Memories Past

Dear Mom,

Will you please send me more of the MAD magazines? The last ones you sent were great. All my friends loved them. I am going on a three day hike starting tomorrow. We are hiking to Cold Mountain, North Carolina. The hiking staff says the water is so clear and clean you can drink it out of the streams and pools along the trail. Breakfast was pancakes and sausage. The food is so good here. The cook is this little black man who is shorter than me! He is mute which means he can't speak. Alex (Ed. my brother) is still crying every day. He hates it here. Says the mosquitoes are terrible and he got Ear Dry in his toothpaste and thinks he is going to die. He wrote you a letter about it. Well, I just heard the dinner bell ring and must meet with my cabin to eat. Hope you and dad are fine.

Sincerely,

Andrew

P.S. - Send more magazines!!!!!

-- June 16, 1982 Age 10

I was thumbing through old letters I wrote as a child at summer camp this morning. It brings back so many fond memories. I can remember laughing at my neurotic brother for thinking he was going to die because of the Ear Dry in his toothpaste. He was dead serious. No pun intended. My mother was so good at sending us stuff in the mail like books, newspapers, and magazines. They were a joy for a little camper far removed from the outside world. My mother would later say she almost drove the 300 miles to get my brother and bring him home his letters were so pitiful and pleading. My brother hated summer camp. I loved it.

What brought this on was that I have been toying with the idea of putting together a memoir of sorts as an excercise in creative writing. It's fun combing through old photos, letters, and diary entries, wondering what I will use, what this says about that time in my life. I also have a written diary from when I was homeless that I kept everyday to help me write my old blog. I wrote very matter-of-factly with little expression, emotion, or description in my entries. I guess I was probably just worried about where my next beer was going to come from.

I will be incorporatiing some of these writings for my memoir as little snippets on the blog. I hope some of you enjoy reliving these memories with me, good and bad.