As a young kid, before I started getting mail, I always thought that I would feel grown up when I started opening letters with a letter opener.
I think I got it from watching my dad who had a home office sit there with his letter opener opening letters.
The letter opener seemed like it played such a significant part of it, like you couldn’t tear apart the envelope without using a letter opener. It was an integral part of the act. It wasn’t just an act of opening a letter, you had to use the letter opener to do it.
These days, I still get a thrill out of getting mail. Most of it are bills or junk mail but when you get something good, there’s that excitement of tearing the envelope and pulling out the card, letter, whatever to read what’s inside of it.
However, I still don’t have a letter opener, I just tear the envelope apart from the side and pull the letter out.