No one is born with their future written in stone; it took me years to find my own path. Looking back I can see now what I couldn’t see then, that the tiniest inspiration, if you love it enough, can be the gateway to a future. For instance, don’t laugh, (and most of you probably already know) but I always got an A in handwriting. At the time, no one got very excited about that (although, when I was around fifteen, my dad did take something I wrote to work to show his co-workers, something the daughter will never forget ♥), but really, how much more insignificant could an “achievement” be? Would you ever imagine there could be a life in handwriting? Me, either.
But yes, it can happen. Which, by the way, means anything can happen! This is the top of my calendar page for March. Musica? Oui! It’s a celebration of good old-fashioned letter writing. I love my grandma’s old letters that all start with “Sue Darling;” my old boyfriend’s 
letters; all the letters from my best friend Diana when I left California to move to Martha’s Vineyard. Our letters flew back and forth and now they’re like little diaries. They never get old; their details capture and hold on to a moment in time like almost nothing else. Except for the photos, everything on that calendar page was either written or painted by hand. The old letter in the upper left was one written by a beau to Joe’s great, great grandmother in 1881. On the right, is the front, inside, and back of a card I wrote to my grandmother when I was eight. As you can see, I was so excited to get to the p.s., I almost forgot to sign my name first! I’ve always been a P.S. Person!
Goodbye cursive? Get outta here! They’ve been talking about taking cursive out of schools. I saw this newspaper in a gas station while traveling last fall and practically cried before I ran to get the camera! My sister says the school her eight-year-old twins go to is no longer teaching cursive! Luckily my little nephews are amazing artists; they want to know how to do cursive and Shelly teaches them.
I think learning cursive was the first connection between my brain, a pencil, and whatever artistic talent I had; moving the pencil just so to form letters, to make a little curl on an E, to bend the top of a T. I don’t know if it happened that way for other artists — but what if it was the same thing for some of the most talented artists, for example, like Monet, or DaVinci (who taught himself to write cursive backwards!), or John Singer Sargent? What if it was??? No pencil, no connection = just maybe, no art.
And for sure, two out of these three books could never have been written if it wasn’t for cursive. Not to mention the Declaration of Independence, which wouldn’t have been half so interesting or informative if it had been written perfectly, on a computer, all mistakes and cross-outs deleted.
I have nothing against a printed book, love love love them in fact, but
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this kind of book makes me feel history more than any printed book could ever do. Rachel (we met as pen pals and now we are dear friends for twenty years; go say hello if you have time!) sent me this old diary she found for sale in an antiquarian bookstore in England where she lives; she knew it would be my cup of tea, and she was so right!
This diary was written by a twelve-year-old British girl named Alice. She writes about her lessons with “mademoiselle,” about her dog, about teatime and what she ate; and about how much she whistles, which is practically every night. She really loves to whistle! “Dec. 4, 1906 Nothing special today, whistled in the evening.” It’s a little treasure; she might have thought it was “nothing special” but it is to me. I wonder what she was like as a grown woman?
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I would love to have known Margaret Cavendish! And, just imagine, no this:
I have no doubt at all that Nancy Luce’s writings and little books were inspired by her simple everyday school life here on the island, learning to make her letters. Despite her illness and loneliness, she still managed, through her handwriting (and her heart), to become the most famous person on Martha’s Vineyard in the late 1800’s.
And for sure, this would look very different if it wasn’t handwritten; my favorite book I ever wrote; the diary of our adventure in England. Sure it could be typed, but I love all the mess in this diary, it’s real, with crossed out lines and misspellings and lots of exclamation points!!!! I tried to make this first page neat, within reason, I didn’t have a ruler, but inside it looks more like my other diaries:
This was part of my diary entry for January 19, 1978; the first time I broached the question of how “real” writing was done. Sometimes people tell me they don’t want to use their handwriting in their scrapbooks and on recipe cards because they think it’s so bad. Could it be any worse than this? Would it really matter? Wouldn’t a great, great, great grandchild love seeing any kind of handwriting at all, as long as it belonged to you?
I’ve been keeping a diary on and off since I was nine, and constantly since I was thirty. These are probably the most embarrassing items I own. They’re bare bones, pathetically truthful, “scream of consciousness;” running the gamut of emotional health from A to B and will all have to be burned one day. They know too much. I never thought about “writing” when I wrote them, which is too bad; I would have liked to see myself wax poetic! I left out lots of details and told things that no sane person would ever tell. Because I wasn’t thinking!!! This is the truth, there was no thinking going on!!!
I was a gut-spiller in my diaries, and yet, they are part of me and my life, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, I am married to them. I bought my House of Creativity inside those pages! Our Christmases are there. My kitty, Pooh, died there. I moved to Martha’s Vineyard inside those books, wrote my first cookbook and met Joe. And without cursive, all that important stuff would be lost!
And you know what else? Without cursive, here would be no more of these!!
So I’m declaring this day, March 10th, “I Love Cursive Day,” and in honor of the celebration I am giving away not one, but three, things that will exercise your cursivity and leave a little herstory for the folks in 3012, who are apparently going to need it.
First off, I’ll send the winner of our drawing a package of these How to Be Happy Notecards. So she can send a little note to someone she loves, and put it on paper to last forever. ♥
In addition, the package will contain a signed copy of my new Grandma, Tell Me Your Story book. I wish so much I had one of these when my Grandma was alive; there are lots of family memories lost forever. I would have loved to know more details of her childhood. I never did hear about her favorite dress. ♥
The book is lined, and filled with good questions for a Grandma to answer, the ones I would have liked to ask; “real” ones, such as “Did you ever leave school without permission?” And, “Did you like to dance; did your dances have names? Who taught you the steps?” (That’s where I would write that my first dance partner was our refrigerator door handle!) When finished, this book will be something a family will cherish forever. If the winner isn’t a Grandma, I’m sure she will know one or have one and it will make a wonderful gift!
♥ ♥ ♥
And last but not least, this. It’s my newest recipe keeper, and I’ll be signing this one too. It’s smaller than our three-ring-binder-recipe-keepers which means it would be a quicker project to put together; the letter stickers come with it so you can add a name on the cover; you just fill in the recipe pages with your favorite family recipes, gathered in one place, to save forever, perfect for a newly wed daughter or son.
To enter the drawing for all three items, you have to be actually on my website, which most of you are (some people have the blog emailed to them via subscription, which means there is no comment button; if that’s you, just go to www.162.240.10.175/~susanbs3/susanbranch/) and leave a comment by clicking the word “comment” at the bottom of this post. That’s all, and in a few days, charmingly talented “Vanna,” our in-house random number generator, will choose a winner. Join my quest to save the cursive! And have a wonderful weekend girlfriends!
