The postal service says that third-quarter mail volume is down 7 billion pieces, or 14 percent, compared with a year ago - the largest consecutive third-quarter drop in total volume since 1971. To offset the resulting budget crunch, officials are also considering discontinuing Saturday deliveries and eliminating some classes of stamps. They say that some collection boxes are already being removed from city streets, in part because they contain just 25 or fewer pieces of mail within a given period.
Yet for many twentysomethings and teens who have grown up on digital media, post offices and collection boxes are about as vital as pay phones.
That's a sharp contrast from an assembled group of residents of the Oak Crest Village retirement community in Parkville. These senior citizens can remember when everyone wrote letters and looked forward to receiving them.
This is an abridged version.
Click here to read the full feature in
THE BALTMORE SUN
One Oak Crest Village resident, Thomas Foster, co-wrote three mathematics textbooks, each 350 pages long, that were written by hand and mailed to a publishing company in New York.
When asked how many communicate through social networking services such as Facebook, only a few of the senior citizens raised their hands. A few turned to their neighbors and asked, "What is that?"
That generation gap in correspondence has been a blow to the postal industry. Officials say the decline can be traced to everything from the telephone industry's deregulation, which made calls cheaper, to more women leading busier lives outside the home, to consumers doing more business online.
Nancy Pope, historian for the National Postal Museum in Washington, said that these days, most people enjoy receiving a letter for special occasions. For all other correspondence, they prefer digital media.
"You can't always depend on technology. You want the communication that suits the communication purpose," said Jan Z. Olsen, founder of Handwriting Without Tears, a curriculum-based program in Cabin John that teaches students and educators handwriting skills. "There are places where texting is the best way or using a phone is best or e-mails are best."
Handwriting Without Tears involved its students nationwide in the letter-writing process earlier this year by sending 35,000 letters to new President Barack Obama. Olsen said that her company has flourished as schools abandoned letter writing.
Most of the seniors at Oak Crest Village say that they enjoy getting handwritten letters from grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Still, they notice how times have changed.
Gene Foster said he's observed that high school kids who volunteer at Oak Crest Village hold their pencils the way one would hold a stirring spoon - inside the fingers of a clenched fist. Thomas Foster (no relation) said that while attending Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, he was taught that most writing done by hand was called lettering.
"Printing was a mechanical process done by a printing press," he said, adding that back then, cursive writing was called longhand.
Jane Awalt said that people used to take more pride in their penmanship. Nancy Leggiadro said that these days most everyone uses the letter ending "Sincerely"; years ago, they used such phrases as "Warmest Regards." [rc]
E-Mail: joseph.burris@baltsun.com
Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun
August 7, 2009
USA: Age in which letters are old-fashioned takes toll on Postal Service
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BALTIMORE, Maryland / Baltimore Sun / Good Life / August 7, 2009
Residents of retirement home remember a different day
By Joe Burris
As the U.S. Postal Service considers closing hundreds of post offices nationwide to save money, one question looms: Who'd notice?
The postal service says that third-quarter mail volume is down 7 billion pieces, or 14 percent, compared with a year ago - the largest consecutive third-quarter drop in total volume since 1971. To offset the resulting budget crunch, officials are also considering discontinuing Saturday deliveries and eliminating some classes of stamps. They say that some collection boxes are already being removed from city streets, in part because they contain just 25 or fewer pieces of mail within a given period.
Yet for many twentysomethings and teens who have grown up on digital media, post offices and collection boxes are about as vital as pay phones.
That's a sharp contrast from an assembled group of residents of the Oak Crest Village retirement community in Parkville. These senior citizens can remember when everyone wrote letters and looked forward to receiving them.
This is an abridged version.
Click here to read the full feature in
THE BALTMORE SUN
One Oak Crest Village resident, Thomas Foster, co-wrote three mathematics textbooks, each 350 pages long, that were written by hand and mailed to a publishing company in New York.
When asked how many communicate through social networking services such as Facebook, only a few of the senior citizens raised their hands. A few turned to their neighbors and asked, "What is that?"
