Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: MAIL (02/18/16)
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TITLE: PRECIOUS LETTERS | Previous Challenge Entry
By Judy Keller
02/20/16 -
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Mail was my Mom’s main communication with her siblings and family in Kansas, since we lived in the northwest during the 1940’s. I was the only daughter with three younger brothers, I was often privileged to have the mail read to me, and when I was old enough I also got to read ‘the news from home’.
~ I witnessed tears of joy when the mail arrived.
~ There were tears of loneliness on days when there was no mail.
~ The mail was re-read on each holiday, which was always a day full of melancholy and emotion.
My Mother Mona, her Sisters Aunt Nona and Aunt Darlene wrote letters and sent mail at least once a week. Mom and I were very familiar with each family’s children as they grew up, when started shaving their legs or developing breasts, or fell off the bike and skinned their knee. We were kept up-to-date when a long-time neighbor passed away or an ‘old coot went to jail’!
It was a joyful Family Reunion, when I was 10 years old and our family of six made a car trip from Marysville, Washington to Salina, Kansas to visit family and friends. I had never met or seen these folks in real life, but because of our mailed letters, I knew their names and the names of their kids and neighbors. What a surprise to me, when I realized my cousins didn’t know the daily details of each other’s lives as well as I did – even though they were siblings.
Mail is important for many purposes. In my life, it taught me about the culture my parents grew up in and I could see how strongly that affected our daily family life.
To this day I can see the personal influence in my daily life that comes from those ‘letters in the mail’ that brought ‘news from home’.
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I agree with the last two critiques. You did more telling then showing.
I was the only daughter with three younger brothers, I was often privileged to have the mail read to me, and when I was old enough I also got to read ‘the news from home’.
Here's how I would edit it:
I was the only daughter, with three younger brothers. My parents often read the mail to me [changing passive construction to active], and when I was old enough, I got to read 'the news from home' myself.