X O X O X O
Please throw my name in the “hat” for this sweet package. I was very close to my Grandma Madge who died at 87 when I was 39 and too young to know what to ask her. I plan to fill out this book from answers of her last remaining sibling, my sweet Great Aunt Mary Lee who is a very young 91. P.S. Don’t ever burn your diaries!
I loved school and thought cursive writing was artistic. Then my grandson, Fischer, was complaining about having to learn cursive, so I told him to think of it as art. He loves art so it helped. I also keep journals…just wish I had started them earlier in life. Love your blog!
I will often have a thought about something and think that I’m “odd” and totally out of step with the mainstream. Sometimes I’m okay with it, and other times I’ll not want anyone to know, for fear of being labeled hopelessly old-fashioned or downright archaic. THEN I read (and so enjoy) your thoughts on cursive and see comments from hundreds of like-minded Susan Branch devotees. It’s so nice to know we are legion! I love handwritten notes and letters; the boxes in my closet would attest to the fact! You’re so right about anything handwritten speaking to the reader so much more personally. I appreciate the way you’ve set this up, so that even our comments appear written in a way, even though I suppose this is a named font, too. You are a detailed person, and I love the way you think of every little thing that might make your blog or your books or your calendars as sweet and special as possible.
Reading your blog is such a sunny spot & inspiration in my day! I so look forward to it….anxiously looking in my inbox of email & instantly smiling when I see your name 🙂 My husband can look over at me from his recliner, see me smiling the whole time I’m reading your blog. Thanks for being wonderful, inspiring, YOU! muuuuuuah!
I look forward to every new post that comes my way! If there are more than two days (which is very rare) I want to call you up and tell you that I miss you and want to know what is going on in your life. I am a grandmother and would love the book. If I don’t win this give away, I will be buying it.
I learned how to write in cursive when I was in first grade, it was made to be a special event during first grade. A special (retired) teacher came in to help teach us how to write our name and it turned out to be one of my grandmothers teachers from when she was in school. My daughter is in second grade and is so excited to be learning how to write in cursive, so the timing of your blog post is sweet. Thanks! Hope I’m not too late to enter the contest!
Such a lovely evocative post, Susan! I was completely freaked out by the news that cursive was being discontinued…I remember looking around me, absolutely shocked! How will they know who they are I thought?
I too went to Catholic school, and remember the great anticipation we all had because we were going to walk to the local library in Ocean Park (everyone had to bring a dime!) so we could buy a ball-point pen out of the machine! It was like a gum machine, put in the dime, twist the handle, and a pen dropped down. And there were different colors, a lot of luck was involved in the ceremony. Then we walked back to the campus, and started to write with pens. Sooooo grown up were we. A real mark of achievement. I was not the best at penmanship then, but loved the looping. Somewhere along the line I got better, and my own style developed. I also have half the correspondence from my bff who’s father moved her back to Illinois when we were 15…the joy of a letter from her! And she has all mine. Treasures. And, my earliest memories involve letters too…my parents immigrated from Ireland in 1958 (on the Queen Mary, Susan!) and my mother was terribly homesick for her family. We would anxiously wait for the postman everyday, to see if there was tissue paper thin light blue missive with my Grandma’s writing on it. It would be read out loud to my dad when he got home from work. It was a sad time for my mom, and after answering each letter, she would tear it up and throw it away. I often asked her not to…I was primed already for saving letters, but she didn’t want to save them. We just reminisced about this very subject last week, and she had forgotten she used to that. She’s lived longer here now than there, but it will always be Home. She’s skypes with the best of them now, and uses her iphone, and she’s 81. But, she still sends me thank you notes, and I save every one. I’m so grateful to have her still. Sorry this is so long! Touched a nerve!
Every time I read one of your posts, I feel like I’m looking in the mirror! I remember being so frustrated as a kid when I couldn’t read something because it was written in cursive. I was so excited to finally learn how to read and write it! I practiced. And I remember my 5th grade teacher taking off one point for each letter that we did not form correctly on our assignments. Something of that nature today would cause an outrage for sure. But I wonder how today’s kids will be able to read old documents, from The Declaration of Indepence to doing geneaology to reading old family mementos that will one day mean so much to them. It’s as if they are cutting children off from history and connection to the past for the sake of going forward. So sad!
But I guess on the bright side, if they don’t know how to read cursive, then my secrets and ramblings from all of my journals just may be safe in the future! : )
Please don’t even mention burning diaries. Each year for Christmas my grandmother (Mom’s mother) would get one of those little diaries with the lock and key, and she wrote faithfully each day. The last one she had, before she died at age 89, the script was going off the page, and yet faithfully, she wrote. There was a trunk filled with my grandmothers diaries, and my mother burned those after she died. I was devasted when I heard. We are each merely one little human being in a world and history full of lives and stories. How fortunate are families that have such records. We never know what in our lives will reach out and give an uplift or smile. So please, let those of us who record our stories hope for their preversation, remembering those we have loved only through their stories. And good for all those who keep their days for themselves, and leave them for rememberance.
Kids (and I’m talking about into their 20’s) don’t know how to write or spell. It drives me crazy! Hubby chuckles at me a bit because when I write a letter, recipe, whatever – it has to be perfect…no cross-outs, smudges! I have a half printing/half cursive style of writing. My mom said it looks like my Farmor’s (my Swedish grandmother) – I like that! As many of the girlfriends have said “long live cursive!”
When the moon came up last night, it was bright orange/gold. It looked like an Easter egg – so beautiful! Bright blue skies today, but still too cold to garden!
🙁 soon……
Happy Sunday everyone! xoxoxox from SW Hbr., ME
Now where did that go!!! I finally got here after your “step by step” directions and then something else happened. You are such a great story teller and I feel so close to you when I read your blogs. The other day I found a small piece of leftover fabric from your “teatime” line and made up little “tea/coffee cup cozies” for my “girlfriends” (we call ourselves the Aquabeaties – all over 60 and some over 70!!) for Valentines. They loved them so much that I have seveal orders for more! I must say I have started a number of journels through the years, but never did keep it up – wish I had! And certainly I am with you when I say I wish I had kept more comments from my grandmother and mother.
Thanks sooo much!
Susan, I would love, love, love to win these items!! And I used to live in Rockford, so I was very surprised to see the headline in the Rockford Register Star. There are many schools there, so hopefully this doesn’t affect all of them!
