I first heard of letterboxing in a magazine article but
since no boxes were near me it took several months before
I found my first box and got interested. I can understand
people that live in areas with lots of letterboxers and
boxes not wanting any publicity, but those of us that live
in sparse letterboxing areas would welcome any means of
attracting new boxers. My experience is that even when
I tell people about letterboxing, most of them are not
interested enough to persue it. A well written article
can reach more people and the odds are some will become
letterboxers. The Family Fun Magazine article was a
definite success for Texas since there are now at least
5 times the letterboxers and no problems that I am
aware of.

Silver Eagle

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "Peppermint Patti"
wrote:
> I went to a compass course with my son for Cub Scouts. Our
instructor told
> us about letterboxing. I asked her after the class and she gave me
the web
> site. I am so grateful that she told us about it! I love this past
time!!
>
> Peppermint Patti (with Bunny Man and Boy George)

I found out about letterboxing in one of those "family fun" magazines. It
was in a parenting magazine given to me at my son's preschool. It was a
very short article, just enough to get me interested and the rest is
history.

melanie
-----Original Message-----
From: Silver Eagle [mailto:sileagle@alltel.net]
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 6:35 AM
To: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [LbNA] Re: How we got started in LBing


I first heard of letterboxing in a magazine article but
since no boxes were near me it took several months before
I found my first box and got interested. I can understand
people that live in areas with lots of letterboxers and
boxes not wanting any publicity, but those of us that live
in sparse letterboxing areas would welcome any means of
attracting new boxers. My experience is that even when
I tell people about letterboxing, most of them are not
interested enough to persue it. A well written article
can reach more people and the odds are some will become
letterboxers. The Family Fun Magazine article was a
definite success for Texas since there are now at least
5 times the letterboxers and no problems that I am
aware of.

Silver Eagle

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "Peppermint Patti"
wrote:
> I went to a compass course with my son for Cub Scouts. Our
instructor told
> us about letterboxing. I asked her after the class and she gave me
the web
> site. I am so grateful that she told us about it! I love this past
time!!
>
> Peppermint Patti (with Bunny Man and Boy George)





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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi all,

I learned about this wonderful hobby right from the horse's mouth so
to speak. Middle of October 2002 I saw this group listed right in
the "Editors Picks" (on the right side of your screen as you log into
Yahoo Groups). I have been hooked ever since.


--bev


wishing I could spend more time letterboxing
- but life has a habit of getting in my way



--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "Peppermint Patti"
wrote:
> I went to a compass course with my son for Cub Scouts. Our
instructor told
> us about letterboxing. I asked her after the class and she gave me
the web
> site. I am so grateful that she told us about it! I love this past
time!!
>
> Peppermint Patti (with Bunny Man and Boy George)

We got introduced to Letterboxing through a geocacher. I work part-
time at a State Forest in Massachusetts that has a lot of
Geochaches. I met a guy on the trail searching for one and asked
what he was doing...just my curiosity. He explained his hobby and
also told me about letterboxing. I went to the website and was
hooked! I have no idea who the guy was, but if you remember me from
this summer - THANKS!

The State Forest I work at is pretty big (16,000acres) and had no
letterboxes! We planted four boxes fairly quickly and I guess that
sparked some interest because before we knew it, there were four more
Letterboxes planted there!

Amy

And then I dragged Jay into it! :)

We got introduced to Letterboxing through a geocacher. I work part-
time at a State Forest in Massachusetts that has a lot of
Geochaches. I met a guy on the trail searching for one and asked
what he was doing...just my curiosity. He explained his hobby and
also told me about letterboxing. I went to the website and was
hooked! I have no idea who the guy was, but if you remember me from
this summer - THANKS!

The State Forest I work at is pretty big (16,000acres) and had no
letterboxes! We planted four boxes fairly quickly and I guess that
sparked some interest because before we knew it, there were four more
Letterboxes planted there!

