Hi list, It has been awhile since I wrote- things have been very difficult for sometime for us, but that is not the reason for writing. I to enjoy the memories as does my husband Mike & an aunt of his that lives in Texas as each one is forwarded to her. She loves them too. Just recently there has been several mentions of old letters still treasured by many of the lister & the joy each one gets from them. I too have letters sent to me, my brother & sister from our grandparents from 1948 until shortly after I started nursing. I have carried them with me through many moves since being married we have moved 39 times. Last year we were going home to England for Xmas. As some of you know the last time I was in England for Xmas was 1964. I wanted to take something special for all to see. If you are aware of scrap booking to preserve old photos from deterioration, then you know what I am talking about. Well I had pictures back from pre 1900 on up to present day. What I put together was a scrap booking albumn with all these pictures & relevant family mementoes to go with them - some were poems written by my grandfather. Now to my point - I decided to do the same thing with the letters and put relevant photos with them or rebooking decorations that fit with the letters. If the letter was about gardening then appropriate decorations was used. Because the letters were written on acid paper to preserve them & to protect the photos from the acid they all had to be vacuum sealed. I decorated around the letter edges with relevant border decorations. The poems in the other book had to be done the same way. It did take a lot of time & work but now they are preserved for ever. 200 years from now they will still be the same. My other point is that when I took these very heavy books home at Xmas they were a tremendous hit with everyone even with new members of the family. As each read the letters it reminded them of different times in our lives. Like the time my sister June wrote a letter to my grandparents on toilet paper. Gramp thought it was so funny as his letter back said. June had totally forgotten that she had done this. No one at home knew that I had saved these letters all these years, adding to the enjoyment. I know it is a lot of work but finding a way to preserve these family treasures is well worth the effort- can you imagine the enjoyment our descendents will have many years from now. Those of us on this side of the equator has the winter ahead of us - a good project. Those on the other side of the equator could plan for next winter. Yours Dawn