I have a friend from university who has steadfastly shunned as much new technology as possible. He has no home computer, still uses video and vinyl, has no cd or dvd player. Doesn’t own a mobile phone. Actually he doesn’t really like any phones. The result is any communication is handwritten letters, it’s like a blast from the past.

During one protracted letter exchange, a conversation which would now normally take seconds was played out over almost a full year.

Remember that climbing trip to Glen Coe…

Oh yes, that one…

How on earth did you fall into that stream….

Effects of gravity probably, wow it was smelly, but you found that cowpat to fall into….

That was the biggest cowpat ever, covered head to toe….

That was not produced by a cow, size of that thing, it was a dinosaur….

We looked a right state sitting in that cafe that evening….

We did, but it was a great climb….

Happy Days….

It’s been a while since we have climbed….

It is, life happened….

How long is it now, must be 10 years….

I’ve just checked my photos, I think our last climb was 21 years ago….

Really, wow, where does that time go………………..

46 thoughts on “How long”

  3. i refuse to get internet in my house & when my kids complain, i champion the art of letter writing…to no avail. sigh.

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  4. Nice. Reminds me to make a hard copy of my blogs. There’s something about arrows and brackets, scratching out sentences and adding footnotes, that editing this digital edition lacks. Every time JetPack screen is shut off, my work disappears….makes me wonder, is there such a thing as a keyboard that acts and sounds like a typewriter or piano keyboard? Wouldn’t it be great if your feelings could be thwacked onto the page?! Makes me want to get a mail drop box address for some of my blogs too. I like the way this post was celebrating your writing with a friend on paper using snails. Slow and steady joy.

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  5. I miss the days of no social media and texting. They make things so convenient but we lose so much of the personal. I miss the days of chatting with a friend on the phone for hours or in person losing track of time together.

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  9. We lived 8n the real world in those days. Virtual reality has harmed us more tgan it gas helped us. Except — our friends’ base is so much wider, and we find more people we can really talk to on line. But if l I could go back — I would!

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  10. Wonderful. My late friend Norman was exactly like that. Yet it was he who gave me the idea of spinning out conversations with scammers trying to gain access to computers – he was Ace at the game, and he didn’t own one – not bad for an Anglican priest, I thought.

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  15. Yes, the days, the weeks, the months and the years fly and pretty soon we realize one day that … we are old. That most of life is behind us and that time is spinning away, out of control. I’ve requested that time slow down, give us time to catch our breath, but so far my request has gone unanswered. I do LOVE getting handwritten letters … they just seem so much more personal than email or text messages. Beautiful picture of the daffodils!

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  16. In 2000 I moved to the West Coast and stayed 18 years, then came back to live Upstate NY and I’ve been here 5+ years, but it’s as if all those 18 years were someone else’s life and as if I came here just last week. I always preferred letter-writing by the way and I hate telephones.

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