Abigail was reading Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel today. In one story, “The Letter”, Toad tells Frog: “I never get any mail.” So Frog sets out to fix the situation. He writes a letter to Toad. Then…
Frog ran out of his house.
He saw a snail that he knew.
“Snail,” said Frog, “please take this letter to Toad’s house and put it in his mailbox.”
“Sure,” said the snail. “Right away.”……
Frog and Toad waited a long time.
Four days later the snail got to Toad’s house. and gave him the letter from Frog.
Toad was very pleased to have it.
This book was copywritten in 1970 – decades ago! I thought it was a cute illustration of Snail Mail, indeed!
Ted and I then did a couple searches to find out more about the history of the term snail mail:
a shorter version
I liked this one – more historic:
“In 1793, Fanny Burney, the English novelist, wrote about “that snail’s pace with which business is done by letters.”
I confess I still enjoy Snail Mail although I don’t take the time to write paper letters as much as I once did….email is okay too but there’s something about writing and reading with pen and paper that still speaks intimately to me. Each day I go to the mailbox, I still hope I’ll see a stamp and handwritten address among all the junk mail and magazines. I hope I’ll find hidden treasure.
