When was the last time you (by hand) wrote a letter?
 

Wow, my handwriting sucks.

I went to my card shop and they were closed. Not surprised. Looked across the parking lot to Target, and there was a line waiting to get in. Screw that.

I went home and wrote my mom a letter! For Mother’s Day. It was surprisingly nice to sit down with a nice smooth pen and crank out a bunch of sentences I thought my mom would like to hear. I had to go slow and easy. I tend to rush and literally SKIP letters. For example: The word “love” might look like “L.VE” with just a big pause in the pen strike denoting the important “O”. “I live you” has a different impact.

Again, my handwriting is shameful and lazy. I wish I could write more. I just don’t have anyone’s physical mailing address. It’s a dead skill.

I remember my parents had a leather-bound notebook with everyone’s address and phone numbers. They also had stationary. Whoa! Old school. I don’t even know where my fountain pens are! Or my ink jars. Shameful.

( I bet my nutty mom is still pissed I didn’t spend money on a proper card - oh well, I can bring this up with my therapist)

In my grade-school classroom, we were hammered with cursive writing. Our desktops had built-in ink wells for our fountain pens.
Now, after not using that skill for years...it takes a few reps to get it back...but it does come back.

My handwriting has never been good (I probably should have been a Dr). I went to a private school from the 5 grade through half of the 8th grade. We had to write in cursive all of the time for everything, and we were graded on penmanship, at least for 5-7. It used to keep me off of the honor roll due to getting Cs and Ds in penmanship.

Now I rarely hand write anything, and when I do it's almost entirely printing. If I need or try to write in cursive, it's abysmal. I can read it, and I can write it if I go really slowly and concentrate.

I don't hand write anything unless I absolutely have to.

I wrote a February birthday letter to my friend in Kuaii. We've been friends for over 40 years and a present (other than for Christmas) just doesn't work anymore. So I wrote to her about our friendship and what it means to me. I used my good fountain pen and nice high grade paper that really takes the ink.

Boot camp 1982. Drill made us write letters home under threat! Good times!

HA! I remember doing that in '70!

I had chitty handwritting back in school, now as an IT'er, i'm so used to typing things.. i can't write clean to save my life.

I have a dymo label printer to print adresses for letters
and a stamp with my name and adress on to stamp return adresses or put my tag on forms :D

Dear Penthouse Forum....

My Grandmother had the absolutely most beautiful hand writing. Reading a letter or note from her was to view a true work of literature and art. I still have the letters she wrote me all those years ago. It is as if you are being touched by her all over again; through the ink and paper.

^^^ Yes, it's almost a lost art now. Penmanship means nothing..compared to 50 years ago.

Like Dan and Steve..
I'm the keeper of old..
letter's written during WW1 and 2..
Calligraphy like..

btw..
most German kid's learned cursive's using a Pelikan pen..

Rika

My handwriting is horrible. I have a 8.5 x 11 piece of paper that is usually the back of some invoice or statement I was going to send to a client but I noticed a change to be made. So keep those mistakes and a something to scribble a note to myself and make a list of to do things. It takes a few weeks to fill it up before I shred it. Sometime it is comical to see the different reminders I scribbled down and try to remember why I wrote down 291052-56 or 9:45 or the name of a street or county.

I can't image trying to write a actual letter by hand. I can type it and proof it and print it but mostly email it or whatever.

So to answer the original question, likely sometime in the very early 1980s before I got my first computer and printer.

I write letters to patients fairly often, today for example.

My handwriting is comical. Thank God I type fast!

But it must be readable by patients.:D

It's been decades since I wrote an entire letter by hand. My handwriting is variable. Some days it's great and some days it looks like it was written by a chimpanzee.

Mine’s not too bad. If I could read it, it would be nice. 🤪

They were taught "The Palmer method"...a method that didn't stick with me. I now wish it had. I was amazed at how legible, flowing, and similar in style the writing of my mother and her friends was.

I developed my own style..easy to read when I was younger. Looked at a song mix cassette I made maybe 4 decades ago...amazed I could write so small yet clearly. Today? Now age 76, with a problem my PA says is a "non specific tremor"? Can't write for beans.

Just in the nick of time came along printers that let me play with font styles and sizes..

Odd but true. My handwriting is best using a #2 wooden pencil. Not a brand new one. One sharpened down third. The lead has the perfect drag for me.

I hand wrote a short note to Seahawk for the Christmas gift exchange. It felt awkward and looked terrible.

Back in college one of my study tricks was to use a Pentel 0.07 with soft lead and recopy all my notes immediately after a lecture in the student union while watching the girls walk by. It was decent and legible.

My skills have degraded.