Goth networking, then and now

[mbarrick]

Because of Kristi's post about paper journals and letters I've been reminded about how things have changed. I'm in the middle of a new letter, a real, handwritten letter, to my one remaining pen-pal, Carrie. Carrie and I met through a Cure fanzine called "Other Voices" that used to have lots of pen-pal ads in the back. I met a lot of people that way including Suzanne and my ex-wife Dianna. Even then the goth community still managed to interconnect and trade music. We wrote letters to eachother, lots of them. At my peak, around 1990, I had 34 pen pals. In addittion to letters we made tapes for eachother and also traded photographs and little toys. To make new pen-pals we would make these little things called "friendship books" that were small (to fit in an envelope) hand-made books where the creator would write their address and some personal details - basically an ad - on the first page and send it to one of their friends. The friend would fill it out and send it on to someone else and when the book was finally full the last person would send it back to the creator. More often then not the two would end up corresponding. And as the friendship books passed around you could find the odd interesting person from what they wrote in the book. I spent almost all my spare time writting letters. There were even tricks for keeping the cost of postage down (keki, don't tell!) like putting a thin film of white glue on the stamp so the postmarks could be washed off and stamps reused. Another aspect of all this was decorating the envelopes. Sometimes I would spend hours on the envelope alone. When I was in the army my comrades were jealous of the fact that I would receive three or four letters a day, almost always from girls, always beautifully decorated. The quality of the friendship books I would make, the artistry of my envelopes, and the quality of my handwriting (I did, and still do, write with a fountain-pen [sample here] ) attracted pen-pals. In fact Dianna started writing me based entirely on my handwriting.

So now all the same mechanisms are there. The LJ friends list has replaced the friendship book. LJ has also replaced the letters (which were, more often than no just rambles about daily life that you would send off to someone else). Yahoo! Groups and Clubs have replaced the fanzines. Gnutella/Morpheus/Audio Galaxy have replaced trading tapes. But even the best designed website, the most creatively tweaked blog, don't compete with a beautifully decorated envelope and an artfully written.

I should scan some of the envelopes I received. Maybe I'll create a new section on my website for them.

Comments

That would be cool...

[goth-posh.livejournal.com]

And *Gasp* although I hate to admit it, it was my ex's handwriting and letters that made me fall for him in the first place...however now I have to wonder if any of it was original...

[hisbeauty.livejournal.com]

I would love to see the envelopes :)

[bitogoth.livejournal.com]

other than exchanging the occasional care package with you or calhoun, i rarely write letters anymore. all my penpals slowly drifted off, and my attempts to glean new ones have been abysmal failures.

i used to love doing photo-collage envelopes, and the ones i sent back and forth with my grrl friends were fabulous! we'd send each other all sorts of little tidbits, and i was notorious for booby-trapping cards with confetti. :}

when i was a camp counselor, i would correspond with some of my campers- several of them for many years (the two or three i'm still in occasional contact with are in college now! ack!) those letters usually were decorated with all kinds of stickers, which i still love to collect.

ironically- i hardly sent any holiday cards this year. corpgoth does card swaps, but i don't feel that i'm an active enough participant to qualify- i hardly know anyone from the list anymore. *sigh*

Damn you and your kind!

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

I swear, I'm still plauged by confetti from my pen-pal days. Despite several moves it still turns up in the oddest places.

Re: Damn you and your kind!

[bitogoth.livejournal.com]

confetti has been a major part of my adolescence... after sevearl confetti-strewn parties at my friend mel's when we were younger, we were still picking bits out of the carpet ten years later when she moved out! :} it became a running joke and we still bring it up once in a while.

however, it can come back to haunt you- on my last birthday, my sister sent me card filled with all the confetti i had sent her over the past few years- lol!

you would have hated mine ....

[thomasrymour.livejournal.com]

Instead of confetti I used to create ultrafine glitter dust bombs in my cards!
glitter is incredibly difficult to get rid of!

[keki.livejournal.com]

hehehehe I won't spill the beans ;) In fact, I could probably make a few suggestions at some point if you continue this outlaw behavior.

You'd have to extradite me anyway!

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

Heh. That was actually a problem sometimes. I was forever cutting the U.S. stamps off my friends' letters to mail back and they would mail back my Canadian stamps.

Re: You'd have to extradite me anyway!

[keki.livejournal.com]

There's always the little trick of putting your address as the send to: and who it's going to as the return address and then leaving off postage so it gets "returned" for some to be added. It gets a bit tricky when going out of state or out of the US though.

Re: You'd have to extradite me anyway!

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

LOL. I've tried that before. Canada Post is on to it. If the return address isn't in the same city as where the letter was collected from they send it through and make the recipient pay to pick it up at the nearest postal outlet.

Those were the days...

[sylkweb.livejournal.com]

Im glad I could inspire a post. Man, you got me to thinking about "slam books" you would write a question on the top of each page, and each person would put their number #1 on each page, with their answer and so forth, until the book was full. I only have one left but I made tons of them. I also remember once I was having a creative block and a pen pal inspiring friend of mine would send me small handmade blank pages books to fill with poetry and art, I would work on them every day and send them back to him full of the best art I had ever made. I remember feeling so moved by it. So personal, it was like magic dust to keep me going creatively. I loved to decorate my letters and envelopes more than send the letters as well...Would you like another pen-pal? :)

Re: Those were the days...

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

Sure, if you don't mind waiting *months* between letters. I can never find the time to really write anymore.

Re: Those were the days...

[sylkweb.livejournal.com]

I never have the time either! But when I do it would be cool to write.