Amy

And then I dragged Jay into it! :)

Backpacker Magazine introduced me to letterboxing about a year ago.
They had a two sentence blurb about it. I think one sentence was, "
Letterboxing is geocaching for Luddites." I have not seen one local
stamp or letterbox in my area, but I am fortunate that some well
known boxers have left some here.
I agree with Silver Eagle. The fact that letterboxing requires
some effort doesn't appeal to most casual participants. I have
wondered how many new letterboxers started after seeing what I saw in
Backpacker. That magazine has a huge circulation, but I don't think
it had much effect on letterboxing.
y-nought

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "Silver Eagle"
wrote:
> I first heard of letterboxing in a magazine article but
> since no boxes were near me it took several months before
> I found my first box and got interested. I can understand
> people that live in areas with lots of letterboxers and
> boxes not wanting any publicity, but those of us that live
> in sparse letterboxing areas would welcome any means of
> attracting new boxers. My experience is that even when
> I tell people about letterboxing, most of them are not
> interested enough to persue it. A well written article
> can reach more people and the odds are some will become
> letterboxers. The Family Fun Magazine article was a
> definite success for Texas since there are now at least
> 5 times the letterboxers and no problems that I am
> aware of.
>
> Silver Eagle
>

You know... I can't even remember when I first read about
letterboxing. It was few years ago...I want to say at least 3. I
remember reading the article, thinking "Cool." I think perhaps it
was an article in Rubberstampmadness, just a little blurb, but
enough to peak my interest. It seemed like a nice off shoot of
rubberstamp art and looked pretty cool.

I didn't start doing anything about it until last year. Why? I don't
know... I was in NYC for one, and didn't get out of the city much.
When I moved back to Maine I googled letterboxing and found all
sorts of good stuff and boxes locally (ish).

Now I have created a monster, having introduced Camera
Obscura to the pasttime. He'll call me on occasion and gloat that
he is in Cape Cod or some other place and finding tons of
boxes. He's almost reached my number, which is low to be fair,
in F count in just a few months.

So that's it. Since then I've introduced my sister and
brother-in-law and mom and gram and the somewhat reluctant
Brat, who actually prefers geocaching. She's 9. I have done my
best.

Even my other sister, who is infinitely cooler than I, will readily
admit that "as far as goofy hobbies go, that one's pretty cool."

Amymisha

Although I heard about letterboxing from a fellow hiker, I really planted my
first letterbox after I saw the small mention of letterboxing in Backpacker
Maz. I was trying to get my fellow hikers interested in it too but I think they
are too serious to have fun doing something as letterboxing. One of my
fellow hikers are finding letterboxes with her grandson and I did get someone to
check out letterboxing with her son. I enjoy letterboxing but we have too few
on Long Island and the one I planted is gone. It just disappeared no trace to
be found.
I have found some in Ct. ( letterboxing heaven) with my granddaughter and I
have found a HH and recieved one postal letterbox with one on its way. I
still am too timid to try to carve
my own stamp but I'm beginnning to feel guilty I don't a home made stamp
yet.
So maybe this year I will carve my first stamp.

STAR:W+S=DRR


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

We discovered letterboxing thru a newspaper article (2 page spread
with color pictures) that also talked about geocaching. Letterboxing
sounded much, much more exciting to us and we couldn't wait for warm
weather.

The Syracuse area has few letterboxes listed on the LbNA site, and had
it not been for that article, we would not have had the joy this sport
offers, and the health healing benifits as well.

catbead, Fly Doc and a Mollusk




--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "Peppermint Patti"
wrote:
> I went to a compass course with my son for Cub Scouts. Our
instructor told
> us about letterboxing. I asked her after the class and she gave me
the web
> site. I am so grateful that she told us about it! I love this past
time!!
>
> Peppermint Patti (with Bunny Man and Boy George)

As long as everyone else is telling how they got started I guess Ill chime in. I heard about it on another yahoo list (for camp fire leaders). I think it was probably a post from Camp Fire Lady. I then have joined every list I could find
about it...
Unfortunately I havent been able to pursue it as much as I would like as I have try to do way too many things, and of course the lovely weather we are having. Hopefully Ill squeeze some in when the freezing weather in Colorado lets up a little.

