Day 57: The Dead Pen Pal Box Part Two

"How it sears my soul!"

My pen pal Mary Jane on the east coast liked to write poetry. Pretty deep stuff. Actually it's fairly similar to the stuff I composed at the same age, e.g., "How do I say what I feel when I don't even feel what I say?"... Or something along those lines...)

She also liked to drink. Well, not rye "(yuk)". I can't figure out if they had Vermouth (yuk from me!!) Friday night or if they had nothing till they went to Vermont Friday night. (She lived in New England in an adjacent state.) Maybe it was vermouth in Vermont? And what's in the highballs?

"I don't drink that much, I mean at long intervals, but I like to be part of the group, and you're really "in" if you drink, besides it's fun."

I myself never understood peer pressure; therefore I was never "in". That's why I had pen pals! And no hangovers.

Anyway, she wrote a lot more than three letters, but I think that was the final one. So I never got to hear about her bug collection due in June - that intrigued me!

Oh, one more bit. That Sorry So Sloppy thing was very common at the end of 70s letters!

Mary Jane dug the actor A Martinez; I would send her pictures of him from 16 Magazine. And I thought you would love seeing how John Denver was a sex symbol to young teenagers in the 70s. A lot of my peers fancied him! Sean Kelly was a teenage actor (in The Cowboys, just had to Google, and saw a yecchy photo of him posing with plumber's cleavage) as was Mitch Vogel; I am more familiar with him as he was on Little House on the Prairie, and also in Born Innocent with Linda Blair!

"However he looks stupid on Star Trek"

I met Jurate in San Diego and we wrote to each other even though she lived on the other side of L.A., in Los Feliz. We did meet up once or twice. I had told her I had seen Leonard Nimoy in person; he was doing something on stage at the Music Center.

"I don't like the Partridge Family too much now. I don't like the Osmond Brothers either. P.S. I hate David Cassidy."

Jurate had good taste in decor though: "The living room has blue curtains and a blue sofa, and a gorgeous gold and spring green shag rug."

PS I just googled her and she is now a dentist in San Francisco.

I was dazzled by Debbie of B.C.'s stationery.

And Debbie of New York's purple Peanuts writing set...

This Debbie (there were a LOT of Debbies in my day) wrote to me for several years. This was her final letter to me. I guess things never did settle down.

Squeeze the latest news on the stomach of a psychedelic green frog, then stick the whole thing in a hot orange envelope. Don't forget to dot your i's with circles!

Giant stationery with fashionable female. I think the writing on the other side only covered a quarter of it.

Final letter from Margie something, with a pop-up owl. "I've never been to California. But maybe in the future I can come to see you?" (If she still has this address, she had better hurry up!)

Love, Luck & Lollipops! (Huh?!)



Two popular things to write on the backs of envelopes. Was Elvis a sprinter?

Well, speaking of sprinters, I surely was not one! I came in last of my entire grade in the President's Physical Fitness Test, for both the 50-yard dash and the 500-yard Run/Walk. (I mostly walked.) (Do they still have such nonsense?)

But hey, groovy stationery!!

This purple loving letter writer also would fold her letters up like so. P.S. It also worked if you pulled quickly; I tried it!

The lowdown from Laura

This was a school friend who had moved to La Canada; before it joined to Flintridge.

I wonder what my version of this stationery said: Kibitzing from Karen?

A psychedelic sunburst on lilac

A lot of letters from this era were adorned with scented sealing wax. This one wasn't; that's the residue of a disintegrated rubber band! (The red ones did not last.) Very groovy stationery indeed!

Day 56: Fourth of July on John Street

There used to be an annual block party here, though I more often than not was not around for it. But the main people who organized it or participated are now all dead or gone, including my parents. Fireworks are illegal in Manhattan Beach - even sparklers! But still, a lot of lawbreaking goes on as there are several fireworks stands on the County strip near the freeway.

For a couple of recent years the next door neighbors would shoot rockets from their back yard so my father and I had a free display from the dining room window. They nearly set a tree in their yard alight a few times; I watched them douse it with buckets of water.

My brother and his family were here on this day a couple of years ago, and here are some photos. Don't tell the fireworks cops!


Luke practices for the rhythmic gymnastic team.

Drake looks as if he is taking part in some pagan ritual!

Yes, once upon a time, Drake could actually get excited about things outside of Minecraft...

Annabelle's a little too young to hold a sparkler and stays safe with her daddy.

Look at that spaceship that has landed in the background! Happy 4th and stay safe!

Day 55: The Dead Pen Pal Box Part One

As I mentioned before, I have been going through cards and letters. If you have ever written to me, I probably still have the evidence. When I was 8 years old my best school friend Liz moved to Alabama and gave me this stationery set with embossed gold birds on it, so that I could write to her. But then she never wrote to me, and I did not have her address! But I used the paper to write to other friends who had moved away and anyone I met at motels and campgrounds on family road trips.

Then I found lists of pen pals in a crafts magazine and Archie comic books, and my name and address was printed in each as well. I received a couple of hundred responses from the comic book printing; no, I did not write to them all, but I started a pen pal matching service.

I very rarely stopped writing to anyone; it was usually the other way around. Once I did not hear from someone for a year or two, I would put their letters into a big box on my closet shelf. When I was a little older I christened it the Dead Pen Pal Box. I mean, if I had died as a kid, would my parents have written and informed all my pen pals?

Yeah, that is meant to be a hand holding a pen and an envelope...

I had one pen pal turned real life friend who loved the idea of the Dead Pen Pal Box, and joked that he hoped his letters would never end up in there. Well, when I was visiting (from England) in 1989, I had not heard from this guy for a couple of years so in his letters went. He had owed me a substantial amount of money, from when he stayed at my house in Leeds in the mid 80s and had run up an unbelievably large phone bill, and before that I had lent him some francs in Paris. He paid me a little bit and kept giving me excuses and finally I gave up. Still I was saddened to learn a few years ago that he actually did pass away.

Sometimes I have resurrected people from the DPPB; I have been going through it in the past week and have found bundles from people I have found or who have found me on Facebook. I have not had time to look at many of the letters, but I am currently enjoying flipping through the early 70s section. There is an abundance of hot pink, bright orange and lime green, Flower Power, Peanuts stickers and stationery and of course, happy faces.

 Here we have not only an oversized orange flower power envelope, but a peace sign on a psychedelic background to write on. VERY groovy!!!

Giant flower power writing petals!

I had a set of these stickers too!

And I had this stationery in hot pink. It was my favorite...

Nothing says the 1970s quite like writing on a pair of denim hot pants...

I have noticed that a great number of the pen pals who stopped writing did so after three letters. At first I was only opening letters that looked as if they would contain snazzy stationery, but then I started glancing at the third letters of the three-letter sets. I have found no clues; in fact it is in the third letter that most of the pen pals tell me how much they like me and love receiving my letters and how they hope they can meet me one day. This one not only had groovy Flower Power long stationery...

"Here is a smile from me because I'm happy I have a wonderful and terrific pen pal like you." Yep, it's a third and final letter.

More to follow!