Nope... I went to a small parochial school in the 70's and we had the same
exercise. The Palmer method was such a joy to learn but it was the price
you paid for good penmanship. Now if I would have just finished the
course...
I was recently looking over some documentation in Germany from the 1500's.
There were a couple of receipts for taxation where the signature was a mark
instead of a letter or an X. As it was explained to me some who were
illiterate would spend time learning how to make a distinctive (family)
mark. Maybe this is what is behind what you are describing.
----- Original Message -----
From: Norm Carmack <lonzoc(a)earthlink.net>
To: <CARMACK-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2001 4:28 PM
Subject: Re: Deciphering Old Handwriting
Hi Patty,
I don't know about all those others out there...but I certainly did the
'slinkys' in 'penmanship' at my school... ..maybe we were the only two
that
did that, reckon?
Luv
Norm
At 01:45 PM 7/2/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>Do you remember in grade school when the teacher would have you practice
>script by forming circles that looked like a slinky when you finished?
Well,
>I have noticed at the end of documents where the signature goes,
instead
of
>an (X), sometimes there is a squiggly mark that appears as though
the
person
>was deleting the marks. This squiggly mark was somewhat like the
slinky
I
>described, only in very short form. Hope you understand my
>description---hard to describe. Also, it may look like lettering inside
a
>parentheses, except it is enclosed in parentheses looking more
like a
script
>capital E and a backwards capital E. (Use your imagination)
> Does anyone know what I'm talking about? And, is this another way
of
>providing a signature when the person could not write?
> Pat
>
>
>
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>I'm not stuck, I'm ancestrally challenged.
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