That generation gap in correspondence has been a blow to the postal industry. Officials say the decline can be traced to everything from the telephone industry's deregulation, which made calls cheaper, to more women leading busier lives outside the home, to consumers doing more business online.
Nancy Pope, historian for the National Postal Museum in Washington, said that these days, most people enjoy receiving a letter for special occasions. For all other correspondence, they prefer digital media.
"You can't always depend on technology. You want the communication that suits the communication purpose," said Jan Z. Olsen, founder of Handwriting Without Tears, a curriculum-based program in Cabin John that teaches students and educators handwriting skills. "There are places where texting is the best way or using a phone is best or e-mails are best."
Handwriting Without Tears involved its students nationwide in the letter-writing process earlier this year by sending 35,000 letters to new President Barack Obama. Olsen said that her company has flourished as schools abandoned letter writing.
Most of the seniors at Oak Crest Village say that they enjoy getting handwritten letters from grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Still, they notice how times have changed.
Gene Foster said he's observed that high school kids who volunteer at Oak Crest Village hold their pencils the way one would hold a stirring spoon - inside the fingers of a clenched fist. Thomas Foster (no relation) said that while attending Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, he was taught that most writing done by hand was called lettering.
"Printing was a mechanical process done by a printing press," he said, adding that back then, cursive writing was called longhand.
Jane Awalt said that people used to take more pride in their penmanship. Nancy Leggiadro said that these days most everyone uses the letter ending "Sincerely"; years ago, they used such phrases as "Warmest Regards." [rc]
E-Mail: joseph.burris@baltsun.com
Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun
The postal service says that third-quarter mail volume is down 7 billion pieces, or 14 percent, compared with a year ago - the largest consecutive third-quarter drop in total volume since 1971. To offset the resulting budget crunch, officials are also considering discontinuing Saturday deliveries and eliminating some classes of stamps. They say that some collection boxes are already being removed from city streets, in part because they contain just 25 or fewer pieces of mail within a given period.
Yet for many twentysomethings and teens who have grown up on digital media, post offices and collection boxes are about as vital as pay phones.
That's a sharp contrast from an assembled group of residents of the Oak Crest Village retirement community in Parkville. These senior citizens can remember when everyone wrote letters and looked forward to receiving them.
This is an abridged version.
Click here to read the full feature in
THE BALTMORE SUN
One Oak Crest Village resident, Thomas Foster, co-wrote three mathematics textbooks, each 350 pages long, that were written by hand and mailed to a publishing company in New York.
When asked how many communicate through social networking services such as Facebook, only a few of the senior citizens raised their hands. A few turned to their neighbors and asked, "What is that?"
That generation gap in correspondence has been a blow to the postal industry. Officials say the decline can be traced to everything from the telephone industry's deregulation, which made calls cheaper, to more women leading busier lives outside the home, to consumers doing more business online.
Nancy Pope, historian for the National Postal Museum in Washington, said that these days, most people enjoy receiving a letter for special occasions. For all other correspondence, they prefer digital media.
"You can't always depend on technology. You want the communication that suits the communication purpose," said Jan Z. Olsen, founder of Handwriting Without Tears, a curriculum-based program in Cabin John that teaches students and educators handwriting skills. "There are places where texting is the best way or using a phone is best or e-mails are best."
Handwriting Without Tears involved its students nationwide in the letter-writing process earlier this year by sending 35,000 letters to new President Barack Obama. Olsen said that her company has flourished as schools abandoned letter writing.
Most of the seniors at Oak Crest Village say that they enjoy getting handwritten letters from grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Still, they notice how times have changed.
Gene Foster said he's observed that high school kids who volunteer at Oak Crest Village hold their pencils the way one would hold a stirring spoon - inside the fingers of a clenched fist. Thomas Foster (no relation) said that while attending Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, he was taught that most writing done by hand was called lettering.
"Printing was a mechanical process done by a printing press," he said, adding that back then, cursive writing was called longhand.
Jane Awalt said that people used to take more pride in their penmanship. Nancy Leggiadro said that these days most everyone uses the letter ending "Sincerely"; years ago, they used such phrases as "Warmest Regards." [rc]
E-Mail: joseph.burris@baltsun.com
Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun
