Writing Thank you notes .... a dying practice

I received a Thank You note last week.  An honest to God written missive on a suitable card with the coordinating envelope and delivered by Canada Post. I knew immediately the sender was friend Marilyn Howe. She is one of the few people I know who is still practicing this civility.  And Marilyn writes a lovely note, mentions each item and how she is using them.

When I was a child, in the fifties and sixties, as sure as there were gifts, there would be Thank you notes. Mother would set us down at the kitchen table, pass out the stationery and coach us with the content. "Use your best handwriting, address the person as you would speak to them (ie Dear Grammie Vail), say exactly what the gift was (I loved the Nancy Drew Books), tell how you will use ( I read one book immediately and am saving the others to read one every other day), say that you again"!  And we wrote our notes - Christmas, Birthdays, graduation, showers, wedding, babies ....

I can not remember when I first noticed that I was not receiving thank you notes.  Probably when the invitation to a baby shower reminded me that I had not received a thank you for that young couple's wedding gift.  I mentioned it to the girl's mother and she replied "Oh, they thanked you at the wedding"!   Duh..... I checked out the registry, I shopped around, I spent several hundred dollars for a gift, I wrapped it, I delivered it...and the happy couple says at the reception "thanks for all the lovely gifts".

No, this is not an acceptable thank you to me! In this age of emails and social media,  I would settle for an electronic thanks, and mention the gift for Gods sake. Do they even remember what I gave?

Who said that writing Thank You notes was passe?  No one asked me?