<p>Someone mentioned pen pals in the purse thread.
Did you have a pen pal or multiples when you were a kid?
I did. She was great. She was from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. I started corresponding with her from a chain mail. LOL. I never did meet her. This was from about 12 to 15 or so. Typical teen stuff. Boy bands, boys and boys. And boys. Clothes. Magazine. Band. And boys.</p>
<p>Yes, I had a bunch of pen pals when I was in middle school. I loved to write, but after a few years, I guess they outgrew their interest in pen pals (probably moved on to boys, boys, boys in high school). One was from CT, one from Idaho, one from Wales, one from Edinburgh, Scotland–I actually met her when I traveled there after high school. (Sort of disappointing because, by then, we had nothing in common). My twin sister had a pen pal from New Zealand. (The one “really cool” thing I remember about her is that she lived in a trailer!)
I had a friend who moved after 6th grade–and we have kept in touch ever since, for 39 years, mostly just birthday and Christmas cards, and now we are FB friends. I haven’t seen her since then. I haven’t thought about those middle school pen pals in years–it was an interesting and educational experience, and a significant part of my middle school life.
I saved all of their letters–there were probably hundreds of them. My mom had a way of making things “disappear,” though, so I’m sure she threw them away after I went to college.</p>
<p>Does anyone do pen pals anymore? Or has it been replaced with something more modern?</p>
<p>This reminds me, I should send an email to my pen pal in Canada… My daughter had pen pals as well. She was pretty young when she started writing them, and we picked out an array of papers with colorful designs and matching envelopes that she could choose from each time she wrote a letter. I had boxes of stationery. I think at least some kids still like to write pen pals.</p>
<p>“Does anyone do pen pals anymore? Or has it been replaced with something more modern?”</p>
<p>D had/has several email/skype pals that she “met” through Tumblr and other sites. I wasn’t thrilled, but since they were far away and I knew she wasn’t meeting them (she was/is a real homebody and I really did pretty much know where she was) I didn’t object tooo much.</p>
<p>In middle school I spent my summers at sleep-away camp, and one year we had an “exchange” camper from Japan. We wrote to each other for years. I remember my father complaining when the cost of postage went up.</p>
<p>I had a French-speaking penpal from Algeria for many years.</p>
<p>I have an internet pen pal now, the mother of a young woman I “met” through CC. Delightful.</p>