Did you have penpals as a child?

I had penpals. I actually advertised for them in a magazine (called the Pink Pages I think!). I got loads of replies and was in contact with a few of them for a while. Prior to that I had 3 Italian penpals.

Yep I did, some girl in France. It was set up by our French teacher at school. I used to write to friends i'd met on holiday or on school exchange trips too - guess kids nowadays just use FB!

I had 2. 1 x girl 1 x boy, the girl used to live near me but moved to south africa when we were kids so we wrote to each other for a while but lost contact a long time ago. The other was from wales, I *think* we met through the penpal section in smash hits magazine lol we actually met once. I remember having a huge zit on my face that day, I was so embarrassed!

Yes! I wrote to my sister's ex husband's cousin (she was the same age but much cooler than me ?) and I also wrote to my grandma. Hmmm...maybe this is why I need forums eh? ?

It would actually make really interesting research, the higher usage of a forum donates a special kind of imagiantion and will power that was instigated in child hood by having pen pals, or some such crap?

I remember my friend set me up with a morocan (sp) guy as a pen pal. I thought it was gonna be a cultural thing to learn more about another country. But I remember it was just love letters. I was a bit freaked out as a 14 year old to get a love poem from a 21 year old. He even sent me a bag with a camel on it! needless to say I wasn't a pen pal for long

I had loads, maybe about 5 or 6. There was a company who used to set them up - I can't remember the name.

I think I may be thinking of the same thing. You had to fill in a form etc with all your interests etc and you were 'matched' up. Think I had a girl in Germany I wrote to for a while. And someone in Malaysia who wrote to me but I didn't write back ? We also had penpals at school. Can't remember how they were set up but it was clearly some arrangement between a few schools across the country. I ended up with a girl from Linlithgow in Scotland who played in a recorder ensemble. I didn't exchange many letters with her but I found a picture of her a few months ago that she had sent to me (must have been 1987/88) of her in some Elizabethan costume for a recorder recital. She may be out there somewhere, maybe even lurking on here!!

So if your name is Gillian and you grew up in Linlithgow and played the recorder then we might have exchanged letters years ago!

OOOO yes me too me too!

One girl that wrote to me was from France, a year younger than me and wrote beautifully in perfect english. My mother took the pee something chronic out of me because this girl was so much more astute than I was - it was the last time I wrote to that girl and showed my mother any of the letters I received.