I wonder if anyone is ever concerned anymore about their handwriting. I believe an individual's handwriting used to be a matter of pride, but now physically writing anything is fast becoming a dying art-thanks very much to the way we communicate so often by computer. I wonder whatever happened to penmanship.
I'm not sure most of us even care much about our handwriting these days, whether it looks nice or is even readable. I doubt that was the case back in Victorian times, when embellishments were a life standard in everything from building styles to decorating and even to handwriting. It's fun to see an old envelope or postcard addressed in a flourished style from that period. Using a fountain pen contributed to the overall look from an era when people took time to care about things like whether their handwriting looked nice.
The schoolteacher in my late grandmother came through in her handwriting, which was steady, clear and unchanging up till the day she passed away. Not long ago I came across something she'd written, and it made me smile because it just looked nice to me. Isn't it interesting how each person's handwriting is distinctive to them? Over time and distance, handwriting is a person's signature in more ways than one.
Just recently I mailed a birthday card to someone I have not written to in years. The next time I saw him, he thanked me for the card and remarked that he could tell I sent it by seeing the writing on the envelope even before he opened it.
My mom's handwriting always looks nice and makes me think of her, too. She is a product of the Palmer method of handwriting in the schools, a time when young students practiced and drilled on a method of penmanship instruction that was developed and promoted by a Mr. Austin Palmer starting in the early 1900s. According to a source I consulted, Palmer handwriting students were taught to copy a uniform style of handwriting using rhythmic motions. Palmer was concerned with method, speed, and being able to write for long periods without tiring because he was a businessman even before the typewriter came into use. So all business records of that time were handwritten, requiring speed and legibility.
I remember doing some of the Palmer drills when in elementary school when we were practicing writing. We drilled on ovals over and over again, line after line, to make them as uniform as possible. It was rather mesmerizing, and I liked the way a row of perfect ovals looked on the page. Remember the writing tablets with the rough, wood-pulp paper and solid lines separated by a dotted line?
In these days of computer-generated writing and text messages, I find I appreciate handwritten missives more and more. Let's hope we don't lose the personality found in handwriting.
