Bunny was telling me the every now and then she calls her brother up on the telephone. I believe she said he lives Arizona or somewhere there abouts. Anyway, she said she doesn't get much time to see him and that we are lucky to live near our family. Of course, I reminded Bunny, that we are busy with the farm and since we have the horse and buggy, we don't see each other but once a month anyway for the ice cream suppers. Bunny reminded me about our "round letter". Oh my word. That Bunny is a funny one.
These letters are actually called circle letters, and they are how we all keep up with the families. I don't know if all Amish do this, but I know of many who do. Let me explain how it works, using my family as an example.
Mommie makes a list of each of the children's (my siblings) addresses. Then, Mommie will write a letter. This letter can be about anything Mommie would like. Most common things said would be about the weather or things happening on the farm, or who is sick and what not. Basically, just anything to keep each other up to date.
Then Mommie will put her letter, along with the address list, in an envelope and mail it to me, as I am the oldest. I will read Mommie's letter and then write my own letter about what is going on around here. Then I will put BOTH letters back in with the address list and send it off to Josie. She will read our letters and place one for her family and then she will mail all of them to Marvin (Mandie), an so on. So, basically, it goes to each of us in turn, and we each submit our own letter of the latest news.
Once the letter has come full "circle" you take out your old letter and write a new one as well as read all of the letters that are in the envelope.
This is a nice way to keep up. Eva always shares a little poem or verse in her letters.
Now sometimes, someone will accidentally keep the circle letter for too long at one time (Ben-Stephanie's had it for a month once). But there really isn't a strict time limit. We just make sure to circulate through each family member from Mommie all the way down to Lori Jo (Thomas). Mostly just the women write. But sometimes one of the husbands will write. Well, mostly just Ben. He's a funny one.
Well, I hope that helps you understand about the circle letter. Maybe you wanna try one in your family.
God Bless,
Rebekah
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
We tried the circle letter, but one brother kept it for about 2 months. The response turn-around wasn't as fast as we had hoped. Plus, we can communicate in so many ways now (phone, text, email, facebook and blogs)that writing a letter seemed...
I love this idea! I'm going to try it with some friends... We all use to live in the same area, but now we are further apart. What a great way to keep in touch. Thanks so much for sharing. God bless you. Allison
Sometimes I see that if there was no email, life and people would be better off. It is always pleasant to read something that someone has actually put in an effort to writing. I'm not Amish, but, I think it would be a good life.
Hi! I really find you Amish people really fascinating. Your devotion to God and your lifestyle is really inspiring. It made me realize a lot of things in my life, reflect on things and realize why bad things happen or something like that. I like the closeness you have in your community, how you value your family and every individual. I was hoping to have an Amish friend I can write to so I was amazed to see this blog, I love old fashion letters they mean so much. I hope you can help me, or we can be friends. Maybe we can encourage each other, well more like maybe I can get encouragement from you because you make life look so easy. I want to have the same peace and contentment you have and I thought if I have an Amish friend maybe I can be encourage to be like Amish, and it can be a way for me to be closer to God. Thank you!
Post a Comment