AMEN!! I agree wholeheartedly! Cursive is an important part of life and always should be. I have always enjoyed handwriting and take much pride in it. Twenty years ago I took a calligraphy course and it has added much pleasure to my life. I hate to think this will become a lost art. Keep up the crusade and all your enthusiasm!!
Just last Saturday I received your Mom Tell Me Your Story and Grandma Tell Me your Story. The Grandma book was given to a good friend – and she loves it. I am looking so forward to writing in my book. I love the note cards – if I do not win that will be my next order. Thank you, PS – Glad you have spell check on your comment section.
Like you I have a box of battered journals that my daughter anticipates reading after my death….She told me that when she was a teenager! I think I will burn them if I get the chance because they were my bestfriends who heard every raw thing when we moved a lot and I didn’t have the bestfriends that bouy me up in the challeges of life today. But I still write now and buy them to suit my individual needs for the right feeling paper and if possible an elastic around them to protect them in my bag!
Today, after reading your blog, you’ve inspired me to finish writing….”hand” writing two thank you notes. Handwriting in cursive is the reason I painstackingly
haunt stationary shops for pretty, artistically designed note cards. Your art work
is as lovely as your writing!
My friends write thank you notes on pretty stationary, and I really treasure getting one of these little treats in the mail, as I’m sure your friends do also.
I have letters belonging to my Grandparents during World War I . So many cards, letters, and recipes through the years, to see the writing of family and friends touches the heart forever. Cursive and Catholic school was a perfect relationship among my warm memories. Thank You for sharing your talents. I too love the
P. S. I am a Great- Grandmother leaving journals, quilts , paintings and love to my family.
Hello Susan…thank you for your wonderful blog. I love hand-written letters and the art of cursive myself…even among our world of texting and emailing. There is nothing like the joy of receiving a hand-written note or letter, especially from a far away BFF. They are the best! I love when you share your stories! Thanks for the inspiration! Have a wonderful day.
My great grandmother died when I was just about 5 months old. When I got to be an adult, it was so much fun to find a box of her hand-written letters at my grandparents’ house! It is also fun to look back at and read my grandmother’s letters and hand-written notes as she took such pride in her good penmanship which she learned in school. How sad that future generations will miss out on this kind of reminiscing.
Hello again Susan and all! I am with you on Cursive! We absolutely cannot let it die! It makes me so sad that this is happening! What is wrong with the “powers that be”? Where would we be without handwritten, notes, letters, recipes and lots of everything? I have a copy of the ships Manifest from when my dear Dad came over from Ireland to New York in 1914. It is all in beautiful black handwriting – I just love it! We can’t let handwriting go by the wayside! Us Grandmas, Moms and others who care will just have to take it upon ourselves and teach the next generations – we cannot let this art be lost! Yay for you in making us aware! We love you! Handwriting forever! Gloria in Nevada (pop. 671), Texas 😀
Susan,
Your cursive handwriting (and of course the beautiful artwork) are what makes your books unique!! I feel like I’m reading a letter, hand written to me. When I scrapbook, I hand write my journaling – even though at first I didn’t like the way it looked.
P.S. Would LOVE to win the GRANDMA book,as I’ve mentioned before I have TWO new grandbabies on the way!!!
I can’t believe schools are going to stop teaching cursive! I will definitely be teaching my kids on my own!! Also, I would absolutely LOVE to win the note cards, and both of the books! 🙂
There’s nothing like getting an honest to goodness letter in the mail….must admit, it’s been ages. My Mom was a great letter writer and my brother continues the tradition but no often enough!
I adore peeking in my recipe box and seeing all the special handwrittings of my friends and family. It evokes such warm memories. Sigh. : )
Ok I confess. I laughed when you said you got an A in handwriting, DUH! I sure do look forward to getting your blog:) Thank you, Thank you!
Here in the UK my grandchildren are taught cursive writing at school, my grand daughter age 7 likes nothing better than a nice new notebook or diary in which she takes great pleasure writing about anything and everything – long may she continue.
Susan, You are always so generous with your gifts! I know one day I’ll be a blessed winner.
I love cursive, however, as a child it was decided that my handwriting was horrid! So I took classes, and tried so hard so make pretty letters. Both of my older sisters have lovely penmanship, making matters worse. My dear ‘ol Dad couldn’t “real write” either so he became a master at printing his ABC’s. I guess I’ve taken after him, because my journals and letters are all printed. How I would love to make a curly “KCP” or an artful “Love,Kim” at the end of a letter. It’s one of the reasons I love your books and blog so…your beautiful lettering. It is so important for children too, training the brain! So hear, hear! Here’s to Cursive Handwriting Day! Long may our letters curve and dip and loop and soar, all the while telling our stories and hinting at our inner artist.
p.s. “cursive handwriting” adding it to my list of things to be thankful for!:-)
I loved this post . . . and I love cursive writing !! . . . probably instilled in me by the nuns who made us practice Palmer penmanship over and over and over !! . . . but even then I loved cursive !! . . . probably why as an adult I was happy to practice calligraphy over and over and over . . .
it is very sad to think that future generations will not be learning this . . . I hope that won’t be the case for my grandchildren . . .
thank you for all your inspiration . . . especially for journaling . . .
Thank you so much for this post Susan!
It’s comforting to know so many kindred spirits are out there!
It broke my heart, too, when I read that schools were considering no longer teaching cursive ~ I don’t like thinking that future generations will be unable to read anything written in cursive! Alas…
So glad to read all the girlfriends’ posts ~ maybe, together, we can keep cursive alive and well!?
There are not too many things I enjoy more than sitting down with my favorite fountain pen, filled with my favorite ink, to write on the pristine first page of a new journal ~sigh~
Thank you for a(nother!) chance at wonderful prizes!
xoxo Diane
Loved seeing your letter and Joe’s great, great grandmother’s envelope. Seeing my mother’s handwritten recipe cards brings back many memories – yummy taste, fragrant smells, floured rolling pin, and fun!
I did write a post this morning and poof!!! I didn’t click post – it just zoomed to cyberspace I think….. had to hurry to get ready for church, so coming back.
I’m pretty bad about writing things down to remember, my memories isn’t what it used to be.
What is that with the schools not teaching cursive any more? I found that out a few years back with one of the grands – I thought surely it’s not true and they just didn’t want to do it! So does that mean they won’t have signatures? Like in signing checks or a document?
Love the idea of writing my memories to my young granddaughters and most of us have such combined or extended families, it’s some times hard for anyone to keep track. You sort of got my attention on that, and thought maybe I should start right away. My grandmother used to write and the births, deaths, and marriages in the back of her Bible, and not sure who got it, but would be a good place to start even if someone didn’t write stories.
