Bad Ideas for PenPals

I found a list of “Things You Should Not Send Your Penpal” at CityMity Penpals Blog. It was a good, sensible list.

Not many people are writing letters which are mailed though the postal system these days. I did, years ago and I started thinking to do so again. If I find someone I’d enjoy writing with. We used to exchange more than letters, stamps or postcards. There were friendship books, mail art and anything else you could fit into an envelope without too much of it sticking up from the flatness of the envelope.

One thing which is risky to exchange, seeds, or anything plant based. Very sad. Some plant things are ok, usually something which has been processed. I think you can send tea bags, but not loose tea. So, you could exchange seeds if they came from a seed company, but not seeds you collected from your own garden, or seeds you found on a road trip, in the neighbourhood, etc.

Currency is ok if it is very small in value. Very small, being less than a few dollars. I used to like seeing what change/ coins looked like from other countries. I still have some of the coins I collected from penpals.

As a teenager with a tiny budget, my biggest expense for letter writing (other than postage) was stationery. I would shop for boxes of stationery and especially if it came in its own pretty box I could keep long after I had mailed the last of the writing paper and envelopes away. You can still find beautiful or customized/ unique paper and envelopes online but a lot of it seems too girly for me now. I may end up sticking with postcards for awhile.

Foodie Pen Pals Expired Quietly

You may not be inspired by this trek through my bookmarks, the ones with linkrot. But, I hope it has some inspiration, interest and something for those who like history too. Of course, they have all of those for me. Why else would I have kept the link?

Foodie Pen Pals had a lot of rules, but they were exchanging food through the mail. A terrifically interesting idea. It even had a branch in the UK (also closed/ abandoned now).

Here’s a detailed explanation of the program:
-On the 5th of the month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail.
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you have a blog, feel free to post about your box whenever you receive it.
– Foodie Penpals is open to US, Canadian residents & European residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!
***If you’re in Europe, please contact Carol Anne from This Is Rock Salt at rocksalt@thisisrocksalt.com to get involved!
————

FOODIE PENPAL SIGN UP FORM
Sound like fun? If you’re a US or Canadian resident please click the link below to fill out the form:
CLICK HERE TO FILL OUT THE FORM!
YOU MUST SUBMIT THIS FORM BY 7PM EST ON THE 4TH OF THE MONTH TO BE GUARANTEED A SPOT. IF YOU FILL IT OUT BETWEEN 7PM AND 11:59PM EST, YOU MAY OR MAY NOT BE INCLUDED DEPENDING ON WHEN I HAVE TIME TO START WORKING ON MATCHUPS. IF YOU FILL IT OUT ON THE 5TH OF THE MONTH, YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO START UNTIL THE NEXT MONTH.
***IF YOU SUBMIT YOUR INFO VIA THE FORM, YOU WILL GET A RESPONSE IF I RECEIVE IT. IF YOU DON’T GET A RESPONSE, PLEASE FOLLOW UP AS THERE MAY HAVE BEEN A TECHNICAL GLITCH**

Foodie Penpals Terms & Conditions
“By signing up to participate in Foodie Penpals, you are hereby agreeing to the following terms and conditions:
–Condition 1: You will contact the person you are matched with withing 72 hours of receiving your match to discuss dietary needs, allergies and food preferences.
–Condition 2: You will make an effort to meet the dietary needs of your penpal- ie not sending animal products to vegans, dairy products if your match tries to avoid dairy or junk food if they ask for healthy snacks.
–Condition 3: You will mail your box by the 15th of the month. It is HIGHLY recommended that you purchase delivery confirmation/get a tracking number for your package. It is very inexpensive and can be used to prove that you sent your package in the event that it gets lost.
If your match does not receive a package for the month, you will receive a warning. If it happens two months in a row, you will no longer be able to participate in the program
–Condition 4: In the event that you do not receive a package, Lindsay and The Lean Green Bean blog cannot be held accountable. By agreeing to participate in FPP, we cannot 100% guarantee that you will receive a package. The mail gets lost occasionally and your partner may fail to deliver.
-Condition 5: Using the foodie penpals email list to send out personal or spam emails promoting your blog, giveaways, etc is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Doing so is grounds for immediate dismissal from the program as it is a violation of the other participants’ privacy.
Failure to comply with these terms and conditions is grounds for dismissal from the Foodie Penpals Program.”

