penpalling (Penpals)

Member Name: supersonic75

Product:	Penpals
Date:	07/04/09 (131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: nice to get a letter that isn't a bill!

Disadvantages: can be expensive

Pen pals. Is it a hobby of the past? In the day and age of emails and texting do people still write actual letters to strangers?
Well I for one do! I first started my obsession with penpals when I was about 13 and was an avid Smash Hits reader (showing my age now!). My favourite part of the magazine was the penpals section which had lots of peoples adverts and addresses and you wrote to whoever took your fancy. I had two penpals in England, one in Scotland and one in Germany I recall. It was fun getting my own post and I would excitedly read it over and over, deciding what to put in my reply to them (probably not much thinking that I was only 13!).

As I got older the letters petered out and then I got a boyfriend (now my hubby), and started going on nights out with friends etc so didn't think much about penpals until about 6 years when I became pregnant with my first child.
My best friend bought me a subscription to Mother and Baby magazine and whilst looking through it cooing over what to buy my baby once he was born I spotted something that took me back- a pen pal section!
I was really giddy (and hormonal) and whilst being home on maternity leave I decided to write to these new potential friends.
I wrote to quite a few ladies with similar interests and even had my own advert, and I was really pleased when the letters started pouring in! Even after my son was born I would try my best to keep up with my correspondence and have six ladies who I can call friends- despite never meeting- and we write to each other when we can.

When my boys started at nursery and I had mornings free I decided I would like a few more pen pals but by this time didn't buy M + B magazine as my boys were too old to read about weaning, so I was a bit stuck where to look.
I was new to the computer at this time but I could just about Google (you can stop laughing now!) so typed in PenPals. It came up with a long list of sites and after surfing a few(see, I know some lingo!!) I realized you had to pay for some
of them.

I found 'Penpalsnow.com' to be the best, and have again got to know some really nice people who write regularly.
It is a free site that enables you to either browse ads or place your own for free.

How does it work?~
You can search through the thousands of adverts, in categories of 'sex'; 'age'; 'country' etc which does narrow it down if you are just wanting pen pals of a certain criteria. It is also very easy to place your own advert, though I got some very odd replies so just have your finger ready on the delete button!

Are penpals worth it?~
Well it is very easy to just text or email people but I do like the thrill of getting a letter through my postbox that isn't just a bill. Though with the price of stamps it can be an expensive hobby if you have a lot of penpals who you write to frequently, but it's still a fun way of "meeting" people and makes me feel like a teenager!

Summary: nice old fashioned hobby