Today I climbed into the wayback machine and spent some time fondly remembering all of those notes I wrote during classes in middle and high school. I view it as a necessary stage of my adolescence, really, the Writing Notes stage.
Nowadays, of course, kids only have the put-their-heads-down-and-text-all-day-long stage. I think it’s different. Not necessarily bad, mind you, but different, and maybe just a little too quick. Then again, I’m a known curmudgeon, so what do I know?
Well, I know that I’m over at Feel More Better today, and I kind of wish teens would try writing notes, again. It probably won’t happen, but I dunno… there was some magic in those scribbles I just don’t think you can find on a text phone.
My two best friends and I had a composition notebook that we passed back and forth in lieu of the folded notes. We never once had it taken up by a teacher. Which is really for the best, because even you would ground grown up me if you could read it today :-)
My friends and I passed them in the hallway at my first high school. And the “cool” kids would pass some to us in class that were mean and intended to get us in trouble. I got caught with one that supposedly had quite a back and forth conversation on it. The teacher took one look and said that it couldn’t possibly be me, the handwriting was too good!
My second high school was incredibly liberal, we never bothered with notes. We could just lean over and say what we wanted to say!
Haha I was reminiscing about this myself, just the other day.
My friends and I (male and female) in high school wrote the most “epic” notes to each other…often times they were so full of innuendo and inside jokes that if anyone ever got their hands on them they would NEVER be able to figure out what we were talking about. We took a great deal of pride in our notes. I wish I still had them. Magic, indeed.
I have to say, all the pppppppps’s my best friend and I send each other back and forth isn’t really too different from the way teens text these days. (good god, I felt old just typing that.)
SENT each other.
OOH Especially those cool notes that you could fold up and open and close using 2 fingers from each hand. Those were awesome and in no way can be mimicked by text.
The sixth grade teacher in me is screaming “No! No! No notes passed in class! No!” I have to admit, though, sometimes I saved the most juicy exchanges to share in the staff lounge later.