Shake Things Up! Send Some Snail Mail!

 

A recent perusal of my postage stamp collection reminded me I had a few of those fabulous Soda Fountain Forever stamps issued in 2016. These fun stamps are perfect for sending summer mail! And furthermore, did you know June 20th is National Vanilla Milkshake Day? It also happens to be the official first day of summer this year! 😎 Sounds like an excellent reason to send some mail! 

Way back in 2016 when the USPS held the dedication ceremony for the Soda Fountain Forever stamps, postal employee Nancy Rettinhouse stated, “It is our hope at the United States Postal Service that the stamps we are issuing today will spur nostalgia in everyone mailing or receiving postcards, letters and packages.”

It definitely spurred nostalgia in me. 🥰 My personal family history is replete with soda fountain stories. Mr. Murphy and I have, of course, shared many a romantic chocolate soda, root beer float and green river at some of our favorite soda fountains through the years… (one shake, two straws! 😘)…  but my personal favorite is a love story. A romantic tale about a tall, quiet milkman and the beautiful, young soda fountain girl he saw on his daily delivery of milk and ice cream. Yep, that’s how my grandparents met. My grandfather was a milkman and my grandmother worked at the soda fountain!

  

(My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard. And they're like, it's better than yours 🎶 - 😝 Wait, no…that’s my Gran! 😜) 

Anyway, they met at the soda fountain and the rest, as they say is history! Do I owe my very existence, in part to the sublime deliciousness that is the milkshake? 🤔 I think perhaps, I do! 

Now that is an excellent reason to celebrate the sweet treats of the soda fountain and send some snailmail on Vanilla Milkshake Day! 

Go postal people! In a good way!

XOXO,

Mrs. Murphy

 

Go for the Gold…and the Mailbox!!!

 

Summer is great. You’ve got vacations, ice cream, parades, watermelon and swimming!! But every four years it’s even more fun…2024 is an Olympic year!! Woo Hoo! 

Inspired by this historic sporting competition I looked through my postage for some Olympic themed postage stamps. There are some really great vintage Olympic stamps! 

I always encourage non-postal people to look at the stamps on any mail they receive. For anyone with any interest in art, history, culture, geography, sports, science, beauty, life - really…there’s something for you to discover on a postage stamp!!! The Olympics is no exception. 

I wrote my Olympic themed letter to a friend with a family I thought might be interested in the Olympic Games. I described some past Murphy Olympic activities and challenged them to follow the Paris Olympics this summer. Perhaps they can learn something about the countries the athletes come from or study the flags of all the nations and make some paper copies to fly around the house. It’s always fun to follow the medal count! They can even create their own backyard Olympic Games that the whole family can participate in! Don’t forget the medals! 

And of course, if they do any of these awesome Olympic activities they must write back to Mrs. Murphy and tell me all about it!! 

Go Postal, People!! (And Go for the Gold!! 🏅)

XOXO,

Mrs. Murphy 

My Olympic Snailmail 🏅 🐌 📬 

Mrs. Murphy and Miles of Mail

 

The new mountain flower Forever Stamps!! 🥰

Spring has sprung! Or so the calendar tells us. In the part of the world where Mr. Murphy and I dwell spring is a complicated season. Often spring arrives with a warm, sunny day followed by freezing temperatures and snow the next. Its inconsistency is its most reliable characteristic. The world seems rather grayish-brown, wet and muddy but there is an underlying hint of new life, a spark of bright green amidst all the brown, a touch of warmth in the wind. It’s exciting!! 

Mr. Murphy and I enjoy the great outdoors and recently checked out a new to us park/trail in our area on one of those gentler spring days. It got me thinking about the often hidden jewels that can be found in one’s own backyard. We humans are creatures of habit and often go to the same places and do the same things because they are familiar and lovely and we don’t have to worry about whether or not we will enjoy ourselves because we’ve been there before and we KNOW we like it. But as I often said to the MurphyBros when they were wee lads, “It’s fun to try new things!” Usually this involved a vegetable of some sort but the principle is the same. 😉

Speaking of those MurphyBros, now that they each have a Mrs. Murphy of their own🥰, I was inspired by spring and the great outdoors and decided to send some Mrs. Murphy Adventure Mail!! 

