Letters, We Get Letters

A few days ago I got a couple of letters from Rodney Allbright. Well, they weren’t really from him. They were from me. I wrote them to him in 1960 and 1961 when I was in college. (Rodney is an even more of a pack-rat than I am. He has some more letters that he claims to be saving for blackmail purposes.)

Getting those letters was quite a shock. It was kind of being in a time machine. Stamps were four cents. There were no ZIP codes.

Reading the letters made me realize how little I’ve changed, since they’re about girls, movies, and books. Those are the same things I write about now. In a way, that’s depressing. Somewhere along the line I was supposed to mature and become a grown-up. Too late now, I guess.

Some of you might be wondering if you were mentioned in the letters. As a matter of fact, yes. Here’s an example. “Bob Tyus went home on Friday. I started to go but decided it was no use since it’s only 39 more days until Easter holidays begin. Tell James to tell John to come home. I want to hear about how he got engaged to Kay Lynn. If he’ll tell, that is.”

I can’t believe I said that part about “only 39 more days.” That must have seemed like an eternity to me back then. James and John are obviously the Black brothers, and I don’t think John ever did tell me how the engagement came about. By now he probably doesn’t even remember. Maybe Kay does.

There’s more in the letters, stuff about who’s sitting with whom on the band bus, about movies I saw and books I read, but none of your names were mentioned. I sure would like to see those other letters that Rodney has, though.