 |
| Chris |
Chris
noted on a previous post that my grandmother’s penmanship reminded her of Dan’s
grandmother’s. Was it the penmanship of that generation? My limited online
research seems to indicate that yes, our writing style is influenced by the era
and also by national, regional, and cultural factors.
 |
| Kathy |
That
said, some people have good penmanship. My mother, sisters Harriet and Nina,
and brother Chuck have enviable penmanship, as does my childhood friend Chris. By
contrast, my dad wrote in a large, bold scrawl.
My
penmanship was problematic from the beginning. I still have the writer’s knot I
developed in first grade. (Did no one notice or care?) I grasp the writing
instrument tightly and proceed to press my letters into the paper. I felt badly
that I was not blessed with a pretty “hand,” and that’s the way I feel about it
to this day.
 |
| Mother |
According
to Mother, when she was in school (1915-27), penmanship was an important
subject. The teacher would put on a record, and they would practice drills to the
time of the music. She loved to do those drills. By contrast, I remember the
lined paper and learning my letters, and we occasionally practiced the drills
(but not to music). Once we were actually writing, the focus was on doing our
work neatly and not so much on improving our handwriting.
 |
| Nina (very much like Mother's) |
I
don’t remember that any teacher attempted to give me individual direction with
my penmanship. Any improvement I made was thanks to Mother’s time and effort. I
eventually learned to write legibly but to her disappointment, not with
uniformity. And that’s the way I would characterize not only my writing but my
sewing and my cooking. Mother felt that penmanship (or any other skill) could
be honed and perfected. I didn’t think so when I was six, and I don’t think so today.
I can work to do my best, but my work just isn’t – well, “delicate.”
 |
| My dad |
We
called it penmanship, and my elders would say “written in longhand.” “Writing”
referred to what today is called “cursive,” as opposed to “printing” in block
letters. I didn’t hear the word “cursive” until my children were in school. And
if the training was lax when I was in school, it was practically non-existent
for my children, who early learned to keyboard. All three of my children write with
a similar “hand,” and I note that they will often print. I was surprised to
learn that this is typical of current generations. They lapse into printing and
don’t use cursive much.
 |
| Hallie |
Our handwriting is affected by our training but also by our physicality and other individual factors. We can improve but only up to a point. KW
6 comments:
Well, Kathy, don't go bragging about my penmanship any more. The style I used to be proud of has gone the way of my years. I am more shaky and much less legible than I used to be. I feel sorry for that. Mom kept her hand well toward the end of her days. I feel fortunate to be able to use the keyboard most of the time. I'm glad you can remember the days when it was good.
I love your blogs. Keep them coming. It's nice to hear from your other admirers, too, like Chris and Hallie. Hip, Hip, Hooray!
You'll note that I didn't ask you to submit a sample, Chuck, and I'm sure you didn't write recipes. Back in the day -- not so-o-o-o very long ago, you penned letters to Mother. Penmanship does change over time. Most of us use a pen or pencil very seldom any more.
I feel quite privileged to have a sample of my handwriting included. And that's one of my favorite recipes, made many times for my dad's birthday cake. When I was teaching I, and my teaching partners, always made cursive part of our curriculum. I told my students that when they became famous I wanted to be able to read their autograph!
Dan's grandmother was born in 1891 in Arkansas, just for a point of reference vis-à-vis time and geography,
My parents were both born and raised in Arkansas as well (1914-15). My dad had beautiful hand writing that didn't appear to be a practiced style. My mother's was similar to mine (not very good) but probably somewhat better. My sister's is very controlled but also very ledgible. Hand writing could be somewhat a reflection of your personality. My mother and I were (are) both get it done in a hurry personalities whereas my dad was more thoughtful and concerned with getting it right. My sister is somewhat like my dad only 10 times slower.
As I looked through recipe cards for handwriting samples, I developed criteria: written in cursive, entire recipe on one side of the card, relatively unstained. I was appalled to notice how many of my recipes are faded, yellowed, and stained. "I don't remember growing older; when did they?"
I did wonder when and where Dan's grandmother was born. Mike will want to know where in Arkansas. He was born in Camden. My Grandma Portfors was born in Minnesota in 1886, so definitely the same timeframe as Dan's and perhaps the same curriculum (if they had curriculum in those days). Of course, what matters is where they went to school, and I'm not sure about that.
I remember that some of the girls in our class used to put circles or hearts for the dots over the small case "i," and the teacher disapproved. We were also to dot the small case "j," though she allowed that we could drop that when we were older. And I remember one of Hallie's teachers telling me that while they were learning, they had to follow certain rules but that later she could stylize. I don't remember if she was talking about cursive or English.
Grammy was born in White County, 1900 census says Searcy, which is the county seat. Her mother died in 1899, leaving the father with two little girls, Grammy the oldest at eight.
Post a Comment