During what promised to be another drab fourth grade English class, I was introduced to rules of formal letter writing.  Using my Schaffer blue ink fountain pen (ball point pens were not allowed in Catholic school) my assignment was to improve my penmanship by writing a letter, following the examples in our textbook.

The letter, addressed to an unknown recipient, Jane Smith, began, "Dear Mrs. Smith, It was a great pleasure to have made your acquaintance last summer.  How is the weather there? We are having a lot of rain here."

Copying the format of the example letter was excruciatingly boring. But then my teacher made an announcement that changed everything.