The Daily Mail

I am from a generation who actually wrote and received first class mail -- personal letters! -- through the U.S. Post Office. Everybody wrote to everybody, and even though it would take days to exchange and comment on the news, there was just something about going to the mailbox and finding a letter there that brought the world a little closer. And the stamps -- Glory, Hallelujah --the stamps! They were beauties, and there was always a kid who collected the foreign ones which would then pile up in a cigar box somewhere under the bed, evidence of a place beyond home.

A good newsy letter is universally loved -- the more details the better. I especially loved letters from my grandparents, partly because they wrote about the minutiae of rural life. What is the name of that new baby lamb? Are you going to plant a summer garden or a fall one? Where did you finally find hay at a price that didn't break the bank? Did the old butter churn work, after all? And for heaven's sake, where did you find that pattern for recycling feed sacks into something useful? The form of the letter has changed, but the idea is the same.We have e*mail*, we still *post,*, we still *CC* (Carbon Copy from the typewriter days) and there is still rural news to be told and questions to be asked and answered. So with a nod to an older time, I will try to insure that there is an interesting letter to read in The Daily Mail.