letters homeward bound

Many years ago, when I subscribed for delivery of the Savannah Morning News, there were certain sections I particularly enjoyed.

Those were the ones with the Jumble, the crossword puzzle, the comics, and that with the two sisters, Dear Abby and Dear Ann Landers.

So, when Andrew Carroll mentioned today that he'd written to them and had them post his letter, I remembered reading that.

The year was 1998.

He had started the Legacy Project, looking to collect and preserve correspondence written by American military during years of battle.

The bulk of those thousands of pieces of mail are now safely stored at Chapman University, in the Leatherby Libraries.

I say "the bulk" because he had a few letters with him for his talk at The Learning Center of the Senior Citizens, Inc., building.

This was my first time attending anything there.

I've had several people talk enthusiastically about their lectures, but the cost ($20 to $30 per hour of the talk) was a bit too much for me.

I could become a member and have those lectures for half the cost, but membership was $75 annually, which meant I'd have to commit to at least five to offset that investment.

My entertainment budget is devoted to musicals, plays, and movies.

And, yet, I found myself attending "War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence From American Wars", even cutting short my luncheon.

That's because the fee was being waived for veterans!!!

I saw that notation posted on fb yesterday, so I'd tried to register online, calling the center when that proved futile.

The director of the center, Roger Smith, called me back to assure me that I would be on the list - hooray!

And how did I like the lecture about letters?

As a letter-writer for most of my life, even now, I absolutely loved it!

He had letters from the American Revolutionary War, from the American Civil War, from Korea and Vietnam.

My favorite of all was this one, written by Bill Kaiser.

I know there doesn't seem to be anything but mostly empty space between his hands, but look closely.

Those are the edges of a piece of paper that he's holding.

That's because the soldier had redacted the letter himself rather than let the censors have all the fun!

Isn't that just the neatest thing??? 

This one is he called "history in his hands", a big hit with high school students.

They always want to get a selfie with that one!

What's the big deal?

It's from Adolph Hitler's private stationery, taken from his desk by American troops when they raided his bunker.

Wow.

Those two items alone made the whole lecture worthwhile to me.

I had looked forward to sharing my tale with my American Legion mates, too.

Post 36 was meeting at Two Firsts tonight and I was looking forward to this first regular meeting in almost a year.

However, that didn't happen.

I stayed there, in my car, for almost 15 minutes, but no one else came.

I was so aggravated, I even texted our Commander to find out where they were.

As it turned out, I had the time wrong.

They - meaning Doug and Billy - met at the correct time - meaning 1800 - and stayed, by themselves, for 44 minutes before they left.

I arrived at what I thought was the designated time: 1845.

I'd missed them by one minute, because I read the email incorrectly.

I'll just have to remember to mention this talk of war letters when we next meet, hopefully next month. 

That's when I'll be going to another lecture at The Learning Center, too.

Titled "Who's Reading Banned Books... And Why?", it's free.

I'm guessing I'll see Teresa Winterhaven there again.

She was at this lecture and seems to be a regular.

She also hasn't changed a bit from when I knew her at Armstrong in 2012, when both of us were on the same committee.

She was in the same department as Richard Nordquist, though I don't recall seeing her at that ceremony.

I wonder if she has retired yet?