There is plenty of ‘stuff’ to think about in the last few posts on Time Goes By. For instance, the fact that as we age, we are more easily distracted. Interests wax and wane almost by the minute. That is why I usually have three or more books being read at the same time. And then there is the tendency to drop certain words from a typed sentence; the small words such as ‘an’ or ‘a’. It’s always a small word that exists somewhere in the middle of the sentence; or did until I tried typing it. Or the one I like the most, my mind filling in that space between the first and last letters of a word with an entirely inappropriate set of letters and making a word that has no logical place in the sentence. I come up with some great ones!
This morning, Ms. Bennett wrote about the loss of handwriting skills and I can certainly relate to that. Not that I had any great skill; mine was simply adequate. But it’s gone now. I think it started when I was in the Navy and I had to write notes, ‘nursing notes’, in every patients chart at the end of each shift. We might have 30 or more patients on the orthopedic ward and I had to write something, anything, in each chart. That was the rule. And orthopedic patients were the most boring of all as they weren’t ‘sick’. A guy with a broken leg is not going to experience life and death moments on a daily basis while hospitalized. ‘Patient had a normal day. No complaints observed or noted.’ Was our usual entry. Normal = boring. No complaints = you’re in the hospital, get over it.
While my handwriting was poor, my grandmother, ‘Nana’ and her brother, our ‘Uncle Len’ were skilled at Spencerian Script. They were both born in Minnesota and in the 1890’s, so that may be why they learned this particular style of writing. It was beautiful. And it was fascinating to watch as they loosened up their wrists by writing in the air above the paper. And once the pen touched down, the writer never lifted it again, or so it seemed, until the end of a sentence.
OK; my mind has wandered enough. Back to the news…
Do you have anything written by Nana or Uncle Len? I wish I remembered their writing. I saw images on google for that type writing. Really beautiful.
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