Thank you, Susan for the sneak peek of the next calendar………… some of us got rather an awakening with the “sold out” sign. LOL!! xoxo
As always, reading your blog, I become a Cheshire cat! Reminds me of the box with letters from my mom – must revisit! I am a saver – notes from children about homework, notes from my husband, thank you notes from my niece and nephew – and now the great nieces and nephews! Hopefully soon, there will be notes from my grandson! Looking forward to that!
Thank you, Susan, for another wonderful visit with you! I have a recipe in cursive from my Grandmother and I have studied it over and over with great interest! This little recipe hand-written by my Grandmother is a great treasure to me. So thank you for encouraging me to continue my cursive for future generations!! Thank you for the great music too and beautiful pictures!! And thank you for the chance to be picked for one of the special gifts you mentioned!!
I absolutely LOVE the look of cursive (when it’s done well)…but I’m not good at it. I kinda quit when I was in junior high (back in the early 80s). I’ve even had a lady watching us sign our mortgage loan papers tell me to sign my name, not print. I had to embarrassingly 🙂 tell her that WAS my signature. 🙁
I want to take this opportunity to also let you know that I thoroughly enjoy your handwriting and art! Thank you for the feelings it gives me! 🙂
I used to write letters all the time. I wrote letters to everybody I knew. Even when I was young and everybody that I personally knew lived in my neighborhood and I didn’t need to write letters, I was always hunting around for pen pals. My sister was married and lived 50 miles away and I would visit her during the summer. I loved going to her house and I stayed for weeks at a time, so I made lots and lots of friends at her house. Then when I came home I had lots and lots of people to write letters to. It is a good thing that postage stamps were only 4 cents a piece! I don’t know at what point I quit writing letters. But I have a really nice fountain pen in my desk drawer that I am going to get out and fill with ink right now. And I have a BIG BOX of left over stationery (I used to collect it) that I am going to get out. And then I am going to think of somebody to write a letter to! Maybe you! I also need to raid my piggy band and buy a couple of those recipe books. My sons (especially the youngest one who loves to cook) might enjoy receiving these as gifts next Christmas; and if I start now, I just might be able to finish them by then! Happy weekend lovely lady!
Hi Susan,
All of your blogs are lovely, intersting and beautiful but the one on cursive really hit me as I love to write notes, letters, lists and also keep journals. My father was in WW2 and my mother told me that when she wrote to him I was always “pestering” her to let me write so when I was 5 she bought me a little roll top desk (which I still have today) and that is when my love for paper, pencil and pen began. I had penpals in England, France and Germany among other places when I was younger and later on I wrote to girlfriends who moved away or when I moved away. One particular friend who had “the bug” also wrote to me for 30 years until she passed away last April:-(. I miss her letters so and thankfully kept a few as she had beautiful handwriting and also did little drawings in some of hers. I didn’t inherit the drawing gene but have been told that I have nice handwriting. I am also a scrap booker so that is another way of “record keeping”.
Bless you Susan. Looking foward to the next blog
Sue,
I was taught by the Catholic Nuns how to write cursive..no one wrote more perfectly in our day and what a wonderful example they were! We would sit in penmanship for hours and practice and practice..(in the catholic Schools then they were not covered by all the state rules for education) .And if Sister Mildred wanted to teach penmanship all morning no one said anything…..thus I learned how to do it like she wrote on the black board…each letter formed just like the charts
My dad had a beautiful hand for a man and encouraged my 3 sisters and I to practice at home.he has signed many of the books we got as children… What a treasure
Pat Beckman
Wow, so many comments echoing my thoughts. I love cursive too, and treasure letters, cards and recipes from friends and family. The summer I turned 20, I spent it in Europe with a girlfriend. My mother saved letters I wrote to her, and I kept a “diary” of my trip. So many years later, it really helps trigger my memory of my adventure. Pat Mofjeld friended a family when we were young, and when the dad died at an old age, we got to see his journal. He regularly logged the price of things, like a loaf of bread, and a dozen eggs, in his handwriting. Something that sounds so mundane was fascinating for us to read at our young age. Enjoying a beautiful day in Attleboro, MA…
I love it when I see your Blog! Having lost my hubby of 52 yrs, your blog has become my companion!! So many of your recipes are anxiously awaiting me trying them! hmmm, hmmm….. old fashioned peach pie at the top of the list! w/banana fritters close by and cupcakes coming in third! I can’t wait! after Lent, I will really be cookin’ up a storm! and as for cursive! love it, love it!! and I too am afraid it is becoming a lost art. In cleaning our my hubby’s “things”, I have run into notes from our daughter, from our son and they are priceless!! My plans are to frame them and put them on the “Wall of Honor” I am planning for the garage! Pics of kids w/Daddy … then w/grand babies …. and just a Happy Wall! Thank you, Susan, for your inspiration to “do” it!!! I am excited!! and there will be some “cursive” on that wall as well!! Thank you for a beautiful day, Dear One.
Pink Hugs,
Dee
Love seeing you here Dee!
So many beautiful comments on this subject, so many wonderful memories, I wish I could answer everyone! So touching. Thank you all!
Dear Susan,
Your blog today touched my heart. I haven’t filled as many books as you have but I find it very cathartic to write my thoughts down esp. when something is really bothering me and I have no solution at the time. I do regret not writing more about my children growing up when I was a young mother. Now at 65 I look back and can’t always recall the little cute things that happened. Thank you again for your wonderful blog, it brightens my day.
I love cursive writing! I, too, always had all A’s in handwriting. I surely wasn’t the smartest in the class, but I did have the best handwriting. (My daddy has always had a wonderful handwriting, too. Still does even at almost 79 years of age.) One of my grand-daughters is in 4th grade and they are not teaching cursive to her. Right after I found this out, they moved away, but I am hoping to teach her myself as soon as she gets some time with me. Most schools are not teaching cursive anymore. SAD:(
Sadly lost a sister-in-law recently who had the most charming, cursive style. May it never be lost to generations of school children who only want to text. 🙁 Your grandmother book sounds delightful. You truly do inspire me to stay creative in my busy life.
Back in the summer of 2007, my husband Jim planned a whole vacation around visiting your store in California. We flew from NY to San Francisco, and enjoyed the city, then drove down the coast and stayed for a few days in Carmel. Then on to San Simeon and San Luis Obispo where we finally visited your shop. I mention this because as beautiful as your store and all its treasures were, I was taken aback when I spotted a display of one of your very own journals. It was on a shelf near the register, at eye level, and protected by its plastic stand. I just couldn’t believe my eyes. I had so many of your books, and received your Willards in the mail and had always admired your handwriting and artwork, and right here before me was the real thing! Your pages were embellished with all the flourishes we’ve come to know and love as well as envy! I know I stood there in my own world as I gazed at it while your shop activity just swirled around me. It was a very special moment and I’m glad it’s mine to treasure. Thank you Susan!