Lisa/TDG (and fellow Camp Fire Lady)

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi All!

I am brand new to letterboxing! As a matter of fact - I haven't even
looked for one yet! My husband, daughter (13) and I are planning our
first letterboxing outing for this coming Saturday. (In South Jersey,
the weather is supposed to be mild, so we're taking advantage of it
to get started!) We have logbooks, compass and are getting our
personal stamps finished and can't wait to hit the trail!

We stumbled onto letterboxing in an interesting way. In the fall, my
husband, Eric, and I spent a weekend hiking in the Catskills. We had
a fantastic hike to Kaaterskill Falls and when we got home, wanting
to find more information about the local lore of this neat site, we
started searching on the Web. One of the most interesting links we
stumbled upon was the clue page for the Kaaterskill Falls letterbox.
We were so excited to see that we had been only feet away from a very
neat secret! We found out more about letterboxing and determined that
after the holidays and when weather became a little less cold, we
would give it a try.

Strangely enough, two weeks ago, I was browsing my local bookstore
and came across a new book on letterboxing "The Letterboxer's
Companion", so I picked it up and we immediately started preparing
for our first search. We're hoping to be able to find a couple on our
first outing, there seem to be several opportunities nearby. We're
also starting out with easy ones, to get a feel for the hobby.

As a special treat, we do plan to return to Kaaterskill Falls in the
spring to get what we did not leave with last time!

We'd be glad to receive any advice to beginning letterboxers,
although, it certainly seems the nature of this hobby is finding out
things little by little on your own.

Very excited to get started,
Monica

This one is funny...

I had gotten an email from a gentleman (Kris) who said he was a
soldier in Iraq who wanted to know whether I could possibly get him
a donated Pocket PC handheld computer. (My name is listed on
several websites as a user group leader for Pocket PC.)

My "scam radar" went up immediately. I thought, "Yeah, right. I'm
just going to send a $300-$500 item to some Bozo who claims he's a
soldier." If I had one, that is...

And so I went to Google to seach the man's name. I found his name
on several sites about letterboxing! Which led me to wonder what in
the world letterboxing is. Which led me to letterboxing.org. Which
led me to carve my sig stamp within 48 hours. And plant my first
box within a couple of weeks.

Kris, of course, is legit. Many of you know him. If I'm not
mistaken, he's even a native of Louisiana - where I am.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to help him obtain a used Pocket PC - I
sure hope someone was able to.

Kris, thanks so much for inadvertently clueing me in to
letterboxing! Thanks for your service to our country. And I'm
sorry I couldn't help you get a Pocket PC.

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "Peppermint Patti"
wrote:
> I went to a compass course with my son for Cub Scouts. Our
instructor told
> us about letterboxing. I asked her after the class and she gave me
the web
> site. I am so grateful that she told us about it! I love this past
time!!
>
> Peppermint Patti (with Bunny Man and Boy George)

Picture this I go hiking in the Smokey Mnts. for Thanksgiving 2000
and when I return I search the internet for information on the trails
I'd hike. To my suprise I find a clue sheet for a hidden treasure on
one of the trails. Why couldn't I had found this before I went on my
trip. Then I realize that there might be one hidden closer. After
clicking the link to LBNA I discover there's none in LA or MS and I
would have to do something about that. After hiding 3 or 4,
J. Dillon came along a hid a few giving me a chance to find someone
elses. Now with our third active boxer Zed we're planning a mini
meet for March.

Steve

In a message dated 2/11/04 10:08:00 AM Eastern Standard Time,
jayandamy76@yahoo.com writes:
I work part-
time at a State Forest in Massachusetts
Which one Amy????

Aj


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Aj,

Myles Standish State Forest in Plymouth/Carver.

Amy

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, ajaomom@a... wrote:
> In a message dated 2/11/04 10:08:00 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> jayandamy76@y... writes:
> I work part-
> time at a State Forest in Massachusetts
> Which one Amy????
>
> Aj
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]