Did you ever have a penpal?
I connected with my penpal via Tiger Beat, my favorite teeny bopper magazine which I devoured each month cover-to-cover primarily to monitor the activities of my puppy love Donny Osmond.
Be.Still.My.Heart. ♡♡♡Yes, in the 1970’s, Tiger Beat had a penpal section, pages of names and addresses of kids who wanted to be matched with a friend on the other side of the planet. Yes, in the 1970s, people wrote letters by hand with real paper and ink……
Be.Still.My.Heart. ♡♡♡Yes, in the 1970’s, Tiger Beat had a penpal section, pages of names and addresses of kids who wanted to be matched with a friend on the other side of the planet. Yes, in the 1970s, people wrote letters by hand with real paper and ink……
Living on the opposite side of the world, my Australian penpal was exotic. At Christmas when our farm was buried under two feet of snow, she was snorkeling and swimming at a sandy Melbourne beach. How cool was that?
Turns out even with our obvious geographical differences, we had much in common. My birthday was July 10, hers July 11, one year later. Same astrological sign!
We wrote to each other for years. Faithfully. The sheer anticipation of receiving a letter postmarked Airmail with interesting stamps for my collection was thrilling. When a thick letter arrived filled with pages and pages written in her perfect, neat printing, I skipped supper to read it over and over again. I stayed up late writing my response, hoping my life sounded interesting, knowing my letter, my words would travel over the ocean to a place I could only dream to go.
My penpal was much better than a diary, because she responded. Faithfully. We shared secrets and crazy family stories. We exchanged birthday and Christmas gifts and even had matching necklaces. We discussed boys. Do you think he likes me?
Turns out there was a big world beyond Mississippi County, Arkansas.
And then with no further discussion or thought or final farewell, our correspondence ended. We grew older. We left home. One of us stopped, and the other was too busy to be concerned. Had I known my last letter was the final one, I may have said something important. But probably not.
I’ve often wondered what happened to Anne Cardow. I ran across her picture a few weeks ago in my desk drawer at home in Arkansas. I still have some of her letters written in perfect, neat printing.
Are you still out there Anne? It’s me, Talya.I’m still here.
Anne Cardow
My Australian Penpal
talya
Grace Grits and Gardening
Musical Pairings:
Somewhere Out There, Linda Ronstadt, James Ingram
Puppy Love, Donny BeStillMyHeart Osmond:))
A to Z April Blog Challenge. P is for Penpal. And puppy love?
Loved your post, Talya. Gee, now I want to write about penpals!
I related to it so much as I used to have many penpals whom I loved writing to and sharing with. And I read Tiger Beat and had a Donny Osmond crush at one time, too.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you were able to find your friend again?
Yes it would! Never know, amazing things happen.
My pen pal was from England, can’t remember the area but she did send me some coins & I sent her some. I still have those coins in a small chest. Mrs. Lewis was the teacher that started our class writing pen pal letters. This is a memory I had forgotten about until I read your blog. What a great read.
Thank you Angi.
I never had a pen pal but I’ve always wanted one. I guess that’s what the internet is for now. I connect with people all over the place and keep up with what they are doing. But nothing beats a handwritten letter or a postcard!
So true Megan!
How cool. It would be awesome if someone sees this and happens to know her.
Like THAT ever happens.
Wait… 🙂
🙂
How sweet! I’m surprised you haven’t found her on the internet, that would be fun and a great blog post…
I used to keep in touch with my beach house girl friends each winter. Our parents all owned houses at the beach and we were neighbors each summer. The other 10 months we wrote letters. 45 years later we’re still friends.
That’s great Jen.
Really sweet. I too had a pen pal…alas! I don’t even remember her name.
That is so cool! I had some pen pals but they were all from here in the United States. It still was exciting to get a letter.
Kathy
http://gigglingtruckerswife.blogspot.com
Awesome stuff, hope you find your penpal!
What a cool way to reach out. I had over 100 penpals and I still keep in touch with my Australian, Canadian, Italian, Austrian and Puerto Rican penpals. And Donny Osmond .. my puppy love too. I had the privilege of seeing him at a show in 2006 in Welly and he held my hand and sang a few lines of Puppy Love – I thought I would die!
I hope you and Anne connect up again.
I used to have pen pals, but they never lasted more than one or two letters. What a blast from the past.
http://joycelansky.blogspot.com
I remember having penpals, but no names specifically. Must not have lasted very long… Your story is lovely, though, and brings back memories of TigerBeat too!
Thanks for coming by my blog!
I remember my first penpal when I was 12. It was exciting to share about what she’d written all the way from Australia, long before the advent of electronic communication. Everything was in letters and postcards, then we moved and lost contact. 🙁 But it was a lovely experience! Thanks for sharing, Tayla!
I had a penpal from Australia too. I think you’ve sparked off memories that might result in me writing a post on the subject too! 🙂
I must admit the revelation that people once hand wrote letters but that children’s addresses were posted in a magazine for all the world to see… that’s something that definitely wouldn’t happen now. If you like stories of Aussie kids on beaches you might like a post I did in the #atozchallenge called D is for Dreams – I hope you find Anne one day, it’s one of the sad things about women changing there surnames when they get married – but if she ever types her old name (assuming that’s the reason) into google she might be lucky enough to find this post… that’s what I’m wishing for, for you (and her)
the first line is great example of my fingers not keeping up with my brain… after letters should read something like – is not as hard to believe as 🙂
Pretty cool, Talya! I’m sure you’ve looked for your pen pal on Facebook, so I want even suggest it to you, okay?=) And Donny was cool, and I am glad he grew up keeping his nose clesn. His rival growing up was Michael Jackson, and he grew up keeping his nose clean on a shelf somewhere, I guess.=) Anyhow, it’s funny what fame does to most folks, and Donny and his beautiful and talented sister, Marie, in my opinion, were and are good role models. Kudos to them, and to you for writing this awesome blog!=)
I found my childhood penpal, by accident, on Twitter! She’s a fellow beauty blogger & now we keep in touch again.
That is incredible!! I haven’t check on twitter but I will now.
I to had pen pals from the US in the early 70’s, Maureen Fanning, Lori Pope ,Denise Pfleger.
I still live in Melbourne.
Just asking what suburb was Anne from?
Hi, Steve. I don’t know. The next time I go home to my Mom’s house, I’ll look at her address. I still have a letter or two of hers somewhere. Thanks!