Call Me Kat

Dear Diann,

Well, I am not quite certain what we are supposed to write about, only that it should be written in our best penmanship.

I don’t know about you, but it has been years since I last saw my best handwriting.

While attempting to maintain control of both hand and pen, memories of my third-grade classroom came flooding back.

Our first two grades focused on learning the alphabet, its sounds, and how to print each letter. Little did Mrs. Tulumello know that I already knew how to read, as my grandfather had taught me during baseball games by helping me to read all the advertising banners on the outfield wall.

At last, in third grade, we would finally learn how to recreate those beautiful, swirly letters that appeared to dance gracefully across the wall above the chalkboard. It was called The Palmer Method. Imagine that—the fancy letters we would be learning to write actually had a name, and we would soon master it.

Sister Theresa had the patience of a saint. There were forty-two students to teach, and she never faltered or lost her control, even when a few of the less studious boys scoffed at the thought of having to participate in what they considered a less-than-manly lesson.

Oh, how I remember spending what seemed like hours watching and carefully copying every stroke Sister Theresa wrote on the chalkboard. We each received a lined piece of paper with a dashed line running between the rows. The most difficult thing to master was getting my letters large enough to reach each line. My lettering, although always neat and well-formed, was always small. When we were finally handed a black and white speckled theme notebook, we practiced our writing by filling each page with one letter—one uppercase and one lowercase—for an entire page. Boring!

I guess all those hours of repetition paid off because even now, after nearly sixty years, my handwriting is still legible, although not as neat as I would like.

This is a fun assignment—I’m glad someone thought of it.

This letter wasn’t what I had expected to write, but if you’ve noticed from my other ramblings, my thoughts go the way they choose and not the way I generally direct them.

Have a lovely day!

Best regards,
Your American friend…