When New Yorker staff writer Rachel Syme bought an old-school typewriter, she thought it might be fun to send friends ... the time-honored idea of pen pals. Strangers are building rapport through ...

what do they do for fun, favorite school subjects, family members and friends, etc. Martin makes sure his letters are cheery; he doesn’t want to let on how dire his situation is to his pen pal.

A student pen pal program is connecting generations, with third graders and local seniors exchanging letters for months ...

For months, third graders at Crooked Lake Elementary have been trading letters with pen pals a few generations older. On Friday, they finally met face-to-face.

adding that some students tried to imagine what their pen pals look like. “It was really fun to see them play around with those ideas and then to connect and see each other in person and realize ...

Amundson remembers. "She thought it would be fun to be pen pals," she says. That was a lifetime ago, but the friends still write back and forth, sharing family news and yearly pictures.

They became friends and, over time, they became devoted pen pals. This story was originally ... I had a lot of fun fishing with Bill (ph). We were very happy when I caught a medium fish for ...