Snail Mail

I remember spending time, as a child, at my Grandma's house on the farm where my Dad grew up.  The barn, chicken coop, windmill, and fields were all still there but it was no longer a working farm, no animals.  My Grandma once asked me to go get her mail.  I walked to the end of the very long gravel drive to her mailbox with long grassy meadows on either side.  There were no house numbers then; her address was simply the family name, rural route 1 (RR#1), city, state and zip.  When I removed the letters (more letters than bills - how nice would that be?), I saw a chipped, but very pretty, china cup at the back of the box.  It seemed so weird.  I gently carried it back to the farmhouse and dumped it with the letters on the kitchen table.  My Grandma then made me march right back down the drive and put it back in the mailbox.  Apparently, the china cup was how she bought stamps.  When she ran out of stamps, she just put her letters in the box without stamps.  The mailman (it was a man then) would put stamps on the envelopes, put the remaining book of stamps (they really were little books of stamps) to be exchanged for money the next day via the china cup.

We have this little blue book of "things to do this summer" that the kids write in when they think of somethingt we just don't have time for right now but that can certainly fit into our summer schedule.  So far on the list are: make paper, stay up all night, camp out in back yard, and make ice cream.  I just added, "write snail mail letters".  It will be fun to see the mail truck pull up and know that there's a good chance of a letter showing up among all the bills and junk.  So, if we send you a letter, please write back!
Do you and your someone special have "a song"?  Ours is Bob Dylan's To Make You Feel My Love.  The Letter by The Boxtops is my parents' song.