With the help of the fabulous interwebs, I was able to do a little research on some outdoor recreational areas near Mr. and Mrs. Murphy-Boy-Wonder and Mr. and Mrs. Super-Murphy-Boy. I created a little challenge snailmail for them and posted it! Even if they are familiar with this particular area, I think the scavenger hunt idea and novelty of getting a challenge like this in the mail will bring something fun and joyful to their lives!! 🥳 My hope is that they love the surprise snailmail, take the opportunity to connect with nature and each other and, of course, write me back to tell me all about their adventures!! 

A section of my Murphy Miles Adventure Mail! 

Spring has sprung, people!! It’s time to go postal!! 

I mean, get outside!! But also go postal and send some fun spring time snailmail!! 

XOXO,

Mrs. Murphy 🌿🌸🌤

Viva La Snailmail!!

 

I think a lot about birthdays. As a labor and delivery nurse birth is my business, after all! And as a snailmail enthusiast what better reason is there for sending post? At the beginning of the year I make a list of all my important birthdays. January is a big month for the Murphy family!! I have many family members and friends that start the calendar year with a birthday. 🥳 🎂 

A birthday is a new beginning!

A birthday is the first day of another lovely year,

A year of new tomorrows that is shining, bright and clear,

A year of possibilities as endless as the sky, and a chance to meet the challenges in everything you try! 

I know a certain someone who has always loved miniature things. I thought it would be fun to send a miniature birthday party package! One balloon to blow up, one birthday cake flavored cookie, one small birthday letter, a tiny package of confetti! A little package with a large portion of joy, I hope! 📦 

Being present at so many births makes me think of the connection one has with all the other people being born on the exact same day down through the centuries!! January is the birthday month of many interesting folks! And some of them have been memorialized on a postage stamp! A postage stamp connection with my postage stamp collection. 🥰 Yay! 

One of my favorite January birthday boys is, none other than, Elvis Presley!! His first commemorative postage stamp is the best-selling US postage stamp in postal history! The USPS printed 517 million Elvis stamps in 1993. 🤯 That’s three times the usual print run for a commemorative. Elvis has another stamp that was issued in his honor in 2015. If you’re not lucky enough to have one of these great stamps in your collection, you can always purchase unused vintage postage from online postage stamp shops.  (One of my favorites is www.edelweisspost.com) 😊 Don’t be afraid to use unused vintage postage on your snailmail creations today!! Just make sure that the total value of stamps adds up to the current postal rate for a first class letter! ($0.58 as of January 2022)

I’m thinking about making an Elvis themed birthday package for a few of my January birthday friends. Nothing like celebrating with the King! Viva La Snailmail!! 

One of the most important things to remember when you are making your birthday list is not to worry if you can’t get to everyone on your list in a timely manner. Even if the wishes are belated, I’ve found that birthday post always makes a “good mail day!” So just keep sending snailmail!! 

Go postal, people!! It’s a good thing!! 

XOXO,

Mrs. Murphy 🥳

Moonlight Mail! 🌙

I was driving home from work the other night and the fields were glistening with snow in the moonlight. It was so beautiful. It brought to mind a line from Shelley…

  The cold earth slept below;

       Above the cold sky shone;

I was reminded of one night I was driving home in the winter under a bright full moon. The moonlight was reflecting off the snowy fields so brightly that it almost seemed like day! I even turned my lights off, only very briefly, to see just how bright it really was!! (It turned out I still needed headlights! 😳 LOL!) 

All these thoughts of the winter moon reminded me of a lovely children’s book I read to the MurphyBros when they were young. Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. It is a lovely story about a father who takes his child “owling” on a cold winter’s night. The watercolor illustrations are wonderful, too! 

I’ve recently discovered that there are names for the full moons. According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac the January Moon is the Wolf Moon. The names they have chosen for each monthly moon come from a number of sources, including Native American, Colonial American and European traditions. 

January’s full moon is called the Wolf Moon. It is thought that it was so named because wolves were more likely to be heard howling at this time. 

Is there a friend or family member you only hear from once in a blue moon? Why not send them some mail? You can relate a moon story of your own!! 

