Pen Pals for 63 Years
63 Years Ago
As a young girl, I remember seeing my mom get all excited when the mail would come. She was so happy when she received her letter from England. I was so intrigued by these letters and how she knew someone in a different country. I asked her one day if I could write to someone in England too.
As it turned out, the lady she was in touch with had a niece the same age as me. After finding out from her niece that she would love to be in touch with someone in America, we started writing. Of course we both started out telling each other about our likes and daily living. We had so much in common.
Through the Years
We kept in touch all through school and after we both graduated, I started working as a hairdresser on a cruise ship. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever expect to meet my pen pal. I was on a month long cruise that started sailing from NYC and went up to the North Cape and came down all the way through all the Scandinavian countries and then into England. My penpal came to the pier with her mom and aunt (the one my mom wrote to) and brought me to their house. I stayed with them for three days.
We all had a great time and couldn't understand if we both spoke English, how come it was hard at times to understand each other. They took me to an English Pub and then we had a nice dinner. I was so surprised to see everyone drinking coffee and I was the only one ordering TEA!
So Much Alike
It was so funny how much alike we were. Everything we liked and did was the same. We both were pregnant the same time and when she had her daughter first, I knew I was having a daughter the next month. Same thing when we had our sons, I had a boy and two months later she had a boy. So funny.
57 Years Later
That year was so special as she came to America for the first time and traveled the whole east coast. Her companions son lives in New York State and they used his car and drove all over. They came to stay with us in Pennsylvania and we kept talking and talking all night. Both my husband and her companion got along so great too. It was like we all knew each other forever. Its so sad they live so far away, but hopefully we will get a chance to see them in England.
Pen Pals
If you have any children, or even yourself, get a pen pal in a different country and start writing and you will be surprised at where this can lead to. Just to learn the differences in another country is amazing.
We had an exchange student live with us from Norway for a year many years ago and she just came back to the USA with her entire family (parents, brother and his family, her husband and kids). It was so great seeing her again and meeting the whole family. They also liked meeting her American Family.
Your children can learn so much more from this experience than reading it in a book. Now a days with the internet, the children can get in touch much more easily than the way I did it so many years ago.
If your children have any interest in this I can answer many questions you might have.
