Pen Pals - Then And Now

(CBS)  Pen pals - thanks to technology, chat rooms and social networking - are slowly becoming a thing of the past. But not for the kids you're about to meet. They're keeping it alive - for very good reason, CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports in Assignment America.

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"We want to know eight divided by two is what?" second grade teacher Amy Frueh asked her students. "You have a couple minutes."

Division is not the highlight of second grade. The highlight of second grade, for both Amy Frueh's class and across town in Katie Bentley's class … is getting the mail.

"The entire day will be like, 'Can we get our pen pal letters now? Please can we? Now? Right now,'" Bentley said.

For those of you too young to remember the concept - here's how it works.

"First get assigned a pen pal and then we write letters to each other back and forth," one kid says.

Why don't they just talk on the phone?

"Well we don't have phone numbers and besides that would kind of ruin the pen pal thing," a student explained.

The schools involved are Westpark Elementary, where Bentley teaches, and Culverdale Elementary, where Freuh works. They're in Irvine, Calif., about a mile apart. The two classes traded letters all year - until a few weeks ago, when the kids finally got to meet their pen pals at a picnic.

And that was the official end of the assignment. Now it's time for them to keep up their friendships - and many will - because they already know the second half of the story.

Hartman asked the classes: "How many people remember how Ms. Frueh and Ms. Bentley met? Do you remember?"

Nineteen years ago, Bentley was a second grader herself at Westpark. Freuh - a second grader at Culverdale. And, yes, they were pen pals. They traded letters all the way through high school.

Today, they're best friends - teaching the same classes at the same schools they were at when they met.

"I just can't believe that everything fell into place the way that it did," Freuh said.

The kids can't believe it either … friends since 1991.

"Do you know how long ago that was? 1991?" Hartman asked.

"Yeah, that was before they invented cars, they had to use wheels and horses," one student said.

Another said: "And boys had to wear skirts."

"Do they teach history here?" Hartman asked.

"No," the student said.

Fortunately, there's an even better lesson to be learned here - a lesson about friendship that pen pals like Alexander Doan and Mitchell Rogers are already taking to heart.

After their meeting at the picnic, two of the boys made a commitment.

"Do you think you guys will be friends?"

As one kid said: "To the end."

To the end?

"Yes, until 6th grade," he said.

[dutch163]

Absolutely wonderful! I love it!
I always had penpals. In grade school it was with a cousin in England, we finally met as adults. For the last 20 years I have been writing to a teacher in Germany, she has been here twice.(we are both language teachers) my daughter and I went there last year. I cannot tell you how much I value her friendship!

[harri64]

When I was in the 8th grade in 1956 we had a student teacher at Sartell,MN public school. She had also student taught at St. Joseph,MN. As an English project she matched up students from each school as pen pals. My pen pal and I wrote frequently and finally met at the county spelling bee. We went through high school together in St. Cloud,MN and became fast friends. She went to nurse''s training and I went to college but we still were able to go to a lot of activities together. I moved to St. Paul,MN and she married and moved to northern MN but we still keep in touch both by email and snail mail. We have been friends for 52 years! I loved your story about pen pals so I had to tell you mine.

I have been a fan of yours since your days on Good Company at KSTP and especially your "Everyone Has a Story" segments. I am so happy to see you made it to the "big time". Well deserved! You did an excellent job on "Sunday Morning" last week.

[susiebondi]

We were both widows, having lost our mates to cancer. He lived in Paris, I lived in Cincinnati. We began writing, offering each other hope and encouragement. That was 1995. We finally met in 1996 and 5 days later he asked me to marry him. We have been happy ever since.

[teacher1238]

My pen pal and I have been writing for an amazing 27 years. We started writing the summer after fourth grade. We got started from a commercial that used to air during the Saturday morning cartoons. We grew up across the U.S. (Louisiana and California) We are both in the education field, also (teacher and teacher turned guidance counselor) We had never met until this summer when I flew out to Los Angeles with my husband and 2 children. We had the time of our lives. It was not awkward at all. We spent six wonderful days together sightseeing in CA. We went to Disneyland, the beaches, a Dodgers'' game, the LA Zoo, Sea World, and Hollywood. It was just like we were sisters. Next summer she is planning on coming to visit me in Louisiana. Angela Abbott Mayers - 37 years old - St.Amant, Louisiana