#26

Sorry, I’m not incredibly old

1 Like
#27

Bonjour foppyish seras-tu mon correspondant?

#28

is this ageism?

#29

absolument!

1 Like
#30

(i’ve been told I need to stop saying “absolutely!”)

#32

I’ll send you a private message and a playlist if you like?

I think there are some people that send each other CDs and whatnot, particularly around christmas time.

#34

Didn’t have a penpal but my mum’s cousin lives in France and she knew a couple who wanted their daughter to go to the UK for a bit as she was learning English. She was my age (15/16 at the time) and she came over for 10 days. We went to pick her up from the airport and it turned out that she was incredibly tall, incredibly beautiful and had incredible hair. She came to all my classes with me and the boys in my year literally followed us around until she left. It was awkward when she tried to bum fags from strangers, I guess it was normal in France?

When it was my turn to go and stay with her family, I got my dad to come and pick me up three days in because I hated it. Wish I’d stayed with hindsight

#35

Had two pen pals when I was growing up.

One was a kid I became friends with on holiday when I was about eight. I remember writing him a letter all about how I REALLY liked monster trucks. Didn’t bother writing another letter.

Second was a German girl when I was learning German at school. Her surname was ‘Rubbisch’ which I’m assuming was made up. Not sure if this was because she was a punk or an act of defiance by a teenager who had been forced to write a pen pal letter against her will. Think she said her Dad was a dentist and that she liked ‘hearing’ music. Again didn’t last beyond about two letters.

#36

after bearing your soul about monster trucks, what else can you say?

1 Like
#37

I’m amazed anyone much younger than me would have had one, TBH.

Felt like an ancient notion when even I was at school

#38

I had three, all American. Two girls and a boy. Two were shortlived but one went on for a couple of years. We exchanged photos and cassette tapes of us talking and songs we thought the other might like. This was the early 80s so mine was full of synth pop and hers was full of rock. She went to El Segundo High and last I heard of her she was debating whether to become a committed Christian like her boyfriend wanted her to be.

I found the boy recently, he still lives in Cottonwood, Alabama just like when he was 12, thirty six years ago. He added me on Facebook but I’ve had to hide him because I think he’s a Trump supporter.

So it goes…

#39

For all I know, Natalie is a Marie Le Pen supporter too

2 Likes
#40

some kid on Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway the other day (Saturday) won tickets to Florida to meet his penpal (Glen who looked like he was stood in a barn)

Quite nice to see they still exist

#41

bearing indeed

#42

Wasn’t it on the news last week that celebrity-prisoner Charles Bronson was marrying his pen-pal? Shows that there must still be people writing pen-pal letters to people in jail

#43

“I’ve got some good news!!!”
“oh, tell-me-tell-me-tell-me!”
“I’M GETTING MARRIED!”
“and who is lucky person!?!?!”
“he’s famous! It’s charles bronson!”

4 Likes
#44

I had a couple of pen pals which were short lived and I don’t remember much about.
One thing I do remember, was playing “Play By Mail Football”, and putting a number of my players up for sale. My mum wasn’t overly impressed with the phone calls I received from other managers offering money for my players. I think I was 11 or 12.

#45

Still do, and also do parcel swaps with people- I’ve got some people I’ve been writing to on and off for 15 years or so. We have each other on social media, but still send stuff in the post.

Every time I travel anywhere abroad I send loads of postcards too. Also, doing the zine thing means that you end up swapping by post a lot. Or people who’ve read yours and enjoyed it send you a letter or postcard.

Every now and then I do Postcrossing. You get a randomly drawn person in another country to send a postcard to, and every time someone logs a postcard from you on the site, your address goes back in the draw to get a card from someone else. I’ve had cards from loads of different countries.

http://www.postcrossing.com

1 Like
#46
#47

Some french girl. Didn’t like James Bond so I binned her off.