Where Have All Handwritten Notes Gone?

Where have all the handwritten notes gone, long time passing?

Where have all the handwritten notes gone, long time ago?

Where have all the notes gone?

Young girls and boys have not written them one by one.

Oh, when will they ever learn?

Oh, when will they ever learn?

Poetic license taken from Where Have All the Flowers Gone 
written by Pete Seeger and sung by Peter, Paul and Mary

The Lost Art of the Handwritten Note, an article in The Wall Street Journal, reported in a 2012 British survey that two out of three people said that the last thing they wrote was for their eyes only—a hastily scribbled note, a shopping list or a reminder.

Think about the number of handwritten cards that you have penned recently. How many have you received? Probably fewer than in years past.

When you see the handwriting of a loved one does your heart flutter just a little? If you are like me, it feels special to think that someone took the time to write something in their own handwriting and mail it to me. I have kept notes and letters from my courtship with my husband.

The loss of the handwritten note is an unfortunate trend. Handwriting can be difficult to read, but there will always be someone who recognizes even the worst of handwritings and treasures it because of who wrote it.

My husband has a letter that he wrote many years ago to his parents tattling on his older brother, “He shot me with a rubber band when the war was off!”

Today’s gift was to handwrite a note to a friend who is having a difficult time. May we all write more handwritten notes so future generations won’t ask, “Where have all the handwritten notes gone.”

In Giving and Handwriting,

Robin