European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 29, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Is it the end Sujata Banerjee Long time ago the pen was mightier than the sword. Nowadays few people Are lifting pen to paper especially when it comes to writing personal letters. We Are far from the Days when it was common to enjoy correspondence Over late sunny breakfasts on saturday mornings. The 165 billion pieces of mail delivered each year in this country Are mostly Bills advertising messages periodicals and Little of human interest. A recent Survey found that people listed Reading personal letters As their favorite household activity. Yet they also described writing letters As their least favorite chore. A letter writing really is a dying Art a says Jean Mcgarry assistant professor of writing seminars at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The loss of letters is borne out in numbers. In 1977, when the . Postal service began recording such figures 7,6 percent of mail in All classes was sent from one household to another a in other words personal correspondence. In 1987, such letters dropped to 4.9 percent of All mail and in 1988 to 4.5 percent. In 1977 the average number of person to person letters delivered each week to a household was 1.8 a decade later that figure shrunk to 1.5. In 1988, the average amount of All mail delivered to households for the year was 1,217 pieces. Of that figure Only 59.5 pieces were household to household letters excluding greeting cards. It. While the number of personal letters is falling the volume of other types of mail is increasing says a postal service spokeswoman. The postal service politely Calls that other mail a bulk business a we Call it junk mail a a it a easier to Call someone these Days than to sit Down and write a letter a says Gary Thomas a Baltimore mail Carrier for More than 17 years. A also in the old Days there were not As Many cars and it was t As easy to get around so people would write. Now instead of writing a letter to someone who lives in the next town people will just drive Down there. A a what we Are finding is the personal mail we get is mostly coming from older people because they have More time or younger people who Are More confined to the House a the ones without cars the  people Are communicating in other ways. Says etiquette expert Letitia Baldrige author of a the new manners for the �?T90s�?� a letter writing. Started to go out in the 70s, now after 20 years there is practically nothing left to go out. We Are communicating with telephones and fax machines and computers. We Are not expressing ourselves. Without letters what will be left to show of our culture but videotapes of Roseanne Barr Good god its a  letters Are important she says for the simple reason that they make recipients feel Happy and flattered that someone has taken time out for them a a personal letter written by someone who wants to keep in touch and please you that a Sis Sharon k Day the kind people really love a she says. How does one with Rusty writing habits get started again Baldrige advises trying to turn a chore into a Delight. A a it a very important to take a slice of time to be devoted to it Quot she advises. A be sure its free time that there a no Telephone to answer. Write in an attractive place where you re looking out the window at a tree or you have a vase of Flowers. Spread some ambience around the work area. Get a really Good pen some Beautiful stationery and that will inspire you. Quot the Best letter writers seem to get started at an Early age so Baldrige advises parents to bring their children into the activity too. A have a tiny letter writing Comer for children with their own coloured papers and wonderful pens a she says. A give them a plate of cookies when they re finished for a  Baltimore evening Sun feedback is the . Reacting too fast too slowly or about right to changes in Europe spec. Charles Bailey 2nd in 3rd Field arty Kirch gains West Germany too slow because the germans want us out of the country and a lot of us want to be out of this country. I think they could move faster. Pvt.2 Brigitte George cob 123rd support in 1st army div Firth West Germany too fast. They re too eager to jump on the bandwagon to unify East and West Germany. Everything a going to be All right but 1 think the threat is still there. Staff sgt Roderick Williams he co 3rd brigade air Liaison office Mannheim West Germany on the dissemination of information the military is lacking people Are confused about their future. Politically we have to keep the Pace slow because there Are so Many things to consider. We re moving. At about the right Pace sgt. 1st class Richard Pressley 5th signal cd Worms time will Tell if they re moving too fast but i done to think they re moving too slow. Considering the budget they still have to support the troops and their welfare and maybe the Only Way to do that is Cut other things from the military. Buddy Cunningham military family member Giessen West Germany i think they re acting too fast. I think they should wait. Until everything settles and the europeans have made changes in their government and army. Complied by stars and stripes staff july 29, 1990 sunday c