penmanship

 I wrote two letters today, one to one of my granddaughters and one to my sister-in-law.  Yes, real letters mailed in envelopes with stamps.  My college age grands enjoy getting real mail in their mailboxes. Well actually I didn't write the letters, I typed them on my computer, just like I type this blog every evening.  I type them because, frankly, my handwriting, or penmanship as we called it in my youth, is not that good anymore.  I think it's a service to my letter recipients if they can read what I send them.  

In case you're wondering, I am still able to write cursive, and it is legible if I take my time, but typing on my laptop is not only faster and easier but also aids me with spell checker.  I wish I had had that tool in my youth.  In high school I once handed in a long hand written essay (we didn't own a typewriter) about Shakespeare and my English teacher graded it A over D; A for content, D because of a spelling error.  

In elementary school I remember enjoying penmanship practice.  We had work books where we wrote rows and rows of cursive letters, upper and lower case.  I particularly like writing lower case 'c' because if you did it right, the rows of 'c's looked like ocean waves.  I once drew a little boat on that page, floating on the 'c's.  My teacher was amused but told me not to do it again.  

In seventh and eighth grade (it was a small school with two classes in each room) our teacher, Mr. Zimmerscheidt, provided us with bottles of ink and pens that you dipped in the ink then wrote with for penmanship practice.  Descriptions of Harry Potter writing with a quill pen dipped in ink always remind me of those penmanship lessons.  In college, where I was an art major, one of my classes was in calligraphy, and thanks to Zimmy and those pens, I did very well indeed.