That was my English Diary! I did display it in the store for a while. Loved that little store, glad you got to see it.
I think creativity and art find a way to come out of anyone who has it in them. But I do agree that we will be losing something if handwriting, both cursive and printing, is no longer taught to our children. Thank you so much for your blog.
Dear Susan,
You inspired me to write a “real” letter to my best friend this afternoon. It was quite a process from finding some pretty stationery, to making a draft, and finally copying it in my best penmanship.(cursive, of course). My friend only lives an hour’s drive from me, but won’t it be such fun for her to find a handwritten letter in her mailbox mixed in with the bills and circulars. In a way, it’s like sending a little piece of myself:) Take carexoxo
I am thrilled to see your topic today. I am an elementary school teacher and when I was told we wouldnt be teaching cursive I almost choked. I love handwriting, and in that very moment I decided I WOULD teach cursive even if I had to do it on the sly! and I adore this and even had a post on my blog some time back about journals and handwriting. I mentioned that what a treasure your grandkids will have if you HANDWRITE your journals. thanks for the encouragement!
tara
I found cursive so much faster than printing–all the better to get my thoughts down on paper! Since cursive writing isn’t “tested,” schools aren’t going to take the time to “teach” it. However, I seem to remember that the SATs have long composition essays, now, and that scoring seems to be higher when the handwriting is easier to read:)
Thanks for the sweet give-aways!
We are still having cursive taught in our schools in South Bend, IN but you never know for how long. I do hope my granddaughter will be able to learn it. She is the last grandchild and 8 years old. I do love to tell the grandchildren all the things we did for entertaining ourselves as children. They now have to many computer games and don’t use their imagination as we did. Pat M. in Indiana
I can’t believe some schools aren’t teaching cursive. I don’t understand that. How are they supposed to sign their name? I love hand written letters, I used to be a penpal with my grandma but she passed away recently and it fills a little strange to have no one to write to. But I saved all her letters and I can go back and read them. Part of her is still in those letters. And she had her own special style of cursive. Joe’s great great grandmother was lucky to have a beau like that, handwriting like that would make anyone swoon I would think 🙂
As I read your post memories came flooding back to me. I have a hat box filled with love letters between my parents. Also have my mothers diary from 1936, she was 13 and her mother gave it to her for Christmas. It was always fun to read it and wonder at the things they did. I also have a post card from my grandmother. My uncle said she could get more on a post card than he could get in 2 ton dump truck. She would write to the bottom and then around the card and between lines. Hard to read but never dull. I have a girlfriend in California that I write to. She hates e-mail and refuses to use it. We write or call each other. I do look forward to her letters. I have been keeping a journal since last year and am enjoying it. Just hope my kids enjoy reading it when I am gone. Just keep doing what you do as it makes so many of us happy..
How wonderful to see actual handwriting. My mom saved a candy box filled with letters from her sister Jeanette from 1926! They are wonderful treasures. I also have some wonderful letters saved from when my husband and I wrote back and forth while he was in the Army! Thanks!
Ohhhhh! Say it ain’t so! I taught third grade for years and the thought of cursive not being part of the curriculum, is, well, a sin. Not okay. It was guaranteed on the first day that at least half of all the girls would ask me, “When do we start cursive?” They couldn’t wait. The funny thing was, the boys grumbled, but they loved it as much as the girls. I always played classical musical during that time and used my best English accent and talked about being “proper.” They loved it! Makes me sad to think this rite of passage is going on the chopping block. A school highlight for me was winning the “Best Penmanship Award” in third grade. That was decades ago and I still remember it! I think we should all ban together and fill the world, as much as possible, with curly cues and swirly letters. Maybe our young club members (ohhh, what’s their name again? The Daredevil Girls Club?) can break ground at their school and start the campaign to keep cursive alive! For once, technology needs to take a backseat.
The Daring Girls Club!
Please enter me into the drawing!
I LOVE TO WRITE TOO. I DECORATE AND WRITE NOTE CARDS TO MY FRIENDS EVERY HOLIDAY AND ANSWER EVERY LETTER THAT COMES MY WAY IN THE SNAIL MAIL FASHION. NOTHING BEATS THE EXCITEMENT OF THAT LETTER IN YOUR MAIL BOX. I KEEP IN TOUCH WITH FRIENDS ON A MONTHLY BASES. WRITING TO ABOUT FIFTEEN FRIENDS IN A FOUR WEEK SPAN OF TIME. I WOULD LOVE TO WIN YOUR BEAUTIFUL GIFTS AS I SPEND MANY HOURS DOING FAMILY TREES, I THINK IT’S IMPORTANT FOR YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN TO KNOW WHERE THEY COME FROM. I’LL KEEP MY FINGERS CROSSED IN HOPES OF WINNING A WONDERFUL PACKAGE OF TREASURES. IT WOULD BE A FIRST TIME FOR ME TO WIN ANYTHING. THANKS FOR THE CHANCE.
Oh, Susan! Everytime I come here (daily 😉 ) the spirit of my mother is right here. She has been gone almost 20 years, but she loved your writing and cookbooks and your art and she would have loved to find out just what kindred spirits we all are!
When I was in grade school, my penmanship grades (shows you how old I am!) left something to be desired in my mother’s opinion and she took me in hand. She deplored ball point pens at the time, as they were rather splotchy and globby ended and didn’t have the nice ink flow when held properly for proper (ie excellent) penmanship. You had to hold them in a rather upright position, which cramped up your hand in a tight and unnatural manner. So, when I would get home from school each day, out would come her fountain pens (she also had dip pens and inkwells 😉 ) and I would sit at the table, feet flat on the floor, left arm on the table holding the corner of the paper down at the correct slant and holding the pen with it resting on the middle finger while the ring and pinky fingers curled lightly nesting and supporting and the pen actually held between index and thumb….not too tightly. Should my mother decide to pull the pen from my hand, there was to be little resistance met. I would practice, loops and strokes and finally true cursive letters and soon I had handwriting to rival my mother’s (and the A’s to prove it).
