Many a moon ago, 28 years ago, I worked at a dealership as a switch board operator for an automobile dealership. Much of the time I was actually a switch-bored operator.
I handled incoming calls, assigning sales leads, some light paperwork and….. the mail.
I think I mentioned that I was bored, right?
I had known hubby for about a year and a half by then. We’d come to a place where we knew we cared for one another, but life was not settled and I certainly didn’t think I was going to marry him. In ’83 he was 17 and not sure what he was doing with his life. We had talked to each other every day and really enjoyed being with one another.
My desk drawer broke the other day, so I emptied the contents to repair the drawer. Part of what I keep in that drawer is a blue binder in which Hubby had kept a journal about how he felt about me, another of his journals from ’93 and a green folder filled with letters I had written him back in ’83. (see picture above)
Since I had handled the mail, I’d been able to put a letter a day into the mail pile and one day, Hubby called me up to tell me thank you for the letter. (Lather, rinse, repeat, repeat, repeat…) I’d begun to write him a letter every day and mailed it to him over the course of 3 months. Some of the letters were only a few lines long and some were more. I’d gotten creative with the addresses after a while, mailing them to Smith Domes, C/O Hubby… or Dr. Hubby Smith, Head of Gynaecology… or Smith-Tronics, Hubby Smith, President.
The letters were fun to read and the envelopes tickled me as well. I got to the last letter and when I’d opened it I’d read, “Just a note to say, there will be no letter today.”
Who would have thought that 28 years later, I could send him a letter a day still, except instead of the mailman, I punch a few buttons on my phone or keyboard.
Man the world has changed, but I’m glad I still have the original Text Message v.000000000001 in my drawer.
