Thank-You Notes

My mother made us write thank-you notes to all the relatives after Christmas to thank them for our presents. This event/trial/tradition of writing thank-you notes usually took place just after New Year’s Day and before we started back at school. I remember the following guidelines for writing theses notes:

1. Always address the person individually
2. Start with a thank-you and then mention the item concerned
3. Write why you liked the present or what you are planning to do with it
4. The length of the note must be more than three sentences long; writing thank-you twice does not count as two sentences
5. Make a personal observation
6. It is possible to say thank-you in the finishing sentence, but it is not obligatory
7. Your print or handwriting must be legible
8. Only one or two crossed out words are acceptable; otherwise start anew
9. Each thank-you note must be unique. No copying is allowed!

I remember the torture of having to write these epistles to each relative. You can imagine my surprise, when a few years ago, my mother sent me back one of my thank you notes (Could it have been one she rejected? Gasp!). It proved to me just how wrong memories can be. (I have to paraphrase the note because I put the card in a place so I could find it later and now I can’t find it. Do you ever do that sort of thing?)

Dear Auntie Gladice, (her name was Gladys)

Thank you for the nice box. I will put something in it.

Thank you. Bye, lia

Now, I remember agonising hours over this note. I remember all my friends were playing outside my bedroom window: building the most fantastic snow fort imaginable. It just shows you how difficult it is to transfer all the fantasy and energy one possesses for building snow forts into good thank-you-notes.

Here, on the other hand, is an example of how it is really done. This is a letter my grandfather sent to thank us for a (measly) hand-drawn birthday card.

April ‘69

Dear Karen,
Dear Kim,
Dear Lia,
Dear Daniel,

I want to thank you for your lovely Birthday Card. It was so well done and I liked the Bird Bath and all the Birds singing for Spring. It made me feel as if we will soon be having new bright sunny days and warm weather. I think that is what I need to make me feel better.

Also my thanks for the pictures that Lia took at Christmas time. It reminded me of the good time I had with you all at Christmas.

I hope you all had good reports from the school examinations (except Daniel).

Much love to you all,

Grandpa

(Note: My brother, Daniel was too young to attend school in 1968)

It might be that my grandfather possessed such wonderful social graces he could make receiving one birthday card into something very precious, or, maybe April is a better time to write thank-you notes because the snow has melted.