As much as I hate to admit it, summer is drawing to a close. Even though it's still hot, days are noticeably shorter, kids are heading back to school in droves, and even the leaves have begun to fall.

The end of the summer makes me nostalgic — and not just for all the summer activities that I didn't get to enjoy. Now, I'm not a devotee of "golden age thinking," but I have to admit that there are some old-fashioned, traditional things that I'd like to bring back. So, I decided to dedicate this week to a three post series about these things.

First up — letter-writing. We call, text, email, blog, message, like, comment, and update our statuses. But we don't write letters anymore. Excepts for birthdays and Christmas, the mail is nothing but bills, catalogs, and junk. While I appreciate the immediacy of digital communication, I do miss the personal touch that a letter brings.

I especially miss thank you notes. Hand-written, mailed, personal thank you notes. In my experience, very few people under 60 bother to write them. Parents don't teach their kids to write them — particularly by example. It's just a lost art.

I miss letters and thank you notes.