My mother carried on a correspondence for 40+ years with a friend, which started out as a penpal relationship when they were both first married in their first marriages. For most of those years they lived across the country from one another, the three years we were in France her friend was in Japan, and a few years being in the same town. For most of that time, they each wrote weekly, usually 10 pages and at the end of each year they would mail each other back their own letters, in effect journals of their lives and thoughts. I am blessed to have my mother’s side of the correspondence and delight in rereading them.
So, here’s to letter writing and journal keeping and pretty penmanship and even electronic communication (like your blog and our comments) or else we’d all be sadly waiting for the slow, slow process of your latest book to be published and scouring the magazine landscape for a glimpse of some wise person reporting a Susan Branch sighting!
Thank you for sharing so much beauty and joy here in your ‘e-journal’.
Love, Stacey
Finally able to access the website. I don’t know how but I’m so happy! Even though I feel I have horrible cursive (got a D in handwriting!), I still love to write by hand. I write letters to penpals, have kept a journal for 25 years, and use my own writing in my scrapbooks. I just think better with a pen in my hand. I would give anything to have something that my great-grandparents wrote and treasure everything from my grandmothers. So far our local schools are still teaching cursive but for how long? Thank you for the amazing post and giveaway.
Hi Susan,
I have always been a letter writer too. I exchanged letters with my Gramma and I kept them all. She passed away a year ago at the age of 97. I love to go back and reread her letters and take a trip down memory lane. I let my Aunt (Gramma’s daughter) borrow these letters and they have meant so much to her. I currently have a granddaughter who lives out of state and we have started to write each other. She mostly colors me pictures, as she is just under 4 years old. I hope we can continue this for many years to come!
My daughter is learning cursive this year, but I too, like you was surprised to find out the school district next to ours is no longer teaching cursive, either!
I adore your website, and it always cheers me!
Hopefully I win the three darling goodies you are offering, how thoughtful!
Have a wonderful night!
We will have to cherish this skill enough to pass it on ourselves! We are fully capable to do that, and so we all should! Thank God for choices!
I loved cursive, and my daughters school still teaches it, thank heavens! I hope I win the darling things in your giveaway!
I would be very sad to see the demise of cursive! I loved penmanship in school, and have enjoyed writing to many pen pals in the U.S. and a couple foreign countries. After 50+ years, I finally got to meet a favorite pen pal who now lives in N.C. What a joy! I’m a mother of 3, grandmother of 7, great-grandmother of 4. I never had the opportunity to know my grandmother, but dearly enjoy being one! Susan, my daughter was born in the same hospital as you — St. Mary’s in Long Beach! (Not the same year.) Thank you for your blog, and blessings to you!
Susan, I am hoping that the removal of penmanship in the classroom is just another one of those temporary glitches in the educational process. How often do the “experts” come up with a great idea just to see it fail. We NEED cursive! At least I think so. It is an important way to teach patience and perseverance to a young child, similiar to the way young women were taught to do samplers years ago. I agree with your passion concerning cursive and how it relates to personal expression. I think that I’ll write a letter this week and put it in a mailbox, just so that they don’t decide to do away with them, too!
I’ve always enjoyed old letters and recipe cards, but you have opened my eyes to the importance of them as well. They may be cherished relics of the past very soon. Thanks you.
I am SOOOOOO sorry that I did not keep any of my mom’s or grandma;s card and letters that they sent to me at nursing school. I would read and reread them over and over and to my daughters too.
I hope every single parent in America stands up and rebels against the school boards who are refusing to teach our children cursive. Yet another way our schools are dumbing down their students.
HOW WILL OUR FUTURE ADULTS SIGN THEIR NAME ON LETTERS & DOCUMENTS? WITH AN “X”?
On a brighter note, those of us who will teach our children AT HOME to read & write cursive will be able to communicate “secretly” since the masses won’t be able to decipher our handwriting!
I hope every parent will take charge of their own child’s education and teach them to read & write cursive AT HOME whether the schools do it or not.
My little kindergartner is excited to begin cursive since we read Beverly Cleary’s “Muggie Maggie,” which is a book all about a girl who refuses to write in cursive…until she realizes she can’t read it either.
Janine
I, too,love writing – and receiving – letters. I live in New Jersey, and exchange letters with my aunt in Florida. Sure, we could pick up the phone and call, or e-mail, but, as my aunt puts it – there’s something about receiving a letter in the mail… I have so much stationery and note cards, so I’ve decided I’m going to try and use it all up. While my handwriting is legible, I wish it was a nice as yours!
It doesn’t matter, it’s YOURS! xo
I learned the Palmer Method in the sixth grade and I was the only one in the class who loved practicing those strokes! In the fifty years since then I’ve received many compliments on my handwriting and I owe it all to loving the loops and curls of cursive. I would love to fill up your Grandma Book for my grandchildren. I have 3 copies of your Christmas Memories books covering the last 15 Christmases and am ready to start another one this year. I was just commenting to my daughter this afternoon that I was so glad I had written down those memories and added photos and the only reason it was accomplished is because you offer those delightfully detailed books to record the memories.
Dear Susan,
How extraordinary that you would blog about cursive handwriting. Just Thursday my best friend Joanne (another Susan Branch afficianado) and I were lamenting the fact that our grandchildren and great-grandchildren were not taught cursive and their handwriting (???) shows it. I am going to remedy that omission for my great-granddaughter Quinne when we have her this summer. Not to brag (oh, maybe just a little), but whenever my husband or I write a check, a note or sign up for something, we almost always get compliments on our handwriting. It is so sad that good handwriting is the exception and not the norm.
I love your photos of diaries. One of my favorite research projects as a history undergrad was to read the diary of a young lady named Katherine Cross who lived in Kansas City during the 1880’s. She kept records of everything she bought, her favorite stores, going to the theater, the weather…..but the most intriguing was a reference to someone she seemed very fond of and referred to only by an initial. A mystery I was never able to solve.
The little 2nd grade girls in my reading group at school are so happy that they can write theirnames in cursive! They often ask me to do the same and I do, even though it isn’t very good.
If only I could handwrite this comment! How relevant and refreshing your blogs are. Nobody else could take up this cause and represent what a sad day it will be if cursive disappears! thanks a million curliques!!
I LOVE to write! I had 100+ pen pals when I was in my early teens … each letter hand written, decorated, and sent on with love. I still write today and have passed the passion on to my daughter as well. We love beautiful stationery, stickers, stamps, pens, etc. She has saved every letter and card I wrote to her when she was away at college. Re-reading them is a mini history of her college career as well as what was going on at home.
Thank you for doing your part to try to preserve the art of the written word. I sincerely hope that the Postal Service does not go the way of the horse and buggy because that would truly be a tragedy in my life. There are few pure and simple pleasures that make me as happy as purchasing the newest commemorative stamp!