Take inspiration from everything around you! Tell a story, recall a poem, draw a picture, share some postage!! Send some moonlight mail to someone you love!!

Go postal, people!! (In a good way😊 📬)

XOXO 

Mrs. Murphy

Snailmail! As Gouda As It Gets!!

 

What do you have planned for November? 

Thanksgiving? Of course! 🥳 🦃 

Black Friday shopping? Probably, no. 😰 🛍 

Cyber Monday shopping? Possibly, yes. 🤓 💻 

Christmas preparations? You bet!! 😊 🎄 

How about…

“Chillin by the fire while we eatin' fondue

I dunno about me but I know about you” 🎶 (J. Bieber) 

I just found out that November is …

National Fun with Fondue Month! 🧀 🫕 

Not only has fondue been memorialized in a Justin Bieber song, but it has been claimed that the earliest record of fondue appears in the Iliad. Homer’s ancient, epic poem (first written down in approximately 750 BC) includes a recipe for a sauce made from wine, grated goat cheese and white flour. 

Greek Postage Stamp from 1975

Fondue also has a long and storied history within Murphy family lore. Mr. Murphy’s family traditions included cheese fondue on Christmas Eve every year. I was first invited to this celebration when I was 16. 🌲  I was hooked after that first melty, cheesy bite. 😋 Mr. Murphy and I (and the Murphy Aunties) have carried on the Christmas Eve fondue tradition for lo, these many years. 😊

Mr. Murphy and I decided to break from Murphy tradition slightly however, and started having fondue 🧀 🫕 on other occasions, too!! I’m not sure exactly when we added chocolate fondue to the menu, but it was a great addition!! 🍫 🍓 🤤 

Now we have a whole month to celebrate fondue!! 🥳 

It is, of course, perfectly wonderful to simply make fondue for your family to enjoy!! 

But…this is snailmail blog, after all, and one can always include some snailmail elements to anything!! (At least, that’s my motto!) 💌 🐌 

So how can one “go postal” with fondue? I do not recommend sending melty cheese through the mail but how about an invitation to enjoy melty cheese together? A recipe via post is always fun mail to receive, too!! And there is nothing like a cheese pun!! 🧀 😂

“Boy! Am I sure fondue you! How about joining me for some melty cheese this Saturday? Nothing is feta than time spent together!” 🥰

Go postal, people. It makes life cheddar. 😉

XOXO,

Mrs. Murphy 

 

Snailmail is the Best! Scout’s Honor!

 

I was at work the other day when a troop of Girl Scouts asked to drop off a gift basket for the first baby girl born on October 31st. 🤔 Huh? Was this some sort of Halloween thing? In my 30 year labor and delivery career I’ve seen gift baskets given for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, Christmas Day and, of course, the New Year’s Baby! But Halloween? Not once. 

The Girl Scouts explained that Juliette Low, the organizer of the Girl Scouts, was born on October 31, 1860. She was inspired by Sir Robert Baden Powell and his wife Agnes whom she met in 1911. The Baden-Powells founded the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides in England in 1908 and 1910, respectively. Juliette brought the idea to America and the first gathering took place on March 12, 1912. 

The first registered member of the American Girl Guides was Margaret Gordon, Juliette’s niece.  The next year, the name was changed to Girl Scouts. That first meeting had 18 members in attendance. By 1920 there were close to 70,000 members. By 1930 there were over 200,000 members. Today there are 2.5 million members! 

The Girl Scout motto is “Be prepared” and the slogan is “Do a good turn daily.” Our local Girl Scouts and their leaders certainly lived out their slogan!! They were so thoughtful and generous and the new baby and her family were very grateful for the lovely gift basket! 

The USPS has celebrated Girl Scouts through the years with some lovely postage stamps. Do you know any current or former Girl Scouts? I bet you do!! From Queen Elizabeth to Queen Latifah many people have been Girl Scouts (Guides). My fellow nurses and I recalled our own experiences with Girl Scouts. I was only a Girl Scout for the Brownie years, but I’ve never stopped eating those cookies. 😉 

Do you have any scouting memories? Why not share them with one of your penpals? 

