Handwriting

Brian G. NY · Jan 22, 2016

Following along with the thread about spelling and punctuation, I got to thinking about my handwriting.
My "hen scratching" is somewhere between cursive and printing and not pretty to look at!
In the old days, it seemed that most everyone who could write, wrote quite beautifully.
My wife and I just ran across a pack of hundreds of documents belonging to a very distant ancestor of hers.
There are many deeds and other official documents along with invoices from vendors as he apparently ran a general store at one time.
Here is an example of the kind of writing you find on a "run of the mill" old invoice.

rrlund · Jan 22, 2016

Yep,if my handwriting and signature were the only evidence of my time on Earth,nobody would ever know I was here.

Greg K · Jan 22, 2016

That handwriting would add another element
to a truck stop bathroom for sure.

Brian G. NY · Jan 22, 2016

I didn't get that one!!

Fordfarmer · Jan 22, 2016

With both of my parents (and grandmother, brother, one sister, a few uncles, many aunts, and several cousins) being teachers, I HAD to pay attention and do my best in school.
Neat handwriting was something I never mastered, though.

Greg1959 · Jan 22, 2016

Bob Harvey · Jan 22, 2016

I have a couple of business ledgers from 1910-1920 in an old trunk. The writing/numbers are in a fantastic, easy to read script, done with an ink pen (not a quill), and they are beautiful. I should dig them out.

Bob Harvey · Jan 22, 2016

P.S. They were from an old building formerly used by the Monsanto Co. under the Granville Street bridge in Vancouver, B.C. We were the first guys to develop Granville Island in the 70's.

buickanddeere · Jan 22, 2016

Mrs B&D's Mother's handwriting is a work of art. A casual grocery list looks like calligraphy script that should be framed and
displayed in a museum or school.

tim s · Jan 22, 2016

Back then people took more time to do their hand writing,,every one is in a major hurry any more. I went to a Catholic grade school and those old Nun's were very strict, we were graded on our hand writing as well as our composition.. I have heard talk of school systems doing away with cursive writing...They seem to be making huge consesions to what is learned in school these days and it shows up in a very bad way..

dzc3 · Jan 22, 2016

Trucker don't write on the walls any way. Ever try to give directions or pick up numbers to a driver? Most of them will want to borrow your pen or make you wait on the phone while they try to find one.

fixerupper · Jan 22, 2016

I used to have an old batchelor farmer neighbor, born in 1895, who had near perfect penmanship. He quit country school to start farming when he was 14. My daughter in law's sister has downs but her penmanship is like a work of art. Both of them wrote or writes slowly. I never have had the small motor dexterity or patience to write well. Thank goodness for typing.

larry@stinescorner · Jan 22, 2016

My mil too

Frank41 · Jan 22, 2016

My wife is into genealogy and the old census and deed books are something to decipher. Some of the penmanship is beautiful and others is simular to a doctor's perscription. The flowery lawyerease of the legal documents is not much different than today. They must have gotten paid by the word.

JimS · Jan 22, 2016

Handwriting forces you to slow down and organize your thoughts. Editing is more difficult than when we type. You develop a
clarity that is lacking in much computer communication.

Also, writing by hand causes you to use other portions of your brain increasing the synapses or links between various portions of
your brain. More simply, writing by hand makes you smarter.

Paul from MI · Jan 22, 2016

I was never good at penmanship, or cursive writing. But many years on a drawing board taught me to print very neatly and fast so I print everything. Many of those drawings had to be done in ink, so one mistake and start over. CAD changed all that. Since I can't write anyway, now I wish I had taken typing. But back then typing was for girls and shop was fo9r guys.

centash · Jan 22, 2016

Didn't someone say that messy handwriting was a sign of an above average intelligence brain
that could organize thoughts much faster than the body could write them down? Does that
mean that those who speak in disjointed prose also think faster than they can talk?

Ben

Gene Davis (Ga.) · Jan 22, 2016

The school system in Houston county Ga. no longer teaches cursive writing. They say kids type everything. Not so, because my daughter had to teach her daughter who was in the 7th grade how to sign her name in cursive so she could sign some papers.

JMS/.MN · Jan 22, 2016

I have terrible handwriting! Despite the "Palmer Method" in sixth grade...remember that? I scribbled notes in college using my own brand of abbreviations, but had to transcribe them into print before going to my night job at the ammo plant, otherwise, too much was lost.

Bret4207 · Jan 23, 2016

My hand writing is horrid, I can't even read some of what I write and I gave up on cursive decades ago. BIG BLOCK LETTERS and I still have a time reading it. My father was the same or worse. His father on the other had what I believe was called "copperplate" handwriting, the stuff that looks like calligraphy by some artist. I don't think messy hen scratching is a sign of intelligence since my grandfather was one of those "human adding machines" who could do complex math in his head faster than a person with the adding machines and slide rules of the 1920's and 30's. As I said, my handwriting defines the words "atrocious" and I can provide many, many witnesses that will attest to the fact I'm dumber than a box of rocks!

Handwriting

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