Here’s to letter writing … even the smallest of notes are treasures!
I so agree about the power of handwriting. Like when you get a letter in the mail, and you know who it’s from without reading the return address! Our handwriting is another visual reminder of who we are, and is such a precious way to remember others when we see their writing. In terms of scrapbooking, wouldn’t we all prefer a big paragraph written by our mother (about a certain milestone, for example) rather than an elaborate layout? Keep on spreading the message, dear Susan!
Linda, of Front Row Friends
I love the March calendar page. When I was in second grade, I went to an international school in Portugal that was run by the British. I had the best teacher with beautiful cursive handwriting.
I will be buying the Grandmother book. The reason? My beautiful seven month old grandson.
Dear Susan.
Several times a year in elementary school we printed, or later wrote in cursive, “my name is …… and this is a sample of my very best writing”. My mother kept many of those sample and I ran across them in a box of treasures this past summer. Couldn’t bear to throw them away! Thanks for the memory of this.
Hello Susan! I truly enjoyed your blog about cursive hanndwriting! I just love to write and always have. Your handwriting is so beautiful and will be forever a part of history. I cherish the old small autograph book that was my Great Aunt Tillie’s that has her school friends handwritten verses and signatures from 1907 through 1910. There are even little flowers pressed in between the last several pages.The cover is velvet on one side and the other side has a picturesque scene. It is safely kept in her antique wooden standing sewingbasket that I have from her. She always
seemed like a third grandmother to me, as her and my Great Uncle Jerry
never had children of their own. When she was well into her 80 ‘s she still wrote me letters from Florida……I ha e the very last
happy spring! i am teaching my 7 year old grandchild, lilly, to write in cursive 😉 she loves to print little stories and draw the illustrations.
How very strange… I spent most of my day writing in my journal using an old steel tip fountain pen I found in my vintage school stash. I came into the house and finally checked my email and here’s your BLOG post! So YIPEE! I’m all in! I am a teacher and have spent much of my career in 1st grade. Over the years the lost art of handwriting has been replaced by standards and tests 🙂 You will be happy to know that California did ADD handwriting in to their common core standards (they cound add 15% of something that was from the old standards)… so things are looking up :). I actually wrote most of this on a little card and I was going to post my handwriting comment in actual handwriting with my little fountain pen. I was hoping I could leave a picture here. I will snail mail it to you instead :)… XOXO
Oh Susan, I am so sorry that my comment was not complete…I wanted to add that my Great Aunt Tillie handwrote letters until she was in her eighties and the last one she wrote to me in 1979 I tucked away along with the unmailed last letter I wrote to her and never mailed in time, due to procrastination on my part because of my college final exams…..I still feel guilty that I never mailed that one little last letter, that she could have read before she passed away. I guess the next generations will miss out on tangible handwritten letters by snail mail….their “last” letters will arrive quickly with e-mail……but to feel, hold to your heart, and have forever……are
the treasures of the “handwritten” letters. Pens and paper forever!!!!!!!
Loved the story today. I to have kept diaries for many years I treasure them. Last summer I found your Wedding Blessings book. I bought it for my daughters shower we had all her family and friends write in it as it was passed around. I then took it to her wedding as well and left it on the table so anyone could write in it. How wonderful it was to read everyone’s thoughts and advice. We will treasure it always. Just one more way you have been interwoven in my life. Thank you my dear friend.
Today my mother would have been 93, she passed away 11 years ago. I do have her handwriting on a birthday card she gave to me and I so cherish it, I keep it in my nightstand drawer and take it out every now and then and it just comforts me. To me that is a part of her I still have, she was my best friend!
Thank you for a chance at this lovely giveaway.
Rondell
Writing our thoughts and dreams and yes doubts are so very important. I am a teacher and Grandma to four lovely little girls. I promise to always include cursive writing in my class even if it is Not in the curriculum! I would love your new Grandma book to pass down to my girls. I know the questions and topics will be invaluable. When as a child you didn’t have that “story book childhood” it will help me to focus on the good parts and the good people that were brought into my life.
I also keep journals (off and on), have been since I was little. I think students should still learn to cursive. We need our basics – handwriting (both print & cursive), grammar (not the texting style) – actual English grammar, reading (the ability to read is very important!), and basic mathematics. I am amazed at how often I come across adults (college bound or not) that have trouble with all of the basics.
P.S. I like your notecards, sending handwritten notes is becoming a lost art. I would have liked to use your Grandma book to ask my Grandma questions and to have a place to put her answers. She has passed on to Heaven, so much of the time, we (society) do not think of spending time and asking questions and just listening to our loved ones until it is too late. (The same goes for collecting recipes from our elders and passing them on.)
I have every letter my grandparents wrote during their courtship in 1918! Beautiful cursive handwriting. The funny thing is that when they started getting really serious, they started writing in Swedish. Would love to get those letters translated 🙂 Would you believe my aunt was going to throw away all the letters! I am so glad I rescued them.
Hi Susan,
Each blog you post is just wonderful…this particular topic really struck a chord….if it hadn’t been for my mother’s recollections, written down in her own hand, I never would have known that she named me after Dickens “A Christmas Carol”… Writing in a diary, writing in general, has such transformational power. We are starting a community literacy outreach in our church and those of us who’ve been studying to teach basic English were encouraged by our teacher to watch the movie “Freedom Writers” – the remarkable true story/journey of a first time teacher and her H.S. Freshman English class -most of her students were reading only at the fifth grade level …the students were marginalized, had seen a lot of violence in their personal lives and had no hope. What brought about a remarkable transformation in these students were their own stories- the teacher personally bought composition books for her class-encouraging each student to create a diary..to write down their personal experiences- their lives- ( I wept
– you could only weep from listening to the stories as they were recited on screen…). What power is in the written word!!! Eventually they started to care about their education, they could see the possibilities in life and started acting more like a cohesive unit/family in the classroom…they all eventually read “The Diary of Anne Frank” as a class, and….well, I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t read the book or seen the movie yet…truly inspirational!
Freedom Writers, I will have to look for it. Thank you (Christmas) Carol!
As a first grade teacher believe proper handwriting is very important. I continually stress to them how important that their papers look neat. They cannot wait to start cursive. I think we are doing them a disservice if we fail to teach them this imporrtant skill.
wow, that they would want to take away a beautiful art form, cursive is what i mostly write in. I recall in high school i took R.O.P this is a class that trains you in whatever you would like to become in life, and when i took graffic art, they gave us alot of caligraphy homework, which is probably why i love writing in cursive. and i just would like to add that i enjoy all your art work and writings, they are very inspiring to me, thank you!
