Saturday 21 January 2017

Handwriting

A few days ago, this post on Yorkshire Pudding's blog, my comment there and his reply to it made me think of posting something about handwriting - my handwriting, to be precise.

In 2010, when my blog had only about a handful of readers and was a little different from what it is now, I posted an irregular series of four posts titled "Notes to Self", the first one being this one. Funnily enough, that post was inspired by something I had been reading on someone else's blog, too - just like this time.

And the reason for my handwriting being as untidy as it is was already mentioned there: I used to work at a company where 60 weekly newspapers of small rural communities were produced every week. I was responsible for the adverts pages in those papers, and this was long before nearly everybody had access to the internet and was sending emails back and forth all day. 
Back then, most of our business was done over the phone, and I was constantly rung by customers wanting to place ads in our papers. They gave me whatever they wanted published over the phone, with me scribbling along as fast as I could. We did not have headsets for our telephones; instead, I was always squeezing the receiver between my left shoulder and my ear.
You can imagine that this was a) not leading to particularly neat handwriting and b) very bad - on the long run, especially - for my neck, shoulders and back. I am still struggling with the consequences of working like this for years, even though I have left that company more than 15 years ago.

Back to my handwriting: I have never been particularly good at this. Maybe it has to do with bad eyesight (I was wearing specs already at the age of 7), maybe part of it is due to my own impatience of getting my thoughts on paper as fast as possible, as it was when at school we were told to write an essay. I would cover pages and pages (easily 10 of them) with my scribbles, and although I guess my teachers sat there, sighing over my untidy writing, they usually liked what I wrote, and I always received good grades for my essays. Or did my teachers simply give up and put a good grades underneath, just to get it over with? I will never know!

When I knew it mattered, I tried to write really well and made an effort - as I still do when, for instance, I write Christmas cards. Those of you who have received a card from me will know that I do not always succeed! But this example of my handwriting from the early 1990s shows you what I mean:
 
Part of a CV, back when they were still meant to be written by hand


In 2011-12, I was working from home most of the time, selling point of sale hardware to people whose business it was to install their software on our hardware and sell the finished product to shops, restaurants and anywhere else where people pay for goods or services. I kept a log of orders to make sure my boss did not omit any of them when adding up my monthly bonus, and it looked rather tidy, too:



The above mentioned post by YP was all about his diaries. I have been keeping diaries for some years now. They started out as mainly for work, and still contain all my work-related appointments. What with me often working in 3 to 5 different locations in one single week, I don't want to get up in the morning, not knowing where I am supposed to be today!

I put down notes about the weather, personal appointments and remarks in them, too.
Here is my collection from 2011 to 2017 (left to right, with the brown one being my current diary):


Typical example of a 2014 week. Entries include when I was going to the gym with a friend, work location and when to put out the bin.
These are all names of customers I planned to ring (and did ring) each day when I was still selling hardware. After each phone call, I crossed out the name on my list. Other entries are about the weather and when I was having lunch with my parents.
Self-explanatory, I suppose!
Last year's Yorkshire holiday. I wonder whether you can read any of it - you have the posts here on my blog for reference.

After all this, what is the conclusion? That someone who loves order and enjoys keeping their flat neat and tidy can still have very untidy handwriting? Could it be that, precisely because my handwriting is so "un-neat", I need more order around me?
I really don't know, but would like to know what you think about it.

21 comments:

  1. No you are wrong my dear - I think you have that lovely 'European style' handwriting which always looks extremely elegant. Let's face it, today most young people don't even write in cursive, and when/if they do it's often really ugly. My fears are they will stop teaching cursive the schools - it has been suggested over here! I am always told my handwriting is lovely - I agree it was when I was young, and I did enter contests at school which I usually won - now however it's changed somewhat and I do find it harder to write neatly. . . . . . . and straight!

    Great post - catching up and sending new year wishes. I met lovely new German friends on the cruise, mother and adult son - more on them another time - we are keeping in touch!

    Hugs- Mary

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like cursive writing and wish mine were better. I correspond with an elderly cousin of my husband who has the most beautiful writing, she was educated in convent schools in Spain. I fear cursive writing is a lost art form and most schools here have stopped teaching it, too bad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In elementary school, we had a subject called "Schönschreiben", literally "beautiful writing". Obviously, what I learned there did not stick with me...!

