have now.
I doubt that we would John. But those letters and poems are precious aren’t they? They capture the essence of the moment.