With love from Dublin, Ireland, 1953, photo above — This is a part of a letter written at the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin, Ireland by the late Martin J. Walsh Jr. (1924-2008) of Murdock, Minnesota, to his family at home in Minnesota, 1953.

Get pen, paper, and postage stamps ready, send letters!

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Jannet L. Walsh
Monday, June 30, 2025
7:19 pm
77F, mostly sunny
Murdock, Minnesota

Dear Readers,

If you want to receive a letter, you need to write a letter first!

I’m writing you today to express my deepest concerns about the lost art of letter writing, including sending postcards, or greeting cards through the mail, United States Postal Service, or your local country’s postal system.

To be clear, letters and cards you can hold in your hands, write with ink and pen to create letters, forming words, sentences, use an addressed envelope, and attach postage stamps in the upper right corner of the envelope. You finally place it in a mail box for delivery. Some call this snail mail, I call it family history in the making. It’s a gift to your family’s future.

It’s easy to send an email, text message from your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer, but it’s likely not to be seen beyond deletion. It’s through letters, cards, greeting cards, you can learn about someone, your loved ones, parents, grandparents and more.

As a young girl, about 10 or 11, I had a pen pal in Australia through Girl Scouts, and apparently it’s still going on today. Read about Girl Scouts and pen pals at GirlScouts.org.

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Letters sent home to Murdock, Minnesota from Ireland, France 1953

It’s May 13, 1953, and my dad is staying at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, Ireland, room 414, according to the hotel register. He’s having trouble booking a hotel room in England before traveling to France, and heading back to the United States. The big snag for his travel is in London, with Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation just a few weeks away, June 2, 1958.

My late father Martin J. Walsh Jr., age 28, (1924-2008), from Murdock, Minnesota, was on a trip of a lifetime in 1953. His nickname was Marty to avoid confusion with his Martin J. Walsh Sr., (1886-1985), with the nickname of Mart.

My father spent his entire career working as a telegrapher and station manager for the Great Northern and Burlington Northern Railroad, 1943 to December 31, 1984. He was working for the same railroad, but the name changed. Learn more about my dad’s vintage Kodachrome images from Ireland at my website, and featured at IrishCentral, Seeing Ireland through my father’s vintage Kodachrome images.

During my father’s trip in 1953, his mother, Mary Jannet “Jennie” Walsh, was writing him at American Express offices in Belfast, Dublin, and Paris, about news from home, Dublin Township, Swift County, Minnesota.  The family was living in the village of Murdock, the same location I live today.

The 1950 US Census lists my father living at home with his parents and was likely saving his money from the railroad to finance his travels.  I only have a handful of remaining letters and postcards, all with postage stamps have been removed from the envelopes as he was a stamp collector.

My dad’s letters and post cards sent home to Murdock in 1953 provide a glimpse of my family that would be just lost in time.

It does not need to be a trip around the world to write someone, just send a letter, say hello.

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Love letters
While working on my nonfiction manuscript Dispatches from Edge of the World
Collection of stories from rural Minnesota, part of my Minnesota State Arts Grant, 2024, I developed concerns for current and futures generations. Family history will be lost, if not already, from news once delivered in letters historically only through the postal system.

I’d say writing friendly family letters is almost lost, but could use a boost to get started again. I’m happy to say, just start writing now, yes you!

Just the facts, USPS
Decline in United States Postage Service is expected for 2025, see report at USPS, as more people are sending emails, using social media, and texting short messages via smartphones.

“Fiscal Year 2025 Integrated Financial Plan
The 2025 IFP projects total mail and package volume of 106.7 billion pieces, a decline of 5.7 billion pieces (5.1%) from 2024, primarily due to projected declines in First-Class Mail and USPS Marketing Mail volume. Revenue is projected to be $82.9 billion, an increase of $2.4 billion from 2024.”

United States Postal Service
View at original Source

People are expected to migrate from hard-copy mail to digital media, and due to the expected state of the economy, according to the United States Postal Service.

Is the USPS here to stay?
Is it possible the United States Postage Service could stop mail delivery? The future is unknown, but there’s something afoot in Europe regarding this topic, starting in Denmark.

Denmark started their letter delivery in 1624. In 2026, the Postnord, Denmark’s national postal service will stop delivering mail, citing a 90% decline in letter volumes since the start of the century. Read the full story at BBC.com. See statement at Postnord website about final letter deliveries.

Simply put, it’s easier and cheaper to sent a letter by email or a quick text, then buy postage, and time time to write a letter. Denmark is saying letters will not be delivered, no matter the weather starting 2026, only parcels.

What to do now? Get writing letters!
Start writing letters, especially to your family and friends. Keep your letters simple, and short, but just write. There’s someone in the future not yet born that could be learning about your life from 2025, and will be amazed, and grateful.

There’s other options if you don’t want to write a letter, and put it in the mail. Start keeping a journal, not digital, and that’s another way of recording your life for future generations.

You could sent yourself postcards, learn more at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC.

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Go fourth to write and send a letter now!

Encourage children to write letters!

I look forward to your kind reply!

Sincerely,

Jannet L. Walsh
Written at home, Murdock, Minnesota

Please follow update at my website, JannetWalsh.com.

Copyright © 2025. Jannet L. Walsh. All Rights Reserved.

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*Jannet L. Walsh of Murdock, Minnesota is a photographer, writer, and educator. She is the author of a creative nonfiction quest narrative “Higgledy-Piggledy Stones: Family Stories from Ireland and Minnesota,” 2023 by Shanti Arts Publishing. Walsh is recipient of a Southwest Minnesota Arts Council Growth Grant funded by the McKnight Foundation, 2022-2024, and Southwest Minnesota Arts Council, 2024-2026. She is also recipient of a 2024 Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Individuals Grant, funding from National Endowment for the Arts. You can follow Walsh on Facebook and Twitter, and on her other social media channels, with the hashtag #IrishFamilyHistoryDetective.