Remarkable correspondence from the consistently unremarkable
world of email
The following emails from anonymous people were sent to the webmaster
of a site called Thumb Sucking Adults. The site is home to a community of
adults who have one gentle habit in common (which should be pretty obvious).
The letters exhibit some serious catharsis, and all of them are bold,
interesting, and honest. Most of these are letters from around the year 1999
and are artifacts from a world most of us don’t even realize exists. If you
have a special email you’d like to share, please send it to
inbox@rochester-citynews.com.
— Michael Neault
To: Webmaster
From: L
Yes, I have been caught in the car.
I usually don’t care who sees me, so long as they do not
acknowledge it. But this one time, a truck driver who was in a vehicle higher
up than mine, saw me and then honked his horn and when I looked, put his thumb
in his mouth in ridicule of me. I immediately gave him the finger. It was a gut
reaction, and I was pissed. But then we were stuckin
traffic together and I had to keep passing him. It was annoying and terrible.
My dentist told me the way I suck my thumb has made my nose tip up slightly and
I wondered if that was common. Personaly I think it’s
cute.
To: Webmaster
From: J
My name is Jenifer,
I am 20 years old and I still suck my thumb. I am engaged to be married, my fiance knows and does’nt really like me to do it. My whole family knows, but a couple of my
friends don’t. I enjoy it, and I don’t plan on quitting any time soon. Although I do have a small callus on my left thumb…
To: Webmaster
From: J
Hello, my name is [name removed]
and I live in england. I am 46
and still single. I have sucked my left thumb for as long as I can remember. I
was breast fed and my mum used to let me get in bed with her because I used to
get frightened at night of car headlights that made some weird patterns on the
ceiling. I used to feel the satin bra straps on the back with my fingers which
comforted me.
To: Webmaster
From: T
I am 60 years old… this habit of
mine has a soothing, put myself back together kind of feeling that I do so
enjoy. Loved ones over the years have totally embarrassed me because of it. I
have told family members that I stopped years ago. I recently “came
out” to family again and have risked ridicule and received ridicule… thumb
sucking has remained the one and only true, kind and constant in my life. It
has never hurt me and it never will. People have hurt me,
people have embarrassed me over this seemingly innocent habit.
This article appears in Jan 25-31, 2006.
