What does the mail mean to you?

I think this question is interesting. When I was a little girl getting a piece of mail was a really big deal. We mostly only got things around our birthday - like birthday cards from relatives or friends. I know that when I moved to California I loved getting the mail as I always anticipated a letter from my dad or grandparents. Those were special days. I really thought I was big stuff that something came in the mail just for me! I loved being the one who got to go to the mailbox. When I was older I would be the one who got to go to the post office box to get the mail. Now a days a letter in the mail is a rare thing. Most people just email or text one another if they want to know something. I think it is kind of sad. So much of ones life was written in letters back and forth to one another. Phone calls cost a lot of money and a lot could be written into a letter for just a few cents.

One especially fun thing I have gotten to do with mail is copy over the letters written by my great great great grandfather during the civil war. They were written to several family members but mostly to his wife Phoebe. I feel like I really got to know him and what it was like for him during the war. Just think how much I would have missed out on if he had just "text" his wife. When I got to do their work in the temple I really felt like I knew them and they were not just names on a piece of paper. All because he had written these wonderful letters.

I know my mom has saved a lot of the letters and cards she has gotten over the years. It was fun getting for Christmas a couple of years ago an old suitcase filled with letters and pictures and memorabilia. I am glad she saved those letters. I have saved a lot of the letters I have gotten over the years. I have all of the love letters that David wrote to me. He wrote almost everyday for about four months right before we were married. I had moved home to get ready for our wedding.

So in short, I guess the mail means a lot to me - even though we do not use it the way it once was used. I do write people once in awhile because I love getting a letter that is not "junk" mail and so hope others do as well.