Dear Susan,
When I was in school you had to write with a pensil until you were in the 3rd grade. If your penmanship was acceptable you begin the 3rd grade with a pen. Not a ballpoint (because I don’t think they had them then) but a real ink flowing pen. If your penmanship wanted acceptable you had to wait until school was in session after the winter break – and hopefully you got your first pen in your Christmas stocking. I wasn’t one of those who began the year with a pen….but it only made me appreciate beautiful penmanship all the more. When someone compliments me on my penmanship it means so much more. I am saddened to know that cursive – and the “Palmer Method” I grew to love – is a thing of the past. What a pity.
Keep sharing your beautiful gifts and talents,
Margie
I too remember learning cursive writing in the third grade, and being so excited when we started practicing and learning the loops and slants. I still love to hand write cards and letters to friends for birthdays or just for encouragement and love to receive the same. In a recent seminar for my job, we were told of a new trend sweeping through the business community — pen and paper notepads and calendars. A pen and paper is always available, but on occasion, technology can be a little fickle in that the servers go down, power outages, etc. Since this “new” trend is sweeping the business community, maybe penmanship will make a come-back. I treasure each handwritten item that I find. I recently found a journal from the 1st World War in an antique store and stood there reading it for a long time. The owner of the store came over and wanted to know what I had found, so I started reading the entries to him. He soon decided that he would not sell the item and that he wanted to continue reading about that soldier’s handwritten account of the war. Priceless….the soldier’s handwriting was impeccable, a testament to his teachers so long ago. Thank you Susan for keeping beautiful handwritting in vogue. -Donna
Dear Susan,
I have the sweetest letter written in the very early ’20’s by my Grandfather, in beautiful cursive, to my Grandmother. He was smitten with her, but had to go away to find work and was hoping to feel more secure in their relationship. He told her he would understand if she wanted to see other fellas while he was gone. I think the love was mutual as they were married in June of 1923. So Sweet 🙂
I have sporadically kept notes…can’t really call it a diary. Saying goodbye to by beloved pets and 50% of it has been spilling my guts 🙂 I’m not nearly as embarrassed by it now knowing I’m not alone. I, too was born in ’47. Is it too late to get serious about a diary ? Probably not. I have tons to talk about now that I’m older and more opinionated. It’s all pent up inside !! haha Gotta tell someone and no one will read it until I’ve reached room temperature !
Cursive Forever !
I love on cursive writing. I just bought an old letter at an estate sale…how could someone sell that? And of course, I love your writing! I sure hope cursive isn’t going away. My grands are too excite to learn how to write in cursive.
I wake up each morning excited to read your blog. You start my day!!! I love everything you say, and touch. I can’t imagine life without Susan Branch!
Blessings to you,
Bernadette
I remember when I heard the kids were not going to be taught cursive in school. My sister is teaching her grand kids how and I plan to teach my new grandson (8 months old) also. Love your writing.
I loved your blog today on cursive writing. It brought back memories of the Palmer Method of cursive writing I learned in my Catholic school days. I’ve taught school for over 25 yrs. and getting into my “Good Writers’ Club” was a very real achievement! I pray that cursive writing does not become a lost art. I still enjoy writing thank you notes, cards, etc. in cursive!
Thank you for striking a happy note in my heart and taking me on a walk of nostalgia!
Thanks for the blog post on “cursive”. It was very meaningful to me. My grandmother was killed in a car accident when I was just 5. I don’t know if I really remember her, or if the photos I’ve seen and stories I’ve heard make me feel that way, but one thing I know about her was that she loved me. Just before my own mother’s passing a couple of years ago, I was given my baby book, and the two most precious things in it were two handwritten (cursive) birthday cards from my dear grandmother. She addressed me – by my nickname – “Rosie Dearest”. I can’t tell you what it did to me to see her actual handwriting. I was just starting scrapbooks for my two grandsons, and because of severe arthritis, was reluctant to hand write in the books. But several friends encouraged me to do it anyway, and I’m so glad I did. I agree that they will mean so much more to them when I’m gone.
I’ve loved your books forever. Found my first one while living in Australia and have added to the collection ever since. Sometimes, especially when I’m sick, I just pull one of them out and go through each page. Love the art and the “cursive”. I’ve since put my sis on to them, and she put me on to your website, Willard and the blog. Love it all. Keep up the good work. You are very positive and encouraging. Thank you! Nora
I have several of my mothers journals and love to read them and her handwriting was not the best but so wonderful to have and read she has been gone almost 15 years and I never tire of reading them. Cursive is making a come back for which I am glad. JoAnn
Even your handwriting at your worst is better than my best day. Handwriting was the only subject I never got an “A” in. I always got some type of “B”, sometimes it was a B- !! They must have been pity B’s as I doubt I actually earned them. I was so glad when I got to junior high and handwriting was no longer a grade!!
Still I think it is a shame that children are not taught cursive anymore. How will they have a signature? A printed signature just doesn’t seem right!!
I was so horrified when I read about ending cursive in schools! It goes along with abbreviating words. I love to see my Mom’s and Grandma’s handwriting, no matter what it is on. They had such graceful strokes and beauty. One of my favorite parts of your cookbooks was the lettering.
I work with college students who can’t read or write cursive. When I ask how they sign their name they say “I just make a squiggle.” How sad!
My 9 year old grandson is perfecting his cursive and is so proud of the accomplishment.
We lost our precious youngest child suddenly and without any warning or preparation just after her fifteenth birthday. We are so fortunate that our dear Lizzy was a journaler and kept snippets of diaries and journals from the time she could put words on paper. Her father and I treasure the stories she wrote out, lists of friends and school happenings she recorded, her cronicles of family events and celebrations, all put down in her own hand. What an amazing gift she left us.
I am an “Omi” now, the name my grandchildren call me, and I realize how important it is to tell them the old family stories. I think I will start to write these things down, starting today!
Thank you Susan for your encouragement!
What an amazing gift!! And it’s still giving. xo
I think of cursive and I think of life…someone took the time to share a little slice of their life. Like old books I caress them and think that I am reading about someone and think…this makes me cherish my own moments.
Thank you Susan for reminding us to leave a part of us to all we know and love!
Was looking for your brownie recipe- thought it was in Girlfriends Forever, then remembered it was in “Autumn”. I was just reading in your book about keeping your diaries, then there it was on the blog. Made the brownies for Bunco. Hope to get the Grandma book for my best friend from 7th grade who will become a first-time Grandma next month! Thanks for being the bright spot in my day!
Love Melissa