      Delete
  3. I love working through my thoughts with ink and paper, and have kept exactly the kind of personal journals you describe for most of my adult life--in fits and starts. I'm not sure that your own daily notes and musings and lists SHOULD be entirely "neat", surely the effort to make them so would stifle creativity to some extent. Or that's my feeling about it! Oh, and I love January when calendars and planners go on clearance. I love both and always buy several of them. In fact, I should do a blog post like this. I hope you don't mind if I take the idea from you and Yorkshire Pudding! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also love the little doodles of suns and smiley faces, I do that kind of thing, too!

      Delete
    2. Please do such a blog post, too, Jennifer, I'd love to see your handwriting and your journals!
      My diaries are for my own personal use only, so they do not have to be neat. But I don't like it that writing legibly is so difficult to me, and takes such effort; I wish it came easier to me. Typing is my preferred way of writing, as I can nearly type as fast as I think, and I know it will always be legible!

      Delete
  4. Well, *blush blush* actually to me your handwriting looks rather neat! you should see mine!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My handwriting, neat? It is all over the place! :-D

      Delete
  5. Uh, you have seen my handwriting so you know I am the LAST person who would criticize handwriting! HA!
    I think yours is neat and tidy, to my eye anyway!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your handwriting reflects your spontaneous and creative mind, Kay. Mine simply looks disorderly. I can always read what you write!

      Delete
  6. I think it is difficult to judge since we were taught such a different style of writing, but your handwriting looks quite legible to me. My husband always blamed his bad handwriting on the fact that he began learning the European style and then had to switch to the American. But my son Andy has the same "style". My own handwriting changes somewhat with my mood. That seems rather weird to me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When I receive cards or letters from my Yorkshire family, I often think my sisters-in-law and my niece have very similar handwriting, whereas my mother-in-law and the aunts who are more or less the same generation as her have a different style, but among them, similar again.
      True, I don't know anybody else whose handwriting changes with their mood; mine only becomes more or less legible depending on with how much care I have been writing, or whether I was in a hurry.

      Delete
  7. I think that first example of your writing is very neat. My own was wrecked through very fast note taking at university. Only my family can read it (,that's really odd. Maybe it's a genetic thing...),

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Must be, Frances :-)
      I see you have wrecked yours the same way as I did mine, only that my high speed note taking did not take place at uni.

      Delete
  8. Here's another suggestion: Your handwriting has changed from typically German style to more international :) Said half in jest, but I'm serious as well: Your writing in the first picture is what I associate with typically German handwriting, while your writing in later years is harder to determine like that. (Not that I'm an expert... Just judging by my own limited experience, having had penpals from a few different countries dating back to before the computers...)

    My pocket diaries always used to be rather neat and full in January and then it always looked like the rest of the year I did nothing... I've finally given them up now and I just jot down appointments and such on a wall calendar in the kitchen. (Not working any more, there aren't that many appointments!) For looking back, I use my blog and fb and my digital photos now (as I usually take the camera with me when I go out for walks etc).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I guess you have a point there, Monica.

      Like you, I use my blog for looking back, at least until March 2008, when I started! Diary entries can prompt me looking up blog posts from around that time, and of course my blog is important to me in that I am keeping track of what I have been reading.

      Delete
  9. You say your handwriting is untidy Meike but I haven't yet seen any proof of that. For example, your Yorkshire diary handwriting looks pretty neat to me. Unfortunately I can't read German.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Most of my diary entries are a mix of German and English. Sometimes an English term is much shorter than what it would take to express the same thing in German, and so I choose that for my diary.
      Also, you simply need to look up my 2016 Yorkshire Holiday posts to know what I was writing in my diary :-)

      Delete
    2. Maybe because you were a teacher and are used to some very bad handwriting from your former students you think that my handwriting is not untidy. Most other people agree with me in saying that it is almost illegible!

      Delete
  10. My handwriting varies from almost copperplate to downright illegible (even to me). Your handwriting is at least legible. If you want to see truly illegible writing you should try and read my late uncle's diaries!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oops, sorry, Graham - somehow your comment completely slipped through the mesh - I only found it now!
      Who knows, I might be the one to decipher your late uncle's diaries :-)

      Delete