mattyblog

Writing Letters to Strangers

How would you introduce yourself to a stranger? Let your subconscious mull that over for a minute.

Recently I bought a brand-new old typewriter. I bought it with the purpose of sending letters and post cards to friends. So far I've sent several, and the experience has been quite enjoyable. It feels great to open up a USPS drop box and dump in several pieces of mail at once. I've lived so long within the confines of the instant feedback internet-age that waiting for the mail is so outside my normal life experience that it is fun. It is also a little thrilling not having any idea where my silly communiques are at any given time. The only feedback one gets when mailing a letter after a quick glance at the little pickup schedule printed on the lid of a USPS drop box is the loud smack of metal banging together as the creaky drawer closes and absorbs your mail into the very edge of the postal system.

Since I started writing my friends I think I've discovered a real love of sending and getting mail.

Pretty quickly though I realized that I needed to find an additional outlet for all this new excitement I had for snail-mailing. I didn't want to flood my friends with postcards or letters every week - or make too much work for them if they felt like responding. I had no idea that a place like TypePals even existed until I heard Joe Van Cleave discuss it on their YouTube channel: it is a typewriter focused pen-pal community! I was aware that some pen-pal communities existed online, but I was surprised to find one almost wholly focused on typewriters. It seemed like a nice community of type nerds who were having a good time sending each other letters and post cards in the same manner I was already sending to my friends from "real life". So, I decided to join the site and see if slow correspondence through the mail was something I wanted to pursue. Some folks really make a hobby out of it - maybe I would too.

Within days of joining TypePals I received a wonderful letter from someone welcoming me to the site. I was grateful for not having to make the first move as the hard work of making contact was done for me. The person who wrote me gave me several questions to answer and also set the tone of the introduction like one would in any face to face conversation. Writing a reply felt simple. I just followed the rhythm of their letter. I told them a little about myself and how I arrived at Typepals, as well as how I became interested in typewriters. Being in the position to send a reply as my first message gave me the needed confidence to start reaching out to folks.

But again, how do you introduce yourself to a stranger? How do you abbreviate your life and what you're all about in a couple sheets of A5 newsprint? It was daunting looking at a stack of empty paper trying to answer that question, but what I decided was that it wasn't necessary to even make an attempt to be thorough. The stakes here are low. In the best case I start a correspondence with someone and possibly make a friend, but in the worst case I get some desperately needed typing practice. While I hope to get replies from everyone - I'm reminding myself that I should be realistic and I shouldn't expect replies from everyone I reach out to. I think recognizing that really took the pressure off in my introductions! I didn't want to write stuffy and serious letters anyway. I'm doing this for fun!

The pile of newsprint in question

I decided to keep it light, and give myself permission to ramble a little bit (which I would have done anyway!). I told folks about where I live, the plans I have for spring and summer, about my dog, why I decided to get a loud manual typewriter, and I asked them about themselves. I did my best to bring my real self with these letters. Each letter was a little different from the last: in content, length, and how much I let myself ramble. TypePals has profiles for members where we're able to fill in a biography along with our interests, so there were plenty of topics at hand to ask about. I left in all the typos. I read a quote once that said something like: "how someone writes a letter is a view into their personality" - I can't think of a better window into my own personality than a typo-filled letter on hand-cut-to-A5-size newsprint.

Since my first letter sent as a reply, I've introduced myself to three new people across the US and (so far) Australia. These are just the beginnings of a slow-motion conversation! Like any other conversation, you just have to follow it wherever it takes you. That has always come naturally to me when speaking to others face to face; I am hoping for snail-mail to be no different.

The first letter I recieved ended with a wonderful sign-off that was completed with a beautiful stamp of a rattlesnake in a column adjacent to the author's address. I decided to adopt something similar for myself using a stamp of a pine cone. The newsprint absorbs the ink of the stamp well, thankfully.

A photo of a sign off from a letter. The text reads 'Bye for now!!' followed by 'From, Matty' and there is some address information ommitted. To the right, there is a stamp in red of a pinecone.

PS: I just got a postcard from Canada while I was finishing up this post! Cool!