Yesterday’s Pen Pal, Your BFF. Today’s Pen Pal: Your Undecided Neighbor?

As I sit at the computer in a white shirt splattered with remnants of tonight’s dinner (ok, it was dessert and it was a Tony’s Chocolonely milk chocolate caramel sea salt bar from Pippin Toy Co), feeling the nighttime breeze come through our window, I can’t help but turn a half smile, slash smirk. A smile for the incoming seasonal change, autumnal hues, crunchy leaves, cooler mornings and evenings, and dare I say it…football season.

A smirk for all those bugs, those gosh darn cicadas whose ear-piercing cries signaling summer, starting to show up as dead shells of their unburrowed bodies, or carcasses on the sidewalk and flower beds. I don’t know about you, but I am a magnet for mosquitoes. And while I knocked on many a-piece of wood when I said out loud to myself “Wow, the mosquitoes aren’t so terrible this summer,” my appreciation for the turn of the tides (or moons I suppose) that sends them back to the depths from which they came turns another half smile. By my count, we’re at a full smile and a smirk.

A question for those reading this—what is the actual best season, and why is it autumn?

With much nostalgia, I can’t help but think back to those pre-adulthood, formative years. Summer was it! It was freedom, it was warm, it was adventure and sunny days and cut off shorts, skinned knees, riding bikes with friends. It was drinking from a garden hose and coming home after the street lights turned on, it was the smell of fresh grass and hot pavement. I wrote many a-note to my BFFs, folded in intricate designs with bubble letters and gelly roll pens (raise your hand if Penny Post’s Gelly Roll pens spark that little bit of nostalgic joy!)

And I had a pen pal. She was a friend. We played soccer together and one day decided we would send each other notes in the mail, because we didn’t go to the same school so we couldn’t pass them in between classes - and what better way to fill the classless, summer season note passing void than good old fashioned snail mail. I asked my mom for stamps, not understanding the value or importance they held. I still folded that note in an intricate design, signed it “love always, Caiti” because that’s what you did, but this time I put it in an envelope and in big bubble letters addressed it to my friend. WOO, summer! ← insert another full smile

Proof I was a New Kids on the Block fan, hiking in the summertime.

There was a time (cue “I Dreamed a Dream”) when writing was all we had. I’m not talking about hundreds of years ago, quills and inkwells and carrier pigeons (but I am a little bit). I am grateful to be of the Xennial generation (or elder millennial for those of you who aren’t familiar with micro generations). We were kids in the 80s AND 90s. We saw kitchen wall phones with 15’ cords and we learned cursive in 4th grade. We experienced the first school computers (Number Munchers and The Oregon Trail on the floppy disk am I right?). We loved New Kids on the Block AND Backstreet Boys - though I was always a bigger ‘NSYNC fan ← smirk. We had typewriting or keyboarding classes. And when those ridiculous iMac G3 computers came out we all had to have one. We ushered in the digital era and were the last to experience analog. There went those pen pal days, replaced by T9 texting until you reached your limit for the month. 

So it’s funny as an ‘adult’ now, that while I miss those summers, carefree, and disconnected - that the new summer for me is fall. What if autumn IS the adult version of summer? What if we all (here on the East coast at least) will ourselves to endure or tolerate summer just so we can appreciate autumn all the more? That is a verifiable fact for me. And like springtime (remember April? Letter writing month?) where my mind is emerging from winter hibernation and I am eager to reconnect with old friends, autumn is the permission to exit summer and welcome cozy letter writing by a fire, or start to think about how to finish the last third of the year and pick up a new planner.

I don’t turn my friends into unwilling pen pals for the fun of it - ok, yes I do ←half smile. I crave writing for multiple reasons. That miniaturized iMac G3 in your hand (sorry, I’m an Android lifer but I wanted a reference you iPhone users would get) - we’re all addicted. And we have willingly swapped the joy of writing, bubble letters and all, for the speed, convenience, and connection of our phone. 

My challenge to you as you prepare to exit your brat summer (what does that mean!?) is to engage with a writing form that you love, or haven’t discovered yet, and come see us at Penny Post to fuel, enable, and prepare you for all the autumny goodness you’re about to enjoy ←insert half smile.

I’ll give you some prompts:

Write a letter to an old friend on some nice paper. Use a pen that you like; spruce up the occasion.

• Write a letter to your congressperson or your undecided neighbor before Election Day.

• Pick up a new planner, build that mental fortitude to finish the year strong, through analog!

Dust off that sketchbook that’s been lying around - toss it in your bag and head to any Old Town bench and just draw what you see. Bonus points if you bring some watercolors with you and make it an impromptu sketch & paint outing.

• Treat yourself to a new pen! If you’re not a fountain pen user yet, we’re here to help! Check out our Fountain Pen 101 workshop for newbies! Next workshop is September 22nd at 10am. Register at that link!

• Write in your journal or memory book all the things you love about autumn. Bid a (fond?) farewell to summer and thank it for all the soupy, steamy air and bugs it brought us.  

• Christen the seasonal change with a warm apple cider ← insert smirk - I represent a small but growing population of folks who believe apple is the true fall flavor - not pumpkin spice.

• Draw all the things that make you love autumn: pants, scarves, football, leaves, cozy fires, pumpkins, gourds and squashes, warm drinks

And with that, I am eager to see you visit us at Penny Post during MY favorite season. When you do see me, just know that Summer gruff Caiti has left, and Fall jovial Caiti is here. I’ll probably make a comment about the crisp air - you can join me in celebrating. 

3 smiles and 3 smirks later, WELCOME FALL, Y’ALL!

Write On!
Caiti