How to Find Penpals (Pen Pals)

My sister phoned, asking me how to find penpals for her 9-year-old daughter. This wasn’t completely out of the blue. I still have a box full of penpal letters I received all the years I wrote letters to people around the planet. I’ve got coins from other countries. I’ve got postcards too. But, I haven’t really looked at any of it for years.

I stuck with it for several years. I even met the man I ended up married to through penpal writing. That’s a long story. Now I’m looking for the next generation to start up with letter writing, finding friends by mail.

When I wrote my first penpal letter it was going to someone working in a factory where they canned pineapples. My Mother had picked out the address from the back of a can we bought at the grocery store. “Do you want to write to someone in Hawaii?”

So we sent a letter to that address. I got a reply back. I wrote to “Sushi” for years, though we never met. We wrote as we grew up, we wrote as she got married and had children. I didn’t get married until much later. At some point we stopped writing. With only one of us married and having children we just had less in common to write about.

The next time I wrote to someone it was from a penpal zine. This was before the Internet. The penpal zine was pretty cool really. I don’t know who started it (and there was actually a few of them by different people). It was created as a booklet, photocopied and stapled together. Inside were listings from people all over the world who were looking for penpals. Some of them wanted to write to people from specific countries. Most of them seemed to be from the US or Australia. Each person wrote a bit about themselves, who they wanted to write to and gave their mailing address and age.

Find penpals for young people

Find penpals of all ages

Safety Tips for Penpal Exchanges

Never go anywhere to meet a penpal (for the first few times) without an adult.
If a penpal writes something rude, or anything a kid shouldn’t be sending – tell your parents, a teacher, or another adult who can help you.
Don’t accept or send photos your parents wouldn’t approve of.
No one should be asking for your email password or your phone number. Don’t give it out.

Christmas Day… I’m Remembering

For me, as a Witch, most holidays are about nature, traditions and remembering. It’s a little after midnight, now the day of Christmas. I’m remembering my family who are dead and thus unavailable to be here for the holidays. At least not in the flesh, capable of enjoying the wine, exchanging presents and all of those physical/ commerical type things.

Here is my list of names:

Alice McRoberts
Emma Garner
Birdie Scherle
Edith Brown
Alec Brown
Sally Harle
Violet Scherle
William Scherle
Ian Noel Brown
The baby who was never born
and the other relatives I didn’t really have enough time to get to know.

I used to write letters to penpals from around the world and my older family members too. I don’t do that any longer, there is no one left to write to. My Dad was the last one to die from that list.

So, I would like people who are in the midst of petty, trivial and silly family squabbles today or over this past week, to get over it. Realize you are making mole hills into mountains and to anyone watching from your version of an afterlife, you look like you are wasting time and being childish.

We only have so much time. You can’t buy more, you can’t reset the switch and go back to start again. Once the time is gone, it’s gone forever. Don’t waste the time you have with the people you care about, including yourself. Don’t let yourelf be small and petty. Get a life, your own life and enjoy the season for what it is, traditions, a celebration of life and the last few days of the old year.

Spare a few moments for the empty spaces at your Christmas dinner table, the people who are not there. Go with the Irish custom and set a place for each of them, at the big table or give them a table of their own on the side.

Seasons Greetings

Sending Happy Mail to Kids

Happy Mail for Kids

Such a cute idea for a business! It’s even Canadian. Makes me think of all my years writing penpals all over the world and sending postcards, stickers, local currency, friendship books, newspaper clippings and recipes – not so different from this.