{"id":20057,"date":"2017-02-28T05:08:32","date_gmt":"2017-02-28T05:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=20057"},"modified":"2017-02-28T05:08:32","modified_gmt":"2017-02-28T05:08:32","slug":"penmanship-its-a-goner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=20057","title":{"rendered":"Penmanship: It’s a goner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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My day is almost over, but before “I lay me down to sleep,” I want to offer this minor regret about the craft I pursued for 37 years.<\/p>\n

My handwriting has gone straight to hell.<\/p>\n

I was blessed with good penmanship as a child. I got good grades from my elementary school teachers who used to actually\u00a0grade students’ penmanship. My parents both had exquisite penmanship. I have in my possession a stack of letters Mom wrote to one of her brothers in the late 1940s. Her handwriting was impeccable.<\/p>\n

I came of age with that kind of handwriting. I was inducted into the Army in 1968 and wrote letters home constantly. Dad would share them with friends and other family members.<\/p>\n

I came home from the Army in the summer of 1970, re-enrolled in college in January 1971 and started taking mass communications classes.<\/p>\n

I became a reporter, which required those of us in the profession at the time to learn how to write rapidly.<\/em> I had to take copious notes from subjects I would interview. When one has to write like that so frequently, it stands to reason that one’s penmanship is going to suffer.<\/p>\n

I finished school, got started in journalism. I kept writing quickly. My handwriting kept deteriorating.<\/p>\n

Now? It’s shot all to hell. My wife needles me good-naturedly about it on occasion. She remembers my good penmanship.<\/p>\n

Yes, I know that penmanship no longer is even taught in school these days. Children operate handheld “devices” to communicate. Many of them can’t tell time by looking at an old-fashioned clock dial.<\/p>\n

My handwriting got so bad that I actually fantasized about some judge issuing a subpoena ordering me to turn over my notes. Hah! Go ahead and try to decipher this scribble, Your Honor!<\/p>\n

But I do regret that I no longer can write with precision.<\/p>\n

Mom and Dad no doubt would be unhappy with this admission.<\/p>\n\n

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My day is almost over, but before “I lay me down to sleep,” I want to offer this minor regret about the craft I pursued for 37 years. My handwriting has gone straight to hell. I was blessed with good penmanship as a child. I got good grades from my elementary school teachers who used … Continue reading Penmanship: It’s a goner<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2587,3540,4300,4547],"class_list":["post-20057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-news","tag-journalism","tag-penmanship","tag-social-media","tag-telecommunications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20059,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20057\/revisions\/20059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}