GOULDSBORO — Tweeting, Facebooking, e-mailing, cell phone calling and texting are the communications currency of the day for many, but there are still some people out there who prefer pen and paper.
Mary Faulkingham of the Gouldsboro village of Birch Harbor is one such soul.
She has 30 pen pals in 17 states to whom she writes regularly. In her pen pal heyday she wrote to up to 64 women.
It started in 1992 when she was reading a country western music magazine and spotted a small ad by an Indiana woman looking for pen pals.
Mary began writing and over the years the two became fast friends. They visited each other at their homes twice. The other woman is now deceased.
Then Mary, a native of Machias, also branched out looking for more pen pals through her own small ads in pen pal magazines.
Some women she communicates with once a month, others twice or more a month and others as soon as she receives their letters.
“I have some that are closer than others,” she said.
Mary writes longhand at her kitchen table. She uses lined paper, sometimes tucked inside a note card covered with more news about the current events in her life.
The women might exchange photos of family and pets. Some trade stickers.
“Many of us have things in common,” said Mary, “like having been born in small towns, liking to go to yard sales, things we like to eat.”
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Jacqueline Weaver
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