Do they have any badges for letter writing? 🤔 ✍🏻 📬 🐌 

Go postal, people, it’s amazing! Scout’s honor. 😊

XOXO, 

Mrs. Murphy 

When The Frost is on the Mailbox

Thanks to the wonderful world of postage stamps, I have been introduced to many interesting, and often times unknown to me, individuals. I particularly enjoy the poets. Poetry was a subject I had only a little exposure to in school. I read the works of just a few poets, knew of just a few poets. But as I got more involved with letter writing and stamp collecting, I would study the stamps and their subject matter. History, poetry, literature, art! It’s all there on a postage stamp. 🤩

James Whitcomb Riley is one such author and poet. He was born in October in 1849. Perfect! An October snailmail theme. Have you ever felt an affinity with people who share your birth month? As a labor and delivery nurse I especially enjoy working on my birthday. I love to meet all the new people with whom I have a special birthday connection! 🥳 I have a penpal who has an October birthday. I decided to tell her about her birthday buddy, James Whitcomb Riley. He is probably most known for his poems, “The Raggedy Man” and “Little Orphant Annie.” He was inspired by people and dialects from his own childhood and young adult life. 

One Riley poem in particular reminds me of October, “When the Frost is on the Punkin.”

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock,

And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin’ turkey-cock,

And the clackin’ of the guineys, and the cluckin’ of the hens,

And the rooster’s hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;

O, it’s then’s the times a feller is a-feelin’ at his best,

With the risin’ sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,

As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

They’s something kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere

When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here—

Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees,

And the mumble of the hummin’-birds and buzzin’ of the bees;

But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze

Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days

Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock—

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,

And the raspin’ of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn;

The stubble in the furries—kindo’ lonesome-like, but still

A-preachin’ sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;

The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;

The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover over-head!—

O, it sets my hart a-clickin’ like the tickin’ of a clock,

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock!

Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps

Is poured around the celler-floor in red and yeller heaps;

And your cider-makin’ ’s over, and your wimmern-folks is through

With their mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and saussage, too! ...

I don’t know how to tell it—but ef sich a thing could be

As the Angels wantin’ boardin’, and they’d call around on me—

I’d want to ’commodate ’em—all the whole-indurin’ flock—

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock!

Ahhh…fall. Thank you, James Whitcomb Riley. 

Share something you love with someone you love in a letter. 

XOXO,

Mrs. Murphy 

An Apple a Day Keeps the Mailbox Happy

 

I took a snailmail break over the summer and just started writing again in September. If possible I like to have a theme for the month in which all my postal projects can find a home. As many of you letter writing enthusiasts know, writing a letter can sometimes be quite difficult…creativity-wise. 🥱 Sometimes I fear my letters are most dreadfully boring, thus the theme. And it is extra nice to coordinate the postage with the theme. 🥰 📬. My latest theme? 🍎 🍏 Apples! It is apple season after all and the markets are filling up with lovely little apples with even lovelier names such as, Pink Lady, Honeycrisp and Autumn Glory. September is also the birth month of Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman. The USPS honored him on a postage stamp from 1966 as part of their folklore series. I only have a cancelled Johnny Appleseed stamp, however. 😞

My postage was a little lacking so I decided to base the letters on apple phrases. I wrote to one old friend I hadn’t seen in years but had recently met her grown son for the first time. He was delightful and regaled Mr. Murphy and myself with tales of his parents! 😂 I wrote about the apple not falling far from the tree. 🌳 🍎 

Another letter was to a friend that is a prayer partner and fellow Bible student. She has been a great encouragement so I wrote to her about Proverbs 25:11 “Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word fitly spoken.” 🥰 🍎 I feel that a hand written letter, full of wonderful words, definitely cheers and uplifts…like apples of gold in settings of silver. 

One could also send a letter to the apple of one’s eye or describe a recent triumph in one’s life…you know…how do you like them apples? 😉 I feel like the apple idioms are endless and excellent seeds for inspiration!! Go forth, my friends, like Johnny Appleseed and spread good cheer by planting…um…I mean…MAILING some letters!! 

Go postal, people!! 

XOXO,

Mrs. Murphy