I have always kept an address book, since I was old enough to know people to write to. Before that, I always used the address section at the end of dayplanners starting in high school. My wife has a fancy Longaberger dealy that holds address cards. It’s very bulky. I have a small red silk Moleskine address book that I scored for a buck-ninety-nine last year. There’s postal paper lining the inside cover, stamps in the pocket and addresses of people I know written in black ballpoint pen ink.
I think of that scene in the beginning of Amelie when the older gent erases his best friend from his address book when he gets home from his funeral and sighs heavily. I imagine keeping an address book for a long time, like that. That’s kind of morbid, probably. But when I consulted my address book a few weeks ago, I noticed at least two entries of folks who aren’t around anymore: my grandfather and my great-uncle and his nice wife. All three folks passed away in the last year. I didn’t cross them out, though. I won’t.
Anecdote about address books: My very good buddy and his lady are expecting a baby very soon. For her baby shower, he called me on the phone to get my mailing address for what he claimed was the millionth time (it was only like twice). So, amidst the clothes and baby gear, there was a medium-sized navy blue address book for him, with my mailing address in it. The weird thing is that I had a hard time finding it. Other than Moleskines, I didn’t find a lot of address books at all. And I checked a few stores with a lot of stationery.
Am I so old-fashioned that I went looking for an object that fewer and fewer people are using? I’m not that old school. I’m certainly a bit of a techno-junkie. I’ve been blogging for five years and spend entirely too much time on Flickr and reading other people’s blogs. I embrace technology more often than I really am comfortable with. It’s also a little disturbing that my buddy didn’t already have one, since he’s more old-school than I am sometimes. And I mean that in a good way.
Are address books going to disappear in favor of information stored in cell phones and computers? Admittedly, phone numbers are more convenient when they are stored in the device you’re going to use to dial them (your phone), and the same is true of email. I store phone numbers and email addresses that way. But I never put anything else in my computer or cell phone address books on principle. No phone numbers in the email client, etc.
This could be a result of the fact that I stubbornly use the postal service whenever I can. A friend of mine in Oregon and I keep in touch via letters and mail. I send postcards when I travel and beg others to do the same (and my brother always does). Are address books going bye-bye with letters? They have other uses, though. Holiday cards. Birthday cards. Thank-you cards. Or are less people sending them? I get less every year, but I thought I might just be annoying people.
Geez. I feel like I should buy all the address books I can get my hands on and hoard them for when people come to their senses and want them again one day. I could give them out with the only form of payment requested being a letter once a year sent to me. I’d give them out with my address filled in. I always return letters and often include goodies like stickers and obscene ad-lib-ed pictures from junk mail, etc.
I’m so melodramatic.
Anyone else treasure their address books?
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I love your close up shots. It’s weird how ordinary things look so much more interesting when you take a long look at them up close.
Anyway your post reminded me that I want to get my three girls signed up to have some penpals. The first time we had that idea we looked online and got overwhelmed. I need to do some research again.
Johnny, send me your address and I’ll send you an out-of-no-where post card the next time I am someplace interesting. Maybe Garden of the Gods, just to make you miss Southern IL a bit.
Steven
Indiana
Thanks, Steven:) I’ll definitely email you my address this morning:)
>Am I so old-fashioned that I went looking for an object that fewer and fewer people are using?
it WAS a wax tablet, right? with the nifty little side-sleeve for the cuineform stylus? i love them. they are SO coming back.
;D
You are correct, address hooks are harder and harder to find. I use my Franklin planner, and a red Moleskine like yours.
I collect and use fountain pens,and am part of one FP forum’s Snail-Mail group,and I write to about 30 friends, once a month.
It feels good to write letters by hand to friends. Over the years, some of these pen pals have actually become very close friends.
Email me you r address,and I will write you a snail-mail letter longhand. :)
I’ll send you a letter a year if you send me a Moleskine address book.
You aren’t alone. I still have my Day Minder, which I take everywhere with me. Some work appointments make it into Outlook and other stuff gets into Google Calendar, but everything is on paper. It may not be as reliable, but it feels like it is.
Last Christmas my wife asked me for an address book. She was downsizing from here old and trusty franklin planner now that she’s not working. I had a difficult time finding one that was functional and “nice” enough to give here as a stocking suffer but I did eventually find one made by paperchase at borders.
(I wanted to get her a moleskine but they were sold out!)
As for whether or not these objects are obsolete – well I’ve found that devices fail and they don’t interoperate well (for example when I started a new job, my palm didn’t sync with lotus notes – end of palm).
Paper always works with a pen or pencil.
Wow! I am 53 & thought it was strange that I was looking online for a new address book. I bought the one I have at least 16 yrs. ago from a book club. It is very old fashioned & bigger than any I can find now. It is so old & used that the hard cover binder is broken. I love it because it has an early 1900′s feel with quotes & neat sayings. I really need a new one as it has too many crossed out addresses & no room to put new addresses under the correct letter. I just started to get my nephew out of state to start writing a hand written letter to me. Is there someone